"Harry Potter and Me" offers insights

In a 2001 interview with the BBC, Jo Rowling tells the story of how, after the publication of The Chamber of Secrets, she received a stern letter from a parent who basically told her the violent and scary ending of the second book was unacceptable and that the parent expected better from Rowling in the upcoming third novel.

Rowling's reaction is wonderful. She becomes very angry, even though several years had passed between the incident and her recounting of it to the BBC.

"I'm not taking dictation here," she says after a moment. "Do I care about my readers? Profoundly and deeply. But do I ultimately think they should dictate a single word of what I write? No. I am the only one who should be in control of that."

This is a pretty important statement for me as a Potter fan. It tells me that Rowling committed herself, early on, to remaining true to her own plans for the Harry Potter books and to avoid being influenced, dictated to even, by outside forces, be they her readers, her editors or even the films made of her books.

Two other highlights from this BBC interview, filmed between the publication of the fourth and fifth books:

1. Jo Rowling makes it clear that the film version of her books were, at least to that point, entirely outside her control. No matter how carefully she kept control over the writing of the books to herself, she was clearly willing to turn over complete control over the film versions to others.

She says, "The closer the viewing [of the film version of The Philosopher's Stone, the first novel] came, the more frightened I became, to the point where, where I actually sat down to watch the film, I was terrified because I thought 'oh, please don't do anything that's not in the book; please don't take horrible liberties with the plot'."

She concludes by saying of the first film: "I liked it, which was a relief, as you can imagine."

This may just mean that I can absolve Jo Rowling of any blame for the ridiculous liberties the film makers took with the plots of the later books, the devastation they wrought on The Half-Blood Prince and The Deathly Hallows especially. I can't imagine Rowling emerging from any of the last three films thinking that they had stayed true to her original books.

2. By that point at least, Rowling had written the Epilogue for Book Seven. She actually holds up the file folder for the camera, calls it the Epilogue and says, "In the Epilogue, I basically say what happens to everyone after they leave the school, those who survive."

That doesn't prove conclusively that she had the final plot completely figured out but it does indicate quite clearly that she spent a lot of time early on planning out where the novels would go.

Maybe the nineteen-years-later epilogue did make the cut!

One week. Just one week until the final movie opens.

Exciting, isn't it? But have you read about the ticket sales? Apparently, many showings are ALREADY SOLD OUT, an entire week in advance. Do you have your tickets?

As excited as I am about the opening of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2, I am now convinced that I will wait until at least a couple of days after opening to go to see it. First, because I don't have tickets yet. And second, because I don't really want to see this movie for the first time in a packed theatre, possibly surrounded by people who will talk, or burp, or otherwise interfere with my enjoyment.

I did get some good news yesterday, however. While surfing the net, I found an on-line entry that suggests that the 19-years-later epilogue of the novel will, indeed, be in the movie. It was nothing definitive but one website, in providing a list of actors for particular roles, actually included the names of the child actors who play the "next generation" (like Scorpius Malfoy, Teddy Lupin, even Harry's children with Ginny: Albus Severus, Lily and James) in the film. These characters only appear in the Epilogue of the final novel!

I'm very pleased at the thought of this. Of course, they could have filmed the epilogue, then left it on the cutting room floor. Who knows?

Well, I guess we all will in just one week's time.

Will there be a 19-years-later?

I wonder. Will the final Harry Potter film include the epilogue from the book? You know, the 19-years-later part? My guess is that it won't. They'll want to keep open the possibility of another sequel.

After all, J.K. is hinting at another book, isn't she? Let's hope.