Shall we start with a little John Donne for kicks?
"Death Be Not Proud" (Holy Sonnet 10)
Death, be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadful, for thou are not so;
For those whom thou think'st thou dost overthrow
Die not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me.
From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be,
Much pleasure; then from thee much more must flow,
And soonest our best men with thee do go,
Rest of their bones, and soul's delivery.
Thou'art slave to fate, chance, kings, and desperate men,
And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell,
And poppy'or charms can make us sleep as well
And better than thy stroke; why swell'st thou then?
One short sleep past, we wake eternally,
And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die.
I had convinced myself that I couldn't possibly go back to writing about Moby Dick after jumping headling into Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, from which I finally emerged at 1:30 a.m. this morning. And then there was the angst about whether or not to write about Potter yet since so many people are still reading away. I am so grateful that I was able to stay in the dark as long as I did, sure that any second I would log on to email only to find some spam headline announcing what happened to Harry before I got to the final pages myself. I was spared this fate, thank goodness. Then it occured to me that I couldn't possible finish up any thoughts on Ahab without referring also to Potter: there are too many similarities in these epics, and having read them back to back I am jumping at the bit to write about them. So, reader, consider yourself warned: do not venture further in this entry if you do not want the ending of Harry Potter revealed just yet.
First, thoughts on Potter, as these are freshest in my mind. I just read a review in the New York Times by Michiko Kakutani that helped solidify some of my own thoughts on this last installment. Maybe not Rowling's finest writing - a bit clunky and almost uncertain in places. I remember thinking at one point when Harry et al were camped out in the woods that Rowling must have been procrastinating then, waiting for that stroke of plot genius that inevitably came. But honestly, who really cares about the writing?! It's good enough, and the ending was wonderfully satisfying in several ways. I will get to these. But first, back to Kakutani. She mentions the way that Rowling seamlessly weaves in references to other literary classics: Homer, Milton, Shakespeare, Dickens. She fails to mention Chaucer, whose Canterbury Tales are the most important literary reference in this final book, for Rowling's Tales of Beedle the Bard, and specifically "The Tale of the Three Brothers" is modeled after Chaucer's Pardoner's Tale. If I remember correctly, Chaucer's three characters set out to defeat death, but they find gold under a tree and become distracted by it. Their greed - and perhaps their hubris for believing they can conquer Death - ultimtaely leads to their destruction. It may be his best tale; it is certainly one of the eeriest and most prophetic.
Harry is faced with the same choice in the Deathly Hallows. Informed that the possessor of the Elder wand, the Invisibility Cloak, and the Resurrection Stone can conquer Death and thereby withstand someone as evil as Lord Voldemort, Harry has to decide whether or not to pursue these items (he already has the cloak) or continue on his search for Horcruxes. Dumbledore initially set him on the course of the Horcruxes, and he makes the difficult decision to stay the course, however alluring the possibility of beating Death might be. This decision determines his fate at the end of the novel. He not only gives up any desire to conquer Death, but he also makes the hardest decision of all: to accept his own death at the hands of Voldemort if it means saving the lives of those around him. This is of course the most heart-wrenching chapter in the novel, for Rowling places us in Harry's shoes so that we walk toward death with him. Harry's approach to what seems will be his tragic fate is his bravest act in his bravest hour, and it is what saves him in the end. He conquers Death (and Voldemort) by embracing it. He realizes, as Donne writes in the above poem, that in "one short sleep past, we wake eternally," and at his side to prove it are those who have gone before him: his father and mother, Sirius, and Lupin. As Dumbledore later tells him: "You are the true master of death, because the true master does not seek to run away from Death. He accepts that he must die, and understands that there are far, far worse things in the living world than dying" (721).
On that note, I have to run and make gazpacho. I'll publish the second half of this post in a bit...to be continued.
"Death Be Not Proud" (Holy Sonnet 10)
Death, be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadful, for thou are not so;
For those whom thou think'st thou dost overthrow
Die not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me.
From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be,
Much pleasure; then from thee much more must flow,
And soonest our best men with thee do go,
Rest of their bones, and soul's delivery.
Thou'art slave to fate, chance, kings, and desperate men,
And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell,
And poppy'or charms can make us sleep as well
And better than thy stroke; why swell'st thou then?
One short sleep past, we wake eternally,
And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die.
I had convinced myself that I couldn't possibly go back to writing about Moby Dick after jumping headling into Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, from which I finally emerged at 1:30 a.m. this morning. And then there was the angst about whether or not to write about Potter yet since so many people are still reading away. I am so grateful that I was able to stay in the dark as long as I did, sure that any second I would log on to email only to find some spam headline announcing what happened to Harry before I got to the final pages myself. I was spared this fate, thank goodness. Then it occured to me that I couldn't possible finish up any thoughts on Ahab without referring also to Potter: there are too many similarities in these epics, and having read them back to back I am jumping at the bit to write about them. So, reader, consider yourself warned: do not venture further in this entry if you do not want the ending of Harry Potter revealed just yet.
First, thoughts on Potter, as these are freshest in my mind. I just read a review in the New York Times by Michiko Kakutani that helped solidify some of my own thoughts on this last installment. Maybe not Rowling's finest writing - a bit clunky and almost uncertain in places. I remember thinking at one point when Harry et al were camped out in the woods that Rowling must have been procrastinating then, waiting for that stroke of plot genius that inevitably came. But honestly, who really cares about the writing?! It's good enough, and the ending was wonderfully satisfying in several ways. I will get to these. But first, back to Kakutani. She mentions the way that Rowling seamlessly weaves in references to other literary classics: Homer, Milton, Shakespeare, Dickens. She fails to mention Chaucer, whose Canterbury Tales are the most important literary reference in this final book, for Rowling's Tales of Beedle the Bard, and specifically "The Tale of the Three Brothers" is modeled after Chaucer's Pardoner's Tale. If I remember correctly, Chaucer's three characters set out to defeat death, but they find gold under a tree and become distracted by it. Their greed - and perhaps their hubris for believing they can conquer Death - ultimtaely leads to their destruction. It may be his best tale; it is certainly one of the eeriest and most prophetic.
Harry is faced with the same choice in the Deathly Hallows. Informed that the possessor of the Elder wand, the Invisibility Cloak, and the Resurrection Stone can conquer Death and thereby withstand someone as evil as Lord Voldemort, Harry has to decide whether or not to pursue these items (he already has the cloak) or continue on his search for Horcruxes. Dumbledore initially set him on the course of the Horcruxes, and he makes the difficult decision to stay the course, however alluring the possibility of beating Death might be. This decision determines his fate at the end of the novel. He not only gives up any desire to conquer Death, but he also makes the hardest decision of all: to accept his own death at the hands of Voldemort if it means saving the lives of those around him. This is of course the most heart-wrenching chapter in the novel, for Rowling places us in Harry's shoes so that we walk toward death with him. Harry's approach to what seems will be his tragic fate is his bravest act in his bravest hour, and it is what saves him in the end. He conquers Death (and Voldemort) by embracing it. He realizes, as Donne writes in the above poem, that in "one short sleep past, we wake eternally," and at his side to prove it are those who have gone before him: his father and mother, Sirius, and Lupin. As Dumbledore later tells him: "You are the true master of death, because the true master does not seek to run away from Death. He accepts that he must die, and understands that there are far, far worse things in the living world than dying" (721).
On that note, I have to run and make gazpacho. I'll publish the second half of this post in a bit...to be continued.
1 comment:
I am completely and utterly swept away by this comparison and I am not in the HP loop. Without this blog I would never truly know of your gift. Do not stop now.
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