Stephen King Prepares for The End
Stephen King writes a semi-weekly column for Enterntainment Weekly, and has many times in the past expressed his love for the Harry Potter books. In this week’s edition, Uncle Stevie devotes his column to Harry Potter and how he’s feeling approaching the conclusion of the series:
I’m having a day of mixed feelings: happy because I’m reading the manuscript of a novel that’s full of magic, mystery, and monsters; sad because it will be finished tomorrow and on my shelf, with all its secrets told and its surviving characters set free to live their own lives (if characters have lives beyond the end of a novel — I’ve always felt they do).
Read the rest, it’s really great.
July 6th, 2007 at 1:39 pm
I just read it…it was great. I’m gonna need 3 boxes of tissue and waterproof mascara when reading that book. Only 783 official pages left of Harry. Ever. When a character in the book dies, I will cry. When Hannah Abott’s mother died and she found out in Herbology, I cried. When Snape left with Draco, I cried. When Cedric died, I cried. When Dumbledore died, I cried HARD. When Sirius died, I cried for 2 days and locked myself in my bedroom until I could calm down. It still hurts. And when someone dies in this book, it will probably be someone who I have a huge emotional attachment to and I will go into hysteria. When it’s over, I’ll go into complete shock until a few days later, when the shock goes down, I’ll cry and cry and cry and eat gallons of ice cream. *sniffle* just thinking about it makes me feel very emotionally unstable. And THIS is why I limit myself to fluffy pieces of fanfic. But, I’ll read dark, angsty novels that I steal from my friend, who has a lot of that, and cry. I listen to depressing songs, and I cry. You may think, now, that I am an emotional mess, and well, you were right. But I love depressing things. yes, I am weird like that, as people constantly remind me.
July 6th, 2007 at 1:43 pm
awwwwwwwww
that article is so sweet
July 6th, 2007 at 2:36 pm
A great column, JK should be very proud that a writer such as SK has given her such praise. Imagine having your books compared to Tolkein! But as with Tolkein these books will be picked up again and again and I cannot wait until my children are a little older and we can tuck up in bed at night and read them chapter by chapter as I did with my Mum with books like Simon and the Witch and Famous Five.
July 6th, 2007 at 2:46 pm
That was a very sweet article. Very sweet. But, as I mentioned above, It’s the last time.
July 6th, 2007 at 3:59 pm
Oh man, I need a tissue already… Who wants to start a support group?
July 6th, 2007 at 5:15 pm
Its so disturbing to me to think that something has come to an end that has been such a part of my life for so long..
and I like his notion that the characters live on…
July 7th, 2007 at 1:13 pm
I’m gonna need a support group…if I can bring myself to leave my Harry Potter books alone for enough time to get on an internet support group. nce a series is over, I get very emotianally attached to the books themselves. And they end up wet from tears. But, the characters will live on, just like Uncle Stevie said…unless they die.
July 8th, 2007 at 5:14 am
Stephen’s statement about all good stories having closure is a completely valid one. If it continued indefinitely, it would inevitably go stale. Better to quit while ahead and leave the story to become a legendary epic ala LOR.
We’ll all miss that initial thrill, but the fantastic thing about these books is that they’ve spawned a generation of READERS in this culture where the average attention span is less than 3 minutes (Your average music video is around 3 minutes and has more than 200 cuts). Just proves that no matter the media, it’s the grand tradition of storytelling that it all boils down to, and no media yet does it better than the written word in terms of personal experience which is extensible to a shared experience like this board in which we all participate. For this we can all thank Jo . . .
Yuck . . . I sound like Ernie Macmillian don’t I . . .
July 8th, 2007 at 8:12 am
Yeah, a little. But Ernie’s a good bloke
You are right that without an ending the series would go stale, and I would take it even a step further- the series as a whole wouldn’t be nearly as fun or compelling if it was not meant to end. Like those serialized children’s stories that keep going long after you’ve outgrown them. It’s a bit unsatisfying.
Just remind me that I said this when I’m clutching the book and wailing, will you?
July 8th, 2007 at 10:51 am
Michal – I almost made a reference to “The Hardy Boys” and “Nancy Drew” but after realising what a pompous “Ernie” that post was turning out to be, I quit while I was behind . . .
You’re spot on . . . Let’s also hope that Random House in a bid to milk more money out of it, passes on open “writing rights” after the contract limits with Jo expire – otherwise it will turn out like “Star Trek” with a gazillion books – mostly bad.
July 8th, 2007 at 10:01 pm
I don’t want to sound like a sore loser or anything but why does your new logo say HPpregs.com?
July 9th, 2007 at 6:54 am
Another really good article out this week was the Op-Ed piece about the ending in the Times. Well really only David Lindelof (Lost
July 9th, 2007 at 10:46 pm
My family subscribes to Entertainment Weekly and I just got a chance to read Stephen King’s article yesterday. I have never read a tribute to Harry Potter that was so moving — I cried while reading it because King’s emotions resonate within us all. I am 17 years old and remember the first time I picked up a Harry Potter book (Chamber of Secrets when I was 9) and now, eight years later, as the world awaits and dreads July 21, my friends and I are mortified at the thought of the end of the characters that have been our childhood companions. With the release of the seventh book and Harry’s final visit to Hogwarts looming ever closer, it truly does represent the end our childhoods and the world filled with disappointment that lies ahead of us. King captures the feelings hidden inside many of us so bluntly and emotionally that reading his article was almost as comforting as if Jo Rowling was holding our hand and easing us into the idea that Harry cannot be with us forever. I thank Stephen King for understanding us so well, and Jo Rowling for forever affecting so many of us wizards-at-heart.