October 7th, 2011
This is a post I wrote mid-July for the blog back when it was still in its infancy, hope you like it :)
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| Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows |
As the final Harry Potter movie got released, and a journey of emotional growth I shared with its characters had to reach its close, it was only natural for me to hang to those last threads connecting me with my childhood, and seek in my desperation the ghostly trails of an evading innocence in online forums and fan sites I never cared to visit before.
What really caught my attention, however, were whole threads and discussions about "puzzles" found by fans in the books, often related to inconsistencies or open questions left unanswered (not the least of them and my personal favorite is that locked chamber in the aptly named "Department of Mysteries"), and endless debates about the endless possibilities that would make them plausible. One such "puzzle", as I learned, was known as "the wand order" in the graveyard scene in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire after the "Priori Incantatem" charm, which was later corrected in revised editions. Now to try to cite all of these "puzzles" or inconsistencies, whatever you may wish to call them, would require me having a Time-Turner the stock of which, as far as the official story goes and for all intents and purposes (and as my cousin keeps telling me to my dismay), was entirely destroyed. Update: The team at "How It Should Have Ended" had another saying.
The purpose of this post is not to discuss fans' loyalty that makes them (understandably) so hardly try to rationalize the irrational, but more importantly, in my opinion at least, it is to state that, over the span of ten years, I have failed to detect a single error by myself. For some it's witty to notice these errors that evaded the author's attention, and thus, by contrast, may consider me.. ermm.. "unwittyful". I have another saying.
In his famous theory on dreams, Freud explains how the mind often integrates (in distorted forms) both external and internal stimuli into the sleeper's dreams to prevent him from waking up; this phenomenon is known as the "Guardian of Sleep". It is because of how important sleeping is that needs (for example thirst or hunger) are disguised and pseudo-fulfilled by let's say a big "virtual" pepperoni pizza slice! :P. By analogy, I've come to the conclusion that it is this same importance, this passion that I have, this savoring of the words laid before my eyes in an unmatched feast, that made those "puzzles" of even less importance, and made my brain overlook and not notice them. For as annoying as those "errors" may seem, it is of utmost injustice to oneself to let them overshadow the genius that was interwoven and entwined with every sentence, every word of this masterpiece.
It is this same importance, this passion that I have, this savoring of the words laid before my eyes in an unmatched feast, that made me appreciate, for once, the "grace of ignorance" bestowed upon me.