BS: Harry Potter: Book 6 (Half-Blood Prince)

Subject: BS: Harry Potter:
From: beardedbruce
Date: 11 Jul 05 - 09:17 PM

Reuters) -- Harry Potter's latest secret has slipped out in Canada, and publishers of the best-selling books hope the magical allure of author J.K. Rowling's autograph will get it back under wraps.

Rowling's sixth book about the young wizard is scheduled to be released July 16, but a store near Vancouver briefly put the put the book on sale last week.

Raincoast Books Ltd., which distributes the books in Canada, said a "small number" of the books were sold, and it has won a court injunction barring the buyers of "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" from disclosing the plot.

The court also ordered all the copies be returned to Raincoast, which has promised the early buyers book plates autographed by Rowling once the embargo is lifted.

Millions of copies of "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" are expected to be distributed to stores around the world, and publishers have launched big security efforts to keep the wizard's adventures a secret until the official release date.

Subject: RE: BS: Harry Potter:
From: Sorcha
Date: 12 Jul 05 - 09:41 AM

Silliness over a book....

Subject: RE: BS: Harry Potter:
From: Wesley S
Date: 12 Jul 05 - 12:29 PM

Hey - kids are reading something! They aren't glued to a TV set or a computer game. And there's nothing wrong with that. I can't wait to read it myself.

Subject: RE: BS: Harry Potter:
From: GUEST,MMario
Date: 12 Jul 05 - 12:33 PM

I agree with sorcha - it's a lot of silliness over a book -

but I also agree with Wesley - kids are READING - and yes, they have shown that HP WAS the initial trigger that appears to have reversed the decline of reading skills in the youth of the US (and to a lesser extent - worldwide).

Granted it's probably a case of right place at the right time with the right publicity

Subject: RE: BS: Harry Potter:
From: GUEST,maire-aine
Date: 12 Jul 05 - 12:35 PM

I plan to stop by the bookstore during the day on Saturday. That's what I did the last time. By late afternoon, they started to sell the reserved copies that weren't picked up that day, knowing they'd get another shipment soon. I expect to get well into it by the time I have to go back to work on Monday.

M

Subject: RE: BS: Harry Potter:
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 12 Jul 05 - 12:43 PM

Of course you realise the ultimate book in the series will be Harry Potter meets Penn and Teller - and they tell him how its all done, so he gets disillusioned and goes into a career where bitterness and disillusion stand him him in good stead - like folksinging.....

Subject: RE: BS: Harry Potter:
From: GUEST
Date: 12 Jul 05 - 12:43 PM

Granted it's probably a case of right place at the right time with the right publicity .

Have you read them? I wouldn't call good writing silliness.

Subject: RE: BS: Harry Potter:
From: Wesley S
Date: 12 Jul 05 - 12:44 PM

No - I don't think it's silliness at all. They get to market it anyway they want to. Keeping a tight lid on the book is very good for business. Something none of us will ever have to worry about....

Subject: RE: BS: Harry Potter:
From: GUEST,MMario
Date: 12 Jul 05 - 01:02 PM

yes guest - I have read them. However you are twisting my words. I think the marketing campaign, and court injunctions against disclosure of the plot - and the whole media hype is silliness.

Personally I think the books are good enough to sell well without ANY publicity -

I never said anything about the quality of her work. But face it - there are any number of good children's authors out there. If it hadn't been the Potter books another series might have had the same success.

Subject: RE: BS: Harry Potter:
From: jacqui.c
Date: 12 Jul 05 - 01:09 PM

Comes down to large corporations and money every time. People will buy the books anyway, even if the plot is disclosed, but the hype helps sell more books and that makes money for the big boys.

I'm going to wait until they bring out the seven book collection - my grandchildren are too young for them at the moment and I shall look for a friend who buys 6 and borrow.

Subject: RE: BS: Harry Potter:
From: Wesley S
Date: 12 Jul 05 - 01:20 PM

Considering that the author was a single mother on welfare when she wrote the first book - then more power to her. Now she's the best selling fiction author of all time. I can't begrudge her making a lot of money with her ideas. Behind the large corporations there is a woman - JK Rowling - who writes some very good stories.

The plot- the story - IS the product. Why shouldn't they try to protect it ?

Subject: RE: BS: Harry Potter:
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 12 Jul 05 - 01:40 PM

It's just a book... and I suspect from the hype, not a very good book at that...

Subject: RE: BS: Harry Potter:
From: Charmion
Date: 12 Jul 05 - 02:17 PM

Oh, phooey, ClintonH, you have know way of knowing whether it's good or not -- and neither does anyone else until Saturday. Why not give it the benefit of the doubt?

Subject: RE: BS: Harry Potter:
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 12 Jul 05 - 02:21 PM

Cause I find that her books are sliding downhill the more she writes, and also, experience has taught me that if something is this hyped before it's release (be it movie, book, music, whatever) then it's probably trying to over-compensate for something....

I'll buy it, sure (When Costco has the hardcovers on sale)... but at this point I don't have very high hopes...

Subject: RE: BS: Harry Potter:
From: s6k
Date: 12 Jul 05 - 02:45 PM

Of course you realise the ultimate book in the series will be Harry Potter meets Penn and Teller - and they tell him how its all done, so he gets disillusioned and goes into a career where bitterness and disillusion stand him him in good stead - like folksinging.....

LMAO!!!!! LOL!!!!!!!!! THE FUNNIEST THING IVE READ THIS MONTH!!!! nice one weelittledrummer

how about Harry Potter and the Masked Magician !!!

Subject: RE: BS: Harry Potter:
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 12 Jul 05 - 02:55 PM

The marketplace has always had popular books to sell, but I think the juxtaposition of the films, the ability to discuss the books openly on the Internet, the cosplay clubs, and various and sundry other off-shoot products make it big.

The part of this that I find so satisfying is that the big publisher that got the American rights to the book is Scholastic, not Random House or Harper or Viking or who knows who any more. Scholastic has been out there in the marketplace selling good quality books to school children for decades, and the fact that they had the savvy to pick up the rights to this book means more power to them in their good work.

The university library where I work is doing a special event on the 14th, leading up to the release. We're really not sure what to expect participation-wise. It could be the usual campus event, when students and faculty are attracted as much by the free food as by the activity. But it could also have a lot of interest due to the popularity of cosplay and the costume contest they're running that afternoon. It might be a great photo op!

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Harry Potter:
From: Rapparee
Date: 12 Jul 05 - 03:03 PM

In the last volume Harry awakens and discovers that he's been dreaming and that he's really an extremely bored accountant in a mid-sized firm dealing in plumbing fixtures. Hermione is his ex-wife and this weekend is his turn to take care of the four kids, Ron Weasley is his duck hunting/beer drinking buddy who works for the city driving a garbage truck, and Cho Chang is a waitress at their favorite watering hole. Malfoy is the owner of the firm Potter works for, Crabbe and Goyle are two extremely incompetent co-workers.

The half-blood prince, of course, is Potter's half-Airedale, half-dachshund dog, whose full name is Prince Of Piddles.

Subject: RE: BS: Harry Potter:
From: Wesley S
Date: 12 Jul 05 - 03:12 PM

So who would be "He who must not be named" ? Tony Blair ?

Subject: RE: BS: Harry Potter:
From: Mrs.Duck
Date: 12 Jul 05 - 03:28 PM

Like Clinton I will buy the book when it is reduced and will probably enjoy reading it although I would never accuse it of being good writing. Sadly I think the stories are inappropriate for the young audience that do read them and would not allow my children to read them until they were at least ten.

Subject: RE: BS: Harry Potter:
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 12 Jul 05 - 03:29 PM

"Sadly I think the stories are inappropriate for the young audience"

Really?

wow

Subject: RE: BS: Harry Potter:
From: Rapparee
Date: 12 Jul 05 - 03:56 PM

JK Rowling has never said that the books were for young people. That was assumed, and might well be an incorrect assumption.

As for kids reading them -- try to stop them. But...kids will read to their level, not to whatever we think is their level. Ergo, those who can read the books will do so and the others will not.

Subject: RE: BS: Harry Potter:
From: Mrs.Duck
Date: 12 Jul 05 - 04:05 PM

Not really Rapaire afterall Jackie Collins is probably an easier read but I wouldn't allow my kids to read her. My point is that the HP books have been marketed at a younger audience and the first book was a much more child friendly story line but as they have progressed they have become much darker. Spin off toys are aimed at the 5 to 10 age group but I don't think children that young should be reading the books. And yes I HAVE stopped mine from reading them until old enough.

Subject: RE: BS: Harry Potter:
From: GUEST,MMario
Date: 12 Jul 05 - 04:10 PM

I have heard it said that basically each book SHOULD have been marketed to the age that Harry is in the book - unfortunately - they have all been marketed to the younger group.

Subject: RE: BS: Harry Potter:
From: GUEST,B.
Date: 13 Jul 05 - 12:02 AM

>>The part of this that I find so satisfying is that the big publisher that got the American rights to the book is Scholastic,..<<

Except for their habit of dumbing down books in translation, for fear that Americans won't buy their kids a book with the word "Philosopher" in the title ;-)

Subject: RE: BS: Harry Potter:
From: Stephen L. Rich
Date: 13 Jul 05 - 01:03 AM

I rather like the Harry Potter books. I'm looking forward to the next one, "Harry Potter and the Hairy Pot".

Subject: RE: BS: Harry Potter:
From: GUEST,Rapaire
Date: 13 Jul 05 - 09:21 AM

Ah, but I said that they read to their level. This includes their interest level. Jackie Collins stuff might be readable for a third grader (US school level), but I don't think that there are many third graders who would be interested. On the other hand, I have a 10 year old nephew who has read (himself!) all of the HP books and has enjoyed them; he eagerly awaits the next one. If he doesn't understand it, he told me that he either asks his mom ("Dad would make something up, like you do") or he will "skip over it, especially if it's mushy stuff."

That said -- I really have to applaud, both personally and professionally, anyone who takes the time (and cares enough) to watch what their kids are reading (or watching, or listening to, or doing).

Subject: RE: BS: Harry Potter:
From:
Date: 13 Jul 05 - 09:31 AM

I've pre-ordered my copy through Amazon so I will get it the day it is released.

Subject: RE: BS: Harry Potter:
From: GUEST,MMario
Date: 13 Jul 05 - 10:03 AM

given the dozens of places around here that are all advertizing they will have it I doubt I will have any problems getting a copy - I need to get two actually - a belated b'day gift for a nephew and also a copy for me.

Subject: RE: BS: Harry Potter:
From: John Hardly
Date: 13 Jul 05 - 10:11 AM

Hairy Potter 1

Hairy Potter 2

Hairy Potter 3

Subject: RE: BS: Harry Potter:
From: Dave Bryant
Date: 13 Jul 05 - 10:43 AM

"I have heard it said that basically each book SHOULD have been marketed to the age that Harry is in the book - unfortunately - they have all been marketed to the younger group."

The group of Harry Potter's fictional age will buy the book anyway as they've done with all the others, so why bother to advertise to them. You'll have a hard job trying and stop their younger siblings and friends from wanting to read them as well.

Subject: RE: BS: Harry Potter:
From: EBarnacle
Date: 13 Jul 05 - 12:57 PM

Lady Hillary and I intend to be at the Union Square Barnes and Noble for the Friday night midnight release party.
The books are being offered at wholesale and it's fun to be among the children [and their parents] who eagerly await the book. My son has read the entire series and will continue with this one.

Subject: RE: BS: Harry Potter:
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 13 Jul 05 - 01:24 PM

Well if that's the case CatsPHiddle, can I borrow it on Monday please?

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Harry Potter:
From: Rapparee
Date: 13 Jul 05 - 04:57 PM

We have received, and are cataloging, 14 copies. (We're going to honor the pledge; they won't be available until Saturday.)


BWAAHAHAHAHAHA!

Subject: RE: BS: Harry Potter:
From: Catherine Jayne
Date: 13 Jul 05 - 05:01 PM

Of course Liz!!...

Subject: RE: BS: Harry Potter:
From: WFDU - Ron Olesko
Date: 13 Jul 05 - 05:17 PM

The books are FUN, the writing is GOOD, and the hype is GENUINE.   Don't forget, the interest in the Harry Potter series was there BEFORE the films and the media took interest in it. People are excited to read these books, not because somebody is telling them to do so.   Rowling created terrific characters and her fans want to find out what is going to happen next. I love the fact they have closely guarded the content and people will all find out together. Good for the publishers!!!!!!

Let people have some fun instead of whining about why they shouldn't!!!

Subject: RE: BS: Harry Potter:
From: GUEST
Date: 13 Jul 05 - 06:02 PM

Considering the frantic discounting by the retailers I think a lot of fans gave up half way through the last one and have lost interest.

Subject: RE: BS: Harry Potter:
From: Rapparee
Date: 13 Jul 05 - 06:05 PM

This one, in the US edition anyway, is 652 pages long. By the way, the last three words are "Ron and Hermione."

Subject: RE: BS: Harry Potter:
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 13 Jul 05 - 06:08 PM

The pricing has to do with the marketplace, not the popularity.

I read the first four out loud to my children. The youngest would have been 7 or 8 at the time. Reading at bedtime was a pleasant family tradition continued until within the last year or two. I was there to answer any questions or to add explanations if I felt they wouldn't take in the meaning in a Bristish novel as it was read to American children.

I enjoyed the books more with the kids there listening. I haven't finished reading the fifth book yet. I'm working on it in fits and starts. I do enjoy it, but I have other things to occupy me so have ot make the time to read it.

When I was a child Tolkien's Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings were enjoying one of their many revivals, and my father started by reading The Hobbit out loud to us. He read part of the LOTR and let us go with it. So I was about 10 or 11 when I finished reading them. My brother is 15 months younger and he was reading them at the same time, though more voraciously, so he sped past me and finished first. No one doubted our ability to understand, knowing we would ask about puzzles in the book. My dad was letting us read at level, as Rapaire suggests. It is a fabulous way to encourage a lifetime habit of reading.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Harry Potter:
From: Stephen L. Rich
Date: 13 Jul 05 - 06:33 PM

My strange joke earlier not withstanding, these books are fun to read. When I get one I have to make sure that I've got the entire day cleared of any other activity. I'm not going to be able to put it down until I've finished it.

Stephen Lee

Subject: RE: BS: Harry Potter:
From: GUEST
Date: 13 Jul 05 - 07:02 PM

Can't see anything positive about banning kids reading Harry Potter. Sounds like the sort of thing total control freaks who hit their kids 'for their own good' would do.

Subject: RE: BS: Harry Potter:
From: Torctgyd
Date: 14 Jul 05 - 11:34 AM

Is it true that the US versions are substantially longer (in numbers of pages) than the British one's as the US publisher puts pictures in them (cos they're for children)?

According to CNN a German Authoress has published letters from the new Pope condeming the Harry Potter books.

Can't wait for mine to turn up on Saturday. I seem to be in a minority in liking HP5 the best so far (HP1 I found too childish and almost gave up - I'm glad I didn't now).

Subject: RE: BS: Harry Potter:
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 14 Jul 05 - 11:46 AM

I must support those who advocate close and careful control of the reading of their children. My parents permitted me to read The Collected Writings of Sigmund Freud (Dover paperback) at age 11, and The Theory of the Leisure Class at 12. My older sister gave me the larger hardback Complete Collection on Freud for my 14th birthday (she was strange too). No one objected to The Odyssey (W.H.D.Rouse translation) when I was 13 (although my mother did object to how much I was spending in related references on mythology - I still have Edith Hamilton's nice little one) or to the dozen odd Shakespeare plays I went through before entering High School.

Having been permanently warped by this and other similar exposure, I offer myself as the prototypical bad example of what such stuff can do. WARN YOUR CHILDREN!

John

Subject: RE: BS: Harry Potter:
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 14 Jul 05 - 11:49 AM

Addend: SWMBO just revealed to me that she was "permitted" to read Peyton Place when she was 9. THAT explains a LOT. (Her older brothers probably explained it to her.)

John

Subject: RE: BS: Harry Potter:
From: Ellenpoly
Date: 14 Jul 05 - 11:57 AM

I'm a great fan of JK Rowling. I love her books and pre-order them now every year from Amazon. I'd rather buy them from my local bookseller, but the difference in price is simply too much for my very lean pocketbook.

Every year I re-read the last two to prepare me for the next one. Each book has totally captured my interest and I'll be waiting with a big smile on my face for the post to arrive on Saturday.

I read loads, literally hundreds of books a year, quite a few of them are children's books and a good book is just that-good.

I never thought I'd agree with anything Chancellor Gordon Brown ever said, but I really do believe he's right when he said JK Rowling has done more for literacy around the world than (just about) anyone else.

Having been a teacher I know that getting a child interested in reading is the most important gift one can give. If Rowling has that ability, which she obviously does, more power (and money) to her.

Subject: RE: BS: Harry Potter:
From: Rapparee
Date: 14 Jul 05 - 12:08 PM

Yessir, this is sure a good book. That bit with Ron and Lavender...whooohooooo! Hot stuff! And who would have figured Ginny and...oh, wait. Nevermind. I can't tell you about this stuff.

























Mostly because I haven't read the book.

Subject: RE: BS: Harry Potter:
From: GUEST,maire-aine
Date: 14 Jul 05 - 12:30 PM

I've been reading the HP books since they started out, and I think they've become more graphic and violent as they've gone along. I've always told people who asked, that I thought the reader should at least be the age that Harry is in the book-- not for small children. I didn't read The Hobbit & the Ring trilogy until I was in college, but I started reading the complete works of Arthur Conan Doyle (mostly Holmes, but also the White Company) when I was twelve. It's all a matter of taste, I guess.

Maryanne

Subject: RE: BS: Harry Potter:
From: GUEST,MMario
Date: 14 Jul 05 - 12:33 PM

the local library in my home town - normally staffed by sane people - attempted to prevent my reading 'Lord of the Rings' when I was in 4rth grade. Told me it was "over my head".

After my mother finished handing them theirs on a platter - I enjoyed the books thoroughly.

Subject: RE: BS: Harry Potter:
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 14 Jul 05 - 12:50 PM

"HP1 I found too childish and almost gave up"

It was aimed at ten yer old kids... what did you expect???

Subject: RE: BS: Harry Potter:
From: Shanghaiceltic
Date: 14 Jul 05 - 11:52 PM

Well if the below is true what more can you want for publicity than the Pope wading in. Maybe the last book will be 'Harry Potter and Iquisition'

Personaly I quite like the books, good escapism.

Harry Potter distorts the soul, says Pope
(Filed: 14/07/2005)

The Pope believes the Harry Potter books "distort Christianity in the soul", according to two letters published on the internet.

The comments were made to a German author who wrote Harry Potter - Good or Evil? which criticises J K Rowling's best-selling series.

Gabriele Kuby sent Pope Benedict XVI a copy of the book in 2003, when he was still a cardinal, and the pontiff's replies have now been published.

"It is good that you enlighten people about Harry Potter because these are subtle seductions which act unnoticed and by this deeply distort Christianity in the soul before it can grow properly," wrote the Pope.

He thanked Kuby for her "instructive" book, in which she says the Potter series corrupts the hearts of the young, preventing them developing a sense of good and evil.

In a second letter, sent two months later, the Pope "gladly" gave his permission for Kuby to make his judgment public.

The signed letters were published days before Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, the sixth book in the series is published.

The Vatican had previously given the books an apparent seal of approval.

Fr Peter Fleetwood, a senior official, told a press conference in 2003: "I don't think there's anyone in this room who grew up without fairies, magic and angels in their imaginary world."

Subject: RE: BS: Harry Potter:
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 15 Jul 05 - 01:21 AM

I heard parts of the media hit on "the Pope's comments" on TV this morning, but wasn't able to get the whole story due to some interruptions. The whole story has to be pieced together from various sources, but isn't too hard to find via Google. As usual, there are two sides to the story, each claiming to be "the true representatives of holy doctrine" but...

Briefly, in 2003 it was reported by numerous media sources that "the Vatican approves of Harry Potter." This was apparently the result of a reply by one Monsignor Peter Fleetwood during a press conference for the release of a Vatican document on the New Age movement. The question was out of context, and the Msgr did not indicate that he'd read the book(s). His comment was (paraphrased) that "based on what he'd heard, he thought they were fine stuff." Various reports differ on whether he made any representation that he was "speaking for the Vatican."

A "more official" statement came two years earlier, (when)
"Rome's official exorcist, Fr. Gabriele Amorth, warned parents against the books in an interview with the Italian ANSA
news agency. Fr. Amorth, who is also the president of the International Association of Exorcists, said bluntly, "Behind
Harry Potter hides the signature of the king of the darkness, the devil."" I haven't seen this statement in context, so it's hard to tell how much "spin" has been applied by those who quote it.

A German anti-HP author and sociologist, Gabriele Kuby, wrote to then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who was Prefect for the Doctrine of the Faith at the time, and is the present Pope Benedict XVI, expressing her dislike of the HP tales. Cardinal Ratzinger replied with a statement of agreement with her views, which can be read either as strongly critical of HP or merely as "politely non-argumentative" depending on how one chooses to take it.

Critics of HP contend that no one in a position to speak for the Vatican, and informed about the HP books, has ever endorsed them. At least two persons in positions where they may have been acting as "Vatican spokespersons" have made statements critical of the HP books.

The most complete summary of events on both sides - that I found - is at Pope Benedict and Harry Potter (.pdf 9 KB) by Michael D. O'Brien (credentials unknown, but definiteley anti-HP).

English translations of Cardianl Ratzinger's letter to author Kuby, and his subsequent letter giving permission for her to quote his comments are included at Pope Opposes Potter. Facsmile .pdf files of both letters (in German) can be found at links there as well.

My own interest here was in whether the "Vatican view" in any way parallels the opposition to HP that I've seen among local fundamentalists. That question is unresolved. For those not familiar with the "Kansas Bigot Church," their principal doctrine appears, to me, to be "If you give me permission to hate someone or some thing, I will follow you blindly wherever you wish to take me." It seems politically effective, but I'm not sure what faith it demonstrates.

I don't see anything strong enough, or unambiguous enough, in anything from the Vatican to be taken as a serious condemnation of HP. I'm sure the media will pick it up if anything further is released.

John