The Dow Is Up!

This weekend was quite the Harry Potter weekend for me. (As if being an actuary isn't dorky enough, I have to be a Harry Potter fan. I might as well just buy a comic book store right now. Best. Idea. Ever.)

First, I went and saw the new Potter movie on Saturday. Then I bought the new (and final) book on Sunday and started reading it. Let me tell you, nothing in the world can possibly make you feel more macho than going to Target at 9:00 a.m. to buy the new Harry Potter book, some Gold Bond, a handlebar basket for my bike, and a beard trimmer. It's too bad The Wife didn't ask me to buy her some feminine products as well. It might have actually made me seem MORE manly because at least I'd have a woman in my life that would necessitate the purchase of those products.

Before I begin, I should say that I will not be giving away any details of the book or movie. So don't worry about any spoilers. I will, however, be giving my THEORY of what happens at the end of the book. Consider yourself warned.

First, I'll tackle the movie. I thought it was really well done. It was a dark movie, but then again, so was the book. I thought the director did a great job cramming 800 pages of book into a 2-hour movie. He cut a lot of essential (in my mind) stuff without changing the story. Kudos. But the best part of the movie was the company we were with. In particular, there was one woman who hadn't read the book. She prefers to see the movies first. I'm guessing that out of the 10 million people who've seen the movie thus far, she's the only one who hadn't read the book. But what was great was that she was really getting into the movie. I mean REALLY getting into it. And why not? She knew nothing of the story. The rest of us all had expectations of what would happen. And so I thoroughly enjoyed sitting next to her and witnessing all her reactions.

So I fully recommend seeing the movie. I also recommend bringing a huge Potter fan with you. Especially if that fan hasn't read the book yet. I'm guessing there might be someone else like that living in a cave in Tibet.

As far as the book goes, I'm enjoying it quite a bit. It's a quick read, which should be expected since it's a friggin' children's book. It's a lot different from the other books. For one, Rowling is basically hitting us over the heads with themes. One of those themes is sacrifice. (I don't think that's really giving anything away.)

There's a lot of conjecture about who's going to die in the book. And of course, the big question is whether Harry will die. I think it's safe to say that Harry manages to defeat Voldemort at the end. If not, it'd be the ultimate F YOU ending to a book. But my theory is that Harry has to sacrifice all his powers in order to defeat Voldemort. And so Harry Potter doesn't phsyically die, but all that he's strived to become does. For so long, the magical world has become Harry's escape from the cruelties of the muggle world. But he's also had to carry the burden of being perceived as a savior, the one who can kill Voldemort.

And so I think the ultimate sacrifice for Harry would be to give up all his powers. He continues to live, but he can't live in the magical world. So, a part of him dies, but he can continue to live knowing that he'd rather have killed Voldemort than have his powers.

Of course, that's just pure conjecture. Maybe I'm completely wrong. But now if I'm right, I have it in writing. (And if I'm wrong, I can easily just edit this entry.)