MOVING ON

"Moving On," by James Aschbacher

I recently found this lovely tribute on James Aschbacher’s memorial page online:

“Reading about James, I see this whimsical art came from his soul. Although I didn't know him, I love him through his art. I know he is creating beautiful art on the Other Side.”

That’s how I like to think of him. In fact, in my original idea for this year’s Christmas card, James was cheerfully painting a mural on the Pearly Gates.

(But I abandoned that idea because it was too conceptual, and too complicated to draw. )

Besides, not sure if I go along with the whole Heavenly Father/Pearly Gates mythology, anyway.

At the end of the Harry Potter movies I was binge-watching over the holidays, Harry, temporarily dead, encounters his deceased mentor, Professor Dumbledore, in a tunnel of bright white light. (It looks suspiciously like King’s Cross Station, as Harry says, “only cleaner. And without the trains.”)

While Harry opts to return to life and sort things out, Dumbledore says he himself must go.

“Where?” asks Harry.

“On,” Dumbledore replies.

That’s the concept I like: mysterious and unconfined by any specific rules or belief systems. Just “on.”

Or, as the late, very much-lamented Mr. Earl, master spinner of vintage rock ’n’ roll platters for the late, lamented KUSP, used to sign off, “Catch you on the Flip Side!”

But I agree with tribute-writer Claire Norman that James’ art was the expression of his soul.

In this 2011 piece of his, “Act of Creation,” I see James as the central figure, firmly rooted to the earth, but with little batons of bright ideas swirling around inside him, while the fruits of his imagination rise up like stars!

Wherever my Art Boy has gone on to, those stars must be just as bright.

STILL WILD ABOUT HARRY

As the beloved Professor Dumbledore tells Harry Potter during their brief encounter in limbo in the final chapter of the film franchise, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, "Of course this is all happening in your head! But that doesn't mean it's not real."

For 14 years, the Harry Potter universe has been utterly real to its worldwide legion of fans as it plays out in the heads of J. K. Rowling's readers (and, to a lesser extent, onscreen)—especially the generation of kids who grew up with the books. It is first and foremost an irresistible world of magical fancy, where young wizards and witches-in-training can blossom in the secure, loving environment of Hogwarts School, while hanging out with an eccentric cast of giants, elves, centaurs, dragons, and comical ghosts.

But as Rowling's book series progressed, Harry's world began to reflect our "real" world in wry, but often unsettling ways. Her magical world became infested with corrupt politicians, tyrannical petty bureaucrats, amoral bankers and tabloid journalists, ineffectual leaders, evil racist hate groups, and factions warring for power. It became a place, much like our own, where the people you love might be flawed and imperfect, and the people you hate may be more sympathetic, noble-hearted and courageous than you can ever know. Above all, it became a place where people of conscience—at any age—might have to face the challenge of giving up their comforts, or pleasures, or possibly even their lives, for the good of the community.

With series veterans David Yates (directing his fourth Potter film) and Steve Kloves (screenwriter on all but one of the films) at the helm, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 does its damnedest to honor all of these subtexts. And considering the enormity of the task, they fare surprisingly well, serving up one of the most thrilling, yet elegiac films in the series. It's not a complete success (fans of the book always despair over characters and subplots left out), but a conscientious mix of action, humor, and emotional backstory will leave most Potter fans fulfilled.

Yates doesn't waste a single frame on explication. Even before the Warner Bros. logo appears, we see evil Lord Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes) steal the powerul Elder Wand—which he believes will make him invincible—from the tomb of deceased headmaster Dumbledore. Then it's back to the seashore, where Dobby, the noble house elf, was buried at the end of DH Part 1. With a brief pit stop to hear the wand maker, Olivander (John Hurt) explain that a wand can switch its allegiance and choose which wizard to follow, Harry (Daniel Radcliffe), Hermione (Emma Watson), and Ron (Rupert Grint) are off to find and destroy the last of the Horcruxes where Voldemort has hidden bits of his rotting soul to keep himself alive.

Obviously, none but a rabid Potter fan will have a clue what's going on, so if you've never seen a Potter movie before, don't start with this one. But the initiated will adore the wild thrill ride into the underground vaults beneath Gringott's, the goblin bank, and the trio's escape via a giant albino dragon guard, too long shut away from the sun; they break his bonds and ride his spiny back out again on his flight to freedom. Their return to Hogwarts is exhilarating too, even though it's become a gloomy place, surrounded by death-breathing, wraithlike Dementors, with Harry's nemesis, the officious Snape (Alan Rickman) the new headmaster.

Once Harry and the gang are smuggled in, followed by what's left of the resistance army, the Order of the Phoenix, a ferocious professor McGonagall (Maggie Smith) puts Snape to flight and takes charge of the school. All the usual suspects are assembled, and even though some have only a line or two of dialogue, it's good to see them all again: crusading Hogwarts students Ginny Weasley (Bonnie Wright), Neville Longbottom (Matthew Lewis), Luna Lovegood (Evanna Lynch), and the rest, along with Order stalwarts Lupin (David Thewlis), Tonks (Natalia Tena), Mr. and Mrs. Weasley (Mark Williams and Julie Walters), and the Weasley twins (James and Oliver Phelps). The stage is set for the final showdown between Harry and Voldemort, to fulfill the prophecy that neither can continue to live as long as the other survives.

When the Hogwartians reject Voldemort's ultimatum to send out Harry or face the consequences, the battle begins; Voldemort (imbued by Fiennes with a creepy, dusty laugh like splintering twigs) and his evil minions march on the school and the night sky is ablaze with dueling curses and fireballs. This is as tedious as most fantasy film battle sequences; the action is often confusing, and there's little time to mourn the characters lost.

But the redemption of Snape, is beautifully handled. In Dumbledore's Pensieve (a device for looking into the past), Harry finally sees Snapes' life story, from wretched boy to betrayed adult, and the unshakeable devotion from which Snape never swerved that bound his life to Harry's. There's no time for Yates to go into as much depth as Rowling did. (In fact, the story of the previous generation—Harry's parents, Lily and James Potter, and Snape, Lupin and Sirius Black—has always gotten regrettably short shrift in the films). But this moving montage of Snape's backstory, threaded into little Harry's backstory (from previous films) brought me closer to tears than any other sequence throughout the series.

One great pleasure of the series, in addition to watching Harry evolve from fledgling "boy wizard" to compassionate hero, has been the emergence of Daniel Radcliffe from cute little kid into an assured young actor of considerable presence. That he can hold the center of a movie so crowded with activity (among so many scene-stealing veterans, like Rickman, Smith, and Helena Bonham-Carter's giggling psycho Bellatrix LeStrange) is a testament to his focus and quiet intensity. He laces Harry's decision to sacrifice himself to save his friends with a heartbreaking mix of trepidation and resolve. His subsequent interlude in limbo with Dumbledore (the irrespressible Michael Gambon), a buoyant moment of affection, humor and solidarity, is a welcome breather for the audience before Harry dives back into the story for the duel with Voldemort that has been his destiny since Book One.

The upside to cutting out all those subplots and backstories is that Yates and Kloves are able to focus and streamline the narrative of this final act, while sticking to the essentials of Rowling's theme: that love, friendship, and loyalty are greater than any other power, magical or otherwise. Deathly Hallows 2 delivers this message with affecting grace and heart.

But, hey, I'd still line up for a movie about Lily and James and Snape. Not to mention the untold story of James, Lupin and Sirius, their shapeshifting pact, and the origin of the Marauder's Map. Rowling has already written it. Hollywood, are you listening?

HARRY'S LAST HURRAH

It's been a long time coming, but Harry Potter finally meets his destiny this week when the eighth and final installment of the movie franchise, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, opens on Friday. 10 years, seven books and eight movies later, it all comes down to this: Harry vs. Voldemort. Of course, readers of the books already know how this smackdown plays out, but J.K. Rowling made the finale edge-of-your-seat suspenseful in the book. Here's hoping series veteran David Yates (directing his fourth Potter film) and scriptwriter Steve Kloves can do the same onscreen—especially after the somewhat meandering middle-act that was Deathly Hallows Part 1 last fall.

In some ways, this last Potter film, like the last book, is a thing to dread, knowing we'll have to bid the long goodbye to some favorite characters. But that was always part of Rowling's game plan, introducing young readers to both the joys and perils of growing up and accepting the adult world with all its responsibilities and inevitable losses. In the fourth book, Goblet Of Fire, the spectre of death oozed out of the past into Harry's present for the first time. After that, through the tragic finale of the sixth book (Half-Blood Prince) and on to the devastating, yet inevitable showdown of Deathly Hallows, fans agonized over which beloved character would meet an untimely demise with each new installment. Commentators, and therapists lined up like spectators at a Quidditch match to pontificate on how to guide young children through these sad and scary bits.

Here's a news flash: Kid Lit is not for sissies. The land of Oz is beset by warring factions. Wonderland is a nightmare of adult irrationality. And don't get me started on Neverland, where pirates and Indians routinely slaughter each other for the pleasure of a tyrannical little boy.

In my day, we didn't have grief counseling every time a beloved fictional character expired. When Bambi's mother was shot by hunters, we just had to get over it. Kids were expected to process these tales as way-stations out of sheltered childhood into the more complex realities of grown-up life. Of course, some of us kids were better at it than others; I still remember the tantrum I threw at about age 7 when I read the book, Lady and the Tramp, in which (unlike the Disney cartoon version) Trusty, the old bloodhound, actually drops dead after chasing down the dog-catcher's wagon with Tramp inside. I was inconsolable.

(in the Disney universe, good dogs get to live forever.)

I have to admit, I still miss having a new Potter novel to look forward to every couple of years, now that the book series is over. I was on a "book tree" with a few other friends; whoever bought it first would read it fast (the only possible way to read a Potter novel) and then pass it on to the rest of us. This involved some down time whilst waiting for the book to come down to me in the food chain, and it was a big challenge in the meantime not to accidentally learn any spoilers re: the plot. This meant no reading book reviews (natch!), nor any kind of media essay or chatroom discussion, and no conversations with anyone who had read the book (which was basically everyone else on earth).

When Goblet of Fire came out, we all knew one character in the book was going to die.; the big secret was, who? For weeks, I went around like Helen Keller, deaf and blind to all external stimuli. One morning, I was sitting in my doctor's waiting room before my annual check-up, when a young mother and two little children came in and sat down a few seats away. She opened up a suspiciously large book to nearly the end (GoF, of course), the kids crowded around, and almost the first words she read aloud to them were, "(Character's Name) was dead!" D'oh!

(Say goodbye to Daniel Radcliffe & the gang this Friday)

I'll be brushing up on my Deathly Hallows notes this week, in preparation for the final film. (After 13 years reviewing books for the SF Chronicle, I always take notes now when I read a book, especially a humungous book whose details my tiny brain is likely to forget.) Let's hope Yates, Kloves, Daniel Radcliffe and the rest give Harry the worthy send-off he and his legion of fans deserve.

WILD ABOUT HARRY

Yes, I'm still wild about Harry Potter, even though the latest film in the franchise, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1, is far from the best. Since it's only the first half of the last book in the series, it's very much a middle act, lining up the players and setting the stage for the inevitable final showdown coming next summer in Deathly Hallows, Part 2.

But while we're all waiting for the other wand to drop and the saga to finally reach its climax, I thought it might be fitting in this most thankful time of year to revisit what we love about J. K. Rowling's fantasy series and the values it embraces—love, friendship, justice, and especially family, whether actual or surrogate. Beneath the spells, hexes, and magical hi-jinks, it's all about the friends and supporters Harry earns and the choices he makes on his progress through childhood, adolescence, and life, en route to his destiny.

As I wrote about Rowling and the Potter universe in a 2005 column, Potter Familias,

"Like any phenomenon whose perpetrator makes oodles of money and buys herself a castle in Scotland, the expected chorus of naysayers and detractors has risen up like Voldemort's dreaded Dark Mark to debunk J. K. Rowling's work as, you know, not all that great. Book critics who were orgasmic a few installments (and a few billion dollars) ago that Rowling was actually prying kids away from their Gameboys and reading books, now carp about the finer points of her prose style. I say, who cares about prose style? Rowling's books are, in a word, ripping—fast, thrilling reads over considerable thematic terrain that create a witty parallel universe of magic from which to observe the perils and absurdities of the world we all know. Rowling has done her homework; she knows every whistle stop on the classic hero's journey and depicts them with relish and imagination." (Read more)


(Can you believe the Harry Potter movie kids were ever this little? Watching them grow up in real-time onscreen has been terrific fun; it also illustrates Rowling's central theme of growing into the destiny one deserves.)

So enjoy your holiday and be thankful for the family with whom you share it, whether bonded to you by blood or choice. I'll meet you back here next week.

(Above: Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint & Emma Watson in HP and the Sorcerer's Stone, 2001.)