maha’s blog

I have just finished the seventh and presumably last volume of the Harry Potter series: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, and as with the other books of the heptalogy, I liked it! The story was extremely thrilling and very convincing. Contrary to former parts, it presupposes knowledge about what happened in the sixth book: One has to know what horcruxes are and who the Half-Blood Prince is. I had forgotten about the Half-Blood Prince and wondered who the prince was in the chapter: The Prince’s Tale (which is a funny title, because it’s only function is the reference to the preceding book).

Some people told me they didn’t like the ending of the book. I do not share their opinion. I quite liked the final turn. It is impressive how well the loose ends finally fit together. I would like to criticize only one aspect: The last book extols the traditional family model. In the 21st century, we ought to surpass the straight mind or narrow-mindedness of the traditional family that eludes the characters (and possibly the readers) at the end of the story. J. K. Rowling started out better!

Nevertheless, the last book is by far the most suspenseful of the series and doesn’t lack humor. It is highly readable, especially if you feel at home in the Harry Potter universe.

Yesterday I finished Vladimir Nabokov’s novel Pale Fire and I have to admit: I’m flabbergasted! This novel is without doubt one of the best novels I’ve ever read! First of all, it is the final reckoning with literary critique and scholarship and it is a really well constructed novel which is written in a way that it can never become a movie. The novel consists of a foreword, an “heroic” poem of 999 lines (by the imaginary writer John Shade) and a scholarly commentary to the poem (by the unreliable narrator  and scholar Charles Kinbote. Perhaps, this sounds boring to you, but in the commentary a totally different story is told which turns out to have something of a thriller. Why there is such a story (only) within the notes will become evident in the last commentary to the poem. I shall refrain from writing a spoiler, because you really have to read it yourselves!

The construction of the novel is really very special, although it remains highly readable throughout. I have said that it is the final reckoning with literary critique and scholarship, but it gives even literature itself a hard time. And it is very critical with the US and Old Europe (as usual in Nabokov’s novels). After reading Lolita and Pnin, I didn’t really become a fan of Nabokov’s writing (although at least Pnin isn’t bad either), but Pale Fire was a revelation for me. It is no surprise that the novel figures in the Random House lists of the 100 best novels.

Today I received a book from the Center of Civic Education. It’s called We the People: Project Citizen Level 2 and is a high school book that teaches civic participation in public policy.

I got the book, because I contributed to it: For the last section I contributed a picture of Aristotle (a 19th-century statue in Freiburg). Here is what the editors wrote to me:

“Thank you very much for allowing us to use your superb photo. It might be gratifying for you to know that this book, and thus your photo, will be in circulation for about 10 years. We plan to print more than a millian copies, most of which will be distributed to high school students around the United States and in about 70 countries around the world. The book will enable readers to influence local public policy and will encourage civic participation.”

Wow… it feels good to be published in over a million copies and to advance civic participation and democracy!