...And now for something completely pointless.

My cats have an impressively wide vocabulary.

I say: "Hi, cat."
Catface hears: [nothing]
Satch hears: "Stop whatever you're doing and mew for me."

I say: "Good night!"
Catface hears: "I'm leaving you forever to go have fun behind this closed door without you, and your only hope of stopping me is to go into full hissing, clawing, and snapping attack mode."
Satch hears: "I'll no longer be able to see you if you jump on the counter."

I say: "Outside?"
Catface hears: "Come stand by the door and wait patiently while I hook your leash to your harness."
Satch hears: "The door has magically become insubstantial, and all you have to do to get through it is scratch frantically at the door jamb."

I say: "Inside!"
Catface hears: "Time to go inside."
Satch hears: [nothing]

I say: "Let me unhook you."
Catface hears: "Stand still so that I can remove your leash."
Satch hears: "Strain against the leash as hard as you can, because it will help me get it off faster."

I say: "Hang on..."
Catface hears: "Stand still."
Satch hears: "Try harder! The leash will disappear if you just pull hard enough!"

I say: "Food."
Catface hears: "No matter how long it takes you to get here, all your food will still be waiting for you."
Satch hears: "FOODfoodfoodfoodfoodFOOOOOD."

I say: "Go get the Catface, Satch."
Catface hears: "You still have a good 20 or 30 minutes to get downstairs."
Satch hears: "Stand beside me at the foot of the stairs and look impatiently up them waiting for the Catface to appear."

I say: "Not yet, cats."
Catface hears: "I'm going to feed you now."
Satch hears: "I'm going to feed you now."

I say: "It's OK, cat."
Catface hears: "I'm going to feed you now."
Satch hears: "I'm going to feed you now."

I say: "Oh, oops, I'm sorry cat, are you ok?"
Catface hears: "You can stop hiding now."
Satch hears: "I'm going to feed you now."

I say: "Get down!"
Catface hears: "I'm going to spray you if you don't get down."
Satch hears: [nothing]

I say: "No!"
Catface hears: "Run!"
Satch hears: [nothing]

I say: "Good cat."
Catface hears: "Run; I'm going to pet you now."
Satch hears: "If you beg enough, I may feed you now."

I say: "I'm home."
Catface hears: [nothing]
Satch hears: "I have a present for you!"

I say: "Get the bug!"
Catface hears: "Stop chasing the bug, I want Satch to have it."
Satch hears: "Stop chasing the bug and stare blankly at me."

I say: "Oww!"
Catface hears: [nothing]
Satch hears: "Keep playing, you're winning!"

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Analysis, complete with spoilers! I'll do it the old-fashioned way: highlight the text in the box below if you want to be spoiled.

So, I'll leave it up to someone else to go into the detailed analysis, but...! Having just read that page at the end that details the typesetting choices, I really can't stop myself from commenting.

Well, first of all, I knew Snape wasn't evil. Pah hah! A friend of mine subscribed to a very convincing literary theroy, in which he would play each side off the other, then when one seemed victorious, would swoop in at the last moment to kill the victor, thus defeating both and leaving himself with no enemies capable of stopping him. It was a well-researched, well-reasoned theory, and I'm delighted that it was wrong. I'm mildly disappointed that it was all because of Lily, but I liked how much depth Rowling put behind that aspect; when I got through the penseive segment, I felt satisfied, even if it wasn't quite what I had in mind.

And second, wow did she ever put a lot of effort into making sure every loose end was tied up! I can't really think of any that is bugging me at the moment. I may come across some on later readings, but nothing has hit me yet.

Third, I can't entirely tell what I think of the book yet, or if I think it was all it could be. It hasn't completely sunk in yet. I do have one notable disappointment: I really expected Ginny to participate more, in spite of what Harry wanted. I don't really think less of the character because of it--and if you've known any military wives you'll understand why it would actually make me think MORE of her--but I was still expecting such a young, hormone-charged, defiant tomboy to lose her head more than she did.

Fourth and most important, WOW were those last 3 chapters ever close to a Christian allegory. I've definitely detected signs--whether Rowling's a Christian or not, and I don't know which she is--that there was a deep understanding of Christian principles woven through the books. (Love. Sacrifice. What's right, rather than what's easy. And put not your faith.... There's so many others, but those spring to mind first.) I'd thought of it as being Tolkienesque: Tolkien was a Christian (and played a part in C.S. Lewis's conversion) but though you can find the Christian viewpoint all over his books, it's never really brought to the forefront. Now it seems a bit more Lewisish; biblical parallels that are immediately visible if you just look for them.

And okay, I find myself a bit indignant and offended that Rowling would turn a flawed human character (emphasis on the 'flawed') into a messianic figure. That's not entirely reasonable; the hero couldn't have been anything other than a flawed human character. Still, it annoys. Slightly but undeniably.

And yet...

It's a lot more than the death and resurrection. It's what's behind the death: why he had to die, why he chose to die, why the death didn't stick, why his death changed everything, and why his death robbed Voldemort of the power to injure not just Harry but all on Harry's side. It's the fact that what Voldemort thought was his ultimate victory was actually the moment of his defeat. And it's the fact that the only thing that could have saved Voldemort--not from death, but from something worse--was remorse. Repentance.

I mean, COME ON.

I have to confess that there's a teeny tiny nasty part inside of me that's saying "nanny nanny boo boo" to all the Christians who are so certain that it's wrong for a Christian to read the Harry Potter books.

...And as a tangent, I'm still trying to decide exactly who I think Dumbledore represents. There's a Christianese concept, that of the type, where a person, place or thing is an imperfect earthly foreshadowing of something relating to heaven or to the Messiah, etc. For example, marriage is a type of the relationship between Christ and the Church. Well, I see Dumbledore as a type of Harry Potter, paving the way. The most obvious bit of evidence in support of this is of course Dumbledore's defeat of Grindelwald. I haven't really worked the theory out too completely or well, but I'm sticking with it. I see Dumbledore as a bit of a John the Baptist, especially after the last book: not worthy, but preparing the way for the one who comes after him, who is worthy. And all chosen-like, you know?