Chaim Potter

July 22, 2007 - 10:30 AM by Stephanie

Harry Potter buzz is still buzzing…Everywhere. From the U.K. to the U.S. to Bahrain (follow that last link) to Jordan to South America to…well Israel, of course.

Aside from people attending parties, queuing for copies and poring over pages – the record thus far is held by a Seattle teen who finished it within hours by logging 14 seconds per page – the blogosphere is still talk talk talkin’…Here’s what Israel’s bloggers have to say:

Lizrael Update got her copies but feels the “Harry Holy Land” experience was anti-climactic…
Buying the newest copy of Harry Potter is just not the same in Israel. In America, the book stores were buzzing with customers chatting to each other on long lines… Everyone was filled with delicious, fluffy hype, the kind that I guess is only available in the capitalist of capitalist societies.

Jewlicious gives a lengthy back and forth of various writers and bloggers who have re-capped the controversy surrounding the The Deathly Hallows release in Israel i.e. because it was during the Sabbath…oh never mind. It’s complicated (what’s new?) But somebody along the line added a kippa to Harry and renamed him Chaim. Very nice touch.

And Sarah, who ran out to fetch her copy of the book after three stars shined in the post-Sabbath sky last night, made a number of her own predictions (this is HER OPINION prior to reading the book and NOT a spoiler)…
a) Harry will vanquish Voldemort
b) In the process, Ron will die
c) Snape will be revealed to have been on the side of Good all along (loathsome in personality, but acting on the side of Good)
d) Harry will quietly retire into the Muggle world, coming back now and then to the magical one to visit the Weasleys, Neville, Luna etc. I’m thinking maybe he’ll become a detective or a policeman.
e) I think Ginny will go with him
Etc. Etc.

I agree on the Snape and Voldemort bits, by the way.

And for Lizrael, it ain’t all that in the U.S. either. People go and dress up and have fun. Okay. But at the end of the day, people want to get a’hold of the book, read it and find out what happens.

No spoilers here, please. I’ve already mistakenly read one that was maliciously planted in the Comments section of a YouTube Eurovision video, of all things. A random commenter systematically listed “so and so dies” “so and so is mortally wounded” etc. By the time I understood I was reading Potter book character names, it was too late.

Share with others