Harry Potter Blog - Chapter 3

Whew, Chapter 4 is a doozy! Things are getting very dark for the Order.

Reading the first few chapters has made me wonder about the implicit analogy to living in the post 9-11 era. Here in Canada, the War on Terror is really does not have the same impact that it does in either the US, UK or Middle East. There has been no attacks on Canadian soil, so there's not the same level of pervasive fear. Maybe the darkness of the last few books, and the mood of the last few chapters J.K. Rowling is making some comment on the culture of fear that has developed since the attacks and the resulting war. Certainly the actions of the Ministry of Magic share a lot of the "head-up-the-ass" actions of the US (and perhaps UK) government.

The book is great so far. Rowling is calling back some of the more memorable images from the past books, like the return of the flying motorcar. Generally in the other books, you don't hear much from the Dursleys after the third or fourth chapter, and they seem to bow out of the story as I expected (although there is one minor and rather nice surprise).

By the way the casualty count is beginning to rise...