The Pendragon's Hall

Despite the Pendragon's status as an avid Harry Potter fan, eagerly awaiting the release of the seventh and final book, there is a deeper reason to my anger over the premature review of the book that appeared in the New York Times yesterday. There is nothing inherently immoral about the Times' leaking details of the storyline to the reading public--nothing along the lines of leaking top-secret government strategy against Al-Qaeda, for example. But this is only the latest symptom of the disease of news-as-industry. The NYT defended their review, saying they have a right to review any book available for sale (although the Potter book was technically not available until tomorrow). It's the same old story: we're the NYT and we have the right to say and write and do whatever we want because apparently the Founders fought and died for the free proliferation of newspapers. It is a disturbing trend that the Pendragon hopes will be corrected. President Bush wouldn't come down on the newspaper that is giving every aid to the enemy but perhaps J.K. Rowling and Scholastic will take the Times down a peg or two.

Meanwhile, I am psyched. Rowling has said that anyone remotely familiar with the Christian story will be able to guess the ending of her series. That could mean almost anything but I'd be willing to bet (and I here give assurance I have not read the Times' review or any other spoiler out there) that the end features the triumph of good over evil.