I’m not the only law student who’s freaking out about the timing of the seventh Harry Potter book and the bar exam. Via Google Blog Search and Technorati, I found several others.
From the blog Gutted: “The date of the release of the new Harry Potter book is 21st July. This is something I am very excited about, yes despite being 22 years old. However, what I am very upset about is that this date is a matter of days before I have to take the New York Bar and so I will have to postpone my usual ‘don’t-you-dare-disturb-me-til-I-have-finished’ attitude until after I have sat the bar exam.” (Side note: taking the New York Bar at 22? Ladies and gentlemen, it’s Doogie Howser, J.D.!)
From Monkeyhead: “Guess who just pre-ordered the new Harry Potter book? Thats right, ME! It comes out on July 21, right before the bar. I am going to have to try really hard not to read it before the test. It will be my prize when I get done.”
From iamthestranger: “I just knew this was going to happen. … Read it right away all at once and return to studying, or put it aside until the next weekend? Do I really even have a choice?”
From William J. McDermod IV: “JK Rowling is evil.”
From Typhoid Mary: “Well, the news is out. The final Harry Potter book will be released the weekend BEFORE I TAKE THE MOTHER F***ING TEXAS BAR. Crappidy crap.”
From Nolo Contendre: “July 21st. That’s when the last book in the Harry Potter Series comes out. Four days before the bar. You bastards! I won’t be able to read it until after the exam!!” A commenter writes: “Damn people - don’t they plan for this? I have no self control! I might have to plan to not see another living soul during that time to avoid (1) spoilers and (2) acts of violence to express my bitterness that I haven’t had time to read it.” To which the blogger responds: “Exactly. Someone is going to spoil it. Like seriously. Not fair.”
And from Amicus Curiae, by a Texas law student named Ruth, whose initial reaction and eventual realization were both pretty much identical to mine:
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows scheduled for July 21 release.
In other news… Ruth fails the bar exam.
Thank you, J.K. Rowling. Would it have killed you to push that date back two weeks?
*sobs*
EDIT: On second thought, Bar Bri should be over with by then, so I can easily take the night off, read it in one go, and get back to it. It can be done. It can be done.
Ruth adds in comments: “It’s pretty much the worst possible release date. Actually, take out the words ‘pretty much,’ and the statement becomes more accurate. But there is no way I can wait until after the exam to read it. I just don’t have that kind of discipline.”
It’s not just a question of discipline. Or at least, not of one’s own discipline. I could be disciplined enough to not read the book for five days — but can I count on everyone around me to be disciplined enough not to tell me the ending? That is the real issue.
If it’s just Voldemort who dies, eh, it might be possible to go four or five days without overhearing that news. But what if Harry dies? That will be an absolutely, positively HUGE DEAL. It’ll be the pop-culture story of the year. It’ll be the topic of every water-cooler discussion in America; it’ll be on Drudge; it’ll be everywhere. The mainstream TV and print media will probably avoid explicitly talking about it right away, but they’ll surely hint at it (keep in mind that late July is a very, very slow-news period), with phrases like “the controversial ending of the Harry Potter series” — which would totally give it away, since Harry living and Voldemort dying wouldn’t be controversial!
And c’mon — some bar-exam takers will have read the book, and there will totally be conversation about it, before and/or after the exam. Or at least, it’s a distinct possibility. And we’re lawyers; therefore we’re assholes; therefore somebody might very well say something too loudly. :) Realistically, there is just no way to assure oneself of not accidentally finding out who dies. And once you know, you know; you can’t un-ring the bell. The suspense is ruined, and there’s no way to recapture it. Kinda like when Sean told me Mr. Ludlow’s first name just hours before graduation. (Inside reference, people; move along, move along.)
Hence, I think Ruth has the right idea. Take a day off, read the book, then get back to studying. Fellow bar-exam-taking Harry Potter fanatics of America, this is my advice to you. Screw “discipline.” Read the damn book. It’s the only way.
(Much more discussion of this topic in my previous post and the comments thereon.)
UPDATE: A standard Google search for “harry potter” “bar exam” reveals that Ruth (writing for a different blog, but I’m fairly certain it’s the same Ruth) was waaaay ahead of me on this one. She was worried about this two years ago! In July 2005, shortly before Book 6 came out (a week earlier than Book 7’s release date, but still during bar-exam season), she wrote:
I was thinking about those of you who may be (1) fans of the book and (2) taking the bar exam, and I felt really bad.
That’s when the thought occurred.
The last book came out two years ago. What if Book 7 comes out two years from now? That would put its release in the same time that I would be taking the bar exam.
On the one hand, I know a guy who put off the LSAT for a year because it fell on the same day as the Red River Shootout. But I don’t think I could put off the bar exam for Book 7, even if it is a huge deal. My only hope is that J.K. Rowling will take an extra year with this one.
So, what I want to know is this: for those of you who had a major life event* take place while you were studying for the bar, how did you handle it? I’m not asking about the bar exam in general, but more along the lines of which you chose. Did you keep right on studying? Or did you take a break for the major life event? If you took a break, how long was the break? And did it affect your studying any?
And if you are a Harry Potter fan and studying for the bar… are you going to take time out to read the book? If so, will you read it in one go, or reward yourself with a chapter a night, or what?
* Yes, actually, I do consider the release of Book 7 a major life event.
Heh. Alas, there are no comments (dunno if there never were any, or if they’ve disappeared from the archive), so we don’t know how people responded. But to be honest, I think the release of Book 7 is so qualitatively different from the release of Book 6 that the experiences of those ‘05 bar-exam takers may not be terribly applicable. I mean, yeah, with Book 6, you had the suspense of which main character was going to die (Dumbledore), and who the “Half-Blood Prince” is (Snape), but it wasn’t like this… it wasn’t the ultimate question of how the whole damn series was going to end, the culmination of all these years of suspense, the fulfillment of the prophecy, the fate of the wizarding world, etc. etc. The level of anticipation for the crucial salient facts that will be revealed in Book 7 is about eleventy billion times more intense than for Book 6, so I think the concern about accidentally learning the answers is much, much, much more acute.
UPDATE 2: On the other hand… here’s a blog suggesting that accidental revelations were a problem, even with Book 6. On July 17, one day after the book came out: “I admit I’ve focused mostly on MBE, so this week will be an absolute crash course in everything else. I think that’s why I’m freaked, and that’s why I need to keep telling myself to chill. I’ve seen this before, so I will be ok. Besides, my reward for all my hard work will be Harry Potter. Now, if only people would stop spoiling it for me…” And from July 25, nine days after the book release and one day before the bar: “I should be looking foward to Harry Potter 6, but thanks to Prof. Yin and his lovely rss feed, the book was just spoiled for me. Hello.”
See? See??? And that was just Book 6. (And incidentally, that test-taker — who practiced “discipline” and didn’t read the book — failed the bar. See, discipline sucks!)
Like I said: I’ve concluded, upon obsessive consideration of the issue, that taking a break from bar preparation and reading the book is the only viable solution, unless you’re prepared to accept a very high risk of accidentally learning That Which Must Not Be Learned.
P.S. Those of us who will be reading Deathly Hallows before taking the bar should call ourselves the “J.K. J.D.s.” :)
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Categories: Law School, Harry Potter
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February 2nd, 2007 at 8:36:00 am
Is this a book that a 10 year old would enjoy or is it to graphic?
I have never read one of these books before.
February 2nd, 2007 at 11:03:38 am
There are some folks (not many) who fret, here and elsewhere, that the American empire is in jeopardy because our talented youth lack the hunger and drive that is evident in other cultures, particularly the rising Asian cultures.
Not many folks say this, mind you, since most of us are along for the “good time” ride in the (hopefully not, but possibly) dying years of the empire.
Why do I bring this up? One cannot imagine this apparently widespread fretting WRT to the bar exam coinciding with the release of some (forgive me) cheesy book in say, Japan, or China.
Call Harry Potter “cheesy” and you invite condemnation from the adoring masses. Nevertheless, our generation shares our parents’ fascination with hobbits and Middle Earth. Will our children be addicted to Harry Potter? Such a proposition, even to many of the biggest fans, is seemingly ludicrous - and really puts that series in its appropriate historic perspective.
Its not even really an issue of whether Brendan or the other strangely situated Potter-obsessives will read the book or study. They will all read the book. The thought of studying while nervous that someone will give away the ending is likely impossible.
What seems so bizarre is: however you “find out”, whether through JK Rowling’s magnificent plotline development (!) or water cooler talk, it really is one of those things that is met with a “Hm” and a “there you have it” and maybe a “that was nice” while you head over to make yourself a sandwich, immediately transitioning into your post-Harry Potter life.
How you perform on the bar exam might just have a SLIGHTLY more lasting impact on not only yours, but also your family’s existences.
Which makes this thread borderline insane.
February 2nd, 2007 at 1:06:24 pm
It was the second time I had to avoid reading the book too! This time I’m taking the bar in two weeks. No holding back for me. So good luck avoiding spoilers.
February 2nd, 2007 at 1:25:05 pm
I’ve taken this horrible exam a couple of times now, and every other time, I’ve manage to stay away from HP spoilers while studying without worrying about it too much. The only time I accidentally read a spoiler was when I was doing some internet surfing I wasn’t supposed to be doing anyway. When studying for hte bar, you barely even have time to read the news much less find HP spoilers. I think I can handle avoiding any crucial information before the actual exam.
I don’t really get “Jazz”’s comment, as I can’t imagine anyone being silly enough to be studying for the bar and simultaneously being worried about spoilers, although of course unlike those God-like Asians, we Americans are just too childish and silly to be doing otherwise. Give me a break.
February 2nd, 2007 at 1:28:52 pm
Why do I bring this up? One cannot imagine this apparently widespread fretting WRT to the bar exam coinciding with the release of some (forgive me) cheesy book in say, Japan, or China
Yeah cause its not like they line up in the streets over in Japan whenever a new Pokemon game is released, oh no not at all…
Dumbest comment of the day Jazz, seriously.
February 2nd, 2007 at 1:33:40 pm
Nebraska –
Absolutely, a 10-year-old would be just fine with the HP books, or at least the first few. I discovered the books through my wife, who was a 4th-grade teacher at the time. She read the first one so she could find out what had gotten her students so interested in reading all of a sudden. Her 4th-graders were 9-10 years old at the time.
Harry and his classmates start out in the first book at 11 years old, and each book crhonicles another school-year in their lives. So they’ll all be 17 at the beginning of this final book.
Accordingly, as the characters have aged and matured, so have the books themeslves, the plotlines, themes, etc. )That’s one reason why Jazz is off his nut here — he thinks these are just “kids’ books.” They’re not. Even the first book is highly entertaining and engaging for adult readers, while also being appealing to ten-year-olds.)
Later books might be a bit too much for a ten-year-old right now, but for those who were 10 back in the late 90s/early 00s when the series was first published and then really took off, it has grown up with them.
Harry Potter is indeed another LOTR or Narnia. It has already proven to be cross-generational in appeal. I have no doubt that future generations will enjoy it every bit as much as current ones have.
February 2nd, 2007 at 2:36:39 pm
Thank you Brian
I will let my daughter wait a little longer as she has an “active” imagination and I do not want to deal with nightmares.
February 2nd, 2007 at 2:46:53 pm
David - “standing in line for a Pokemon video game” is vastly different from “standing in line for a Pokemon video game when some important future-defining task calls.” You may well be right that Japanese/Chinese cultures disregard their futures for the sake of feverish mania - but that’s definitionally what you would need to prove (and so far, you certainly haven’t).
Brian Foster - there’s an important difference between saying that a book “will not be timeless” and a book “is only for children”. The latter (which you seem to think I argued) assumes that particular readers outgrow the work as they age. The former (which I actually argued) was that the culture, generally, outgrows the work. Important distinction, worth noting.
February 2nd, 2007 at 2:51:01 pm
Oh and “Legis”…did you read the thread?
February 2nd, 2007 at 4:19:51 pm
Another plan, I suppose, is to work your butt off, finish studying early, then read the book over the weekend. Brush up on Monday, particularly with the multistate, and take the test as planned. For the most part, I stopped studying and started focusing on relaxing and clearing my mind about a week before anyway. PMBR and BarBri used to have this crazy-azz “mock bar exam” a week before to prepare you. I started it, found it to be unnecessarily stressful, left an hour into it and went surfing. Wednesday, Thursday, I studied my outlines and notes only. Maybe two hours a day. The weekend before the bar, I kid you not, I went to Disneyland. By Sunday night, I was relaxed. I already knew all I was going to know (picture your study books singing “If you don’t know me by now, you will never ever ever know me, ooooooooo”) and I did a quick brushup on Monday, to get that cramming rush of adrenaline, and I went forth and kicked butt. You can do it, too.
February 2nd, 2007 at 4:41:39 pm
“J.K. J.D.s.�
Potter’s Plantiffs?
Dumbledores Defenders?
February 2nd, 2007 at 4:43:10 pm
Jazz, believe me, if its a huge thing like a game launch in Japan, students WILL be lining up for it, i can’t provide any documented evidence off the top of my head, other than a deep understanding of Japanese gamer culture.
February 2nd, 2007 at 9:49:15 pm
I still haven’t read book 6. Thus, I didn’t know who died. I’m ruined forever.
Actually, I haven’t read books 2-6. Does this make me evil?
February 2nd, 2007 at 10:05:40 pm
YES
February 2nd, 2007 at 10:49:40 pm
I find that what’s good about the books is that they “grow up” along with the readers. I think 10 years old is about the age Rowling expected the readers of the first book to be; the timing of the subsequent books seems to have been somewhat deliberate to effect some correspondance between the age of those first readers and the content of the books. Those first readers will be 19 just about now, so death and war and duty and internal conflict are appropriate topics that they will undoubtedly relate to.
February 2nd, 2007 at 10:51:48 pm
I should clarify that I mean the first book is completely appropriate for a 10 year old. The only foreseeable problem with a 10 year old starting now is that all the books are available — I know I only got started when three books were out and as soon as I finished the first one I was on a massive hunt for the second one (it somewhat complicated matters that I finished the first on a plane to Dublin — I spent a significant part of that trip running frantic and wild-eyed into bookstores). It might be difficult to prevent a 10 year old from pursuing the later books that might be too advanced.
February 4th, 2007 at 12:40:34 am
“…some bar-exam takers will have read the book, and there will totally be conversation about it, before and/or after the exam…And we’re lawyers; therefore we’re assholes; therefore somebody might very well say something too loudly. :)…”
A sound syllogism :), which raises the question: since you belong to the cited solicitors’ Subset of the specified Set of sphincters; and since you’ve resolved to Read it beforehand; and since I can think of maybe seven or eight times in your when you’ve been known to say Anything in Anything Other than the matrilineally-inherited Loud Loomer Voice :) :> ;} ~ will YOU, on this cosmic occasion, being in possession of the Secret Knowledge, remember to Put a Sock in it for the sake of your more-Disciplined fellow
fanaticsLiterati?:)
(A subsidiary question, prompted by the evident Prevalence of the Rowling Conundrum throughout the entire United States Law School Class of 2007, is What will become of American jurisprudence once this imminent Infusion of Harry Potter cultists into the system has been consummated :)?
Brian Foster: IMO the Potter series is very Good; as are the Chronicles of Narnia, in their metaphorically Sectarian way ;>. / But neither is “another LOTR”. JK and CS are Fine. But there is no Other LOTR, there is only One JRRT. There is no god but God. :).
February 4th, 2007 at 12:47:33 am
Erratum: “…maybe seven or eight times in your when you’ve been known to say…” Times in your life, fairlyobviously :).
April 16th, 2007 at 7:42:50 pm
I meant to reply to this ages ago. Yes that was me who thought about this possibility two years ago. I suppose one can say that my biggest fear came true. Or that I jinxed myself.
I’ve run the full spectrum of emotions since the release date. First, utter disappointment at the timing. Then disbelief–could it seriously be the single worst date ever? Then, hope–wait, I can still read it. Then, blind optimism as I planned to meet up with my friends in another state to read the book over the weekend. I nearly bought my plane tickets, but then started having nightmares about failing the bar exam, and decided that while reading the book on the release date is one thing, taking a trip that could be filled with stress (lost luggage, lost time, etc) is something entirely different. I canceled my plans and called my mom and sobbed about the unfairness of it all. Now I’m just bitter any time the book release comes up, since all of my non-law school friends will be obsessing beforehand, reading it, and obsessing afterwards together. And I’ll be alone. *sniff*
I’m hoping my spectrum of emotions doesn’t end with bitterness. I’m hoping that I’ll be excited about it at some point. But really, it’s the end of an era of my life. The end will be bittersweet no matter what happens in the book, and the excitement that I felt over OotP and HBP will never be felt again, because I won’t be able to share it with my friends the way I did then. So I’m afraid that the whole experience will probably be colored by the bitterness, and that’s what makes me most sad. Especially when a release just one week later would have been characterized by sheer elation. Just one week later and it could have been the happiest weekend of my life. And now I feel like calling my mom and sobbing again. :(
And yes, I’m an uber geek, in case that wasn’t obvi from my reply.
Ruth