In preparation for possibly seeing the next Potter film (haven’t read any of the books, conversation with kids lately hovering around, “Have you seen the new Harry Potter film? It sounds a bit too scary…”, speaker interchangeable) I watched the last one, something about a prisoner of Azerbaijan, on video. Only to find I had seen it before in some distant disjointed memory.

Except, this time it was a lot better than I thought it was. In fact, I have changed my entire perspective on the whole Potter series. Where before there were plagaristic stolen devices, now there is informed knowledge put to good use; where before there was simplistic moral generality, now there is cosmic insight; where before there was total lack of proper characterisation, now there is everyman-type univerality that defies individual quirk. And so on. All my previous criticisms of Potterness now sound like everyone else’s criticisms of Tarantinocity. Should have seen that coming. Didn’t, at all.

The moral is: whatever. People change their minds. It’s all good.