OOTP Chapter One: "Dudley Demented"

[for-diddled.livejournal.com]

* So, having done COS, I thought I’d have a bash at Harry Potter and the Capslock Button of Doom, or Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix it's sometimes called.

 

* OOTP was where the series started to jump the shark for me. Prior to it, Harry had been a fairly bland but basically nice boy; after JKR discovered the capslock button, though, he went rapidly downhill. IIRC, this is the first book where I started actually disliking Harry.

* No, Harry, I don’t think the neighbours avoid you because of your scruffiness. More likely, it’s due to your egoism, recklessness, unfriendliness and general lack of empathy.

* Well done, Harry! Truly, thinking to hide somewhere where your relatives can’t see you is a masterstroke of genius, indicative of a brilliant mind.

* Is it possible to grind your teeth loud enough to drown out the sound of a TV? Anyway, I shudder to think of what the Dursleys’ teeth must be like. Wouldn’t all that grinding wear them down something terrible?

* For all that JK Rowling seems to link Dudley’s lack of interest in the news to a general lack of moral virtue, it should perhaps be pointed out that Harry only follows the news because he thinks it might involve him, rather than out of any general desire to find out what’s happening in the wider would.

* Given that Harry’s apparently ignored and maltreated at home, you might expect him to be glad of Mrs. Figg inviting him to tea. This seems to be one of the occasions when JKR’s desire to make Harry into a normal everyman character clashes with what a real person in his situation would be like.

* According to Harry, the Dursleys are “astonishingly stupid”. I’ll just pause there to let the irony of that description sink in.

* Dudley and his gang go around vandalising, smoking and throwing stones at people. Yep, it’s a jungle out there on the mean streets of middle-class, suburban Surrey.

* “‘Give ’em a lifelong siesta, I would,’ snarled Uncle Vernon.” Just to remind us all that he’s racist, and therefore evil. Unlike Rubeus “There’s not a single witch or wizard who went bad that wasn’t in Slytherin” Hagrid, Albus “Good Slytherins really belong in Gryffindor” Dumbledore, or indeed Harry “Squib-hexer” Potter.

* A helicopter’s almost crashed in Surrey. Wiltshire’s the next county but one. Just thought I’d point that out… :p

* “Look,” said the neighbours, “that Potter boy’s grubbing around in the dirt again. Better stay away from him, he might turn violent if we come too near.”

* Uncle Vernon is trying to strangle Harry, just like Homer does in The Simpsons, providing yet more evidence that the Dursleys’ treatment of Harry is just cartoon violence, not meant to be taken seriously.

* Harry’s already using outraged italics on the Dursleys. Fortunately, though, we’ve so far been spared the ANGRY CAPSLOCK OF RAGE!

* How does Harry know that the sound was made by someone apparating? It may have sounded like it; but, given that Harry’s been thinking about magic a lot recently, he’d be quite likely to think that about any loud noise.

* Harry does eventually conclude that he’s mistaken, which is impressive given that Hermione isn’t here to tell him what to think.

* Does it not occur to Harry that Voldemort’s rise might appear in the wizard papers as it would in the Muggle ones – i.e., a series of unexplained disappearances, the significance of which has not yet been realised? Why assume that the front page will be the only place to find information? Although I suppose that NewspaperReading!Harry wouldn’t give Hermione the chance to make a long expository speech in a later chapter, so on second thoughts it’s no wonder that idea was dumped.

* These next four paragraphs really encapsulate all the problems with LaterBooks!Harry. We have the inability to come to the most obvious conclusions (hey, Harry, do you think that the reason Ron and Hermione aren’t telling you anything is that they’re worried their owls might be intercepted, just like they say in their letters?), the angriness and lack of proportion (yeah, Harry, throw those chocolates away! That’ll show ’em!), and the unjustifiable sense of entitlement (I saw Voldemort come back, therefore I deserve a key role in the war!).

* “Nevertheless, it was quite galling to be told not to be rash by a man who had served twelve years in the wizard prison, Azkaban, escaped, attempted to commit the murder he had been convicted for in the first place, then gone on the run with a stolen Hippogriff.” All this, of course, proves that Sirius is not in fact rash: a truly rash person wouldn’t have been able to plan ahead enough to escape Azkaban in the first place; and, even if he did so, would almost certainly not be able to avoid the largest manhunt in recent wizarding history for almost a year.

* “How could Dumbledore have forgotten him so easily?” Thus commences Harry’s “jilted lover” act, which will last right up until the end of the book.

* I quite like the word “wending”. It adds a certain old-fashioned charm which seems to fit well with the quasi-Victorian wizarding world.

* Nice to see JK Rowling equating becoming a boxing champion, with all the self-discipline and hard work that implies, with juvenile delinquency.

* Come to think of it, why’s learning to box inherently more likely to lead to petty crime than, say, attending the Hogwarts duelling club? Both teach skills that could be turned towards negative ends, after all.

* Harry’s longing to vent his frustration on Dudley’s gang. As Jesus once said, “If your enemy slaps you on the face, just turn the other cheek. Unless you’re feeling irritated and you want to vent a bit of anger, of course, in which case you can use your magical powers to provoke him into a fight which you’re guaranteed to win, and proceed to seriously kick arse.”

* All the houses of Privet Drive have “perfectly manicured lawns”. Clearly mowing your lawn is a sign of great inner evil.

* Actually, magically replicating the effects of a Dementor attack on his cousin would be totally IC for Harry. His behaviour often reminds me of that quote from Yu-Gi-Oh! The Abridged Series: “Bullying is wrong. But destroying someone’s mind with magic is A-OK.”

* Do Dementors normally make you go blind? I don’t remember that from other books; or, at least, I don’t remember it being emphasised as much as it is here.

* Erm Harry, what’s so unbelievable about Dementors in Little Whingeing? The wizarding and Muggle worlds are one and the same, after all, so there’s nothing to stop them from gliding over to your place – it’s not like Lucy Pevensie suddenly finding a talking beaver in her home in England, for example. And you know that Voldemort is back, you know that he’s been obsessed with killing you for the past fourteen years, you know that the Dementors used to work for him and might well go over to his side again. Is it really so difficult to put two and two together and work out that Voldemort might have turned some Dementors and sent them to try and kill you? That would be wrong, but still a reasonable conclusion to reach.

 

Comments

[charlottehywd.livejournal.com]

I'm glad to see you've decided to do this one next- OoTP was the book that really made me start questioning some of the things I disliked about the series. Also, as you pointed out, it was the book in which Harry suddenly turned from a fairly nice kid to an annoying, selfish jerk.

[snapes-witch.livejournal.com]

And the book that might have been better with at least 1/4 (perhaps more) cut out.

[madderbrad.livejournal.com]

I guess this book - possibly GoF? - was the one where Rowling was so successful she put her foot down and insisted on minimal editing.

[oryx_leucoryx]

There was an interview where she insisted OOTP just *had* to be that long because of all the places she had to take Harry through. Like that tour of the Department of Mysteries - right? Why did he have to go through the astronomy room, the brain room, run into the locked door of that other room, etc? Nothing became of any of it. Also, the second St Mungo's visit just had to be so detailed so we'd get the first mention of spattergoit or however it's spelled.

[aikaterini.livejournal.com]

/* OOTP was where the series started to jump the shark for me. Prior to it, Harry had been a fairly bland but basically nice boy; after JKR discovered the capslock button, though, he went rapidly downhill. IIRC, this is the first book where I started actually disliking Harry./

I agree. I *hated* Harry in this book. OotP will always be my least favorite book in the series because I couldn't stand Capslock!Harry, many of the characters were ruined, the book was so depressing and rage-inducing, and it single-handedly destroyed the "great, moral, uplifting universe" of the previous Harry Potter books. I mean, I know that JKR said that the later books would be darker, but good grief.

/All this, of course, proves that Sirius is not in fact rash: a truly rash person wouldn’t have been able to plan ahead enough to escape Azkaban in the first place; and, even if he did so, would almost certainly not be able to avoid the largest manhunt in recent wizarding history for almost a year./

Yet in this book, Sirius is nothing more than a restless, angry, and immature plot device who's relegated to the background. *sighs*

/* “How could Dumbledore have forgotten him so easily?” Thus commences Harry’s “jilted lover” act, which will last right up until the end of the book./

Well, to be fair, Dumbledore does ignore Harry and generally act passive-aggressively towards him, for stupid reasons, no less.

/* Nice to see JK Rowling equating becoming a boxing champion, with all the self-discipline and hard work that implies, with juvenile delinquency./

Maybe she was thinking of the bully in "The Karate Kid," who used his martial arts skills to beat up the protagonist, rather than learning self-discipline.

/* Harry’s longing to vent his frustration on Dudley’s gang./

So, he tries to bait them in one of the most obnoxious ways possible. Oh, Harry, we barely knew ye. :(

/His behaviour often reminds me of that quote from Yu-Gi-Oh! The Abridged Series: “Bullying is wrong. But destroying someone’s mind with magic is A-OK.”/

YGO:TAS reference for the win! XD

[lynn-waterfall.livejournal.com]

I'm so glad you're doing another of these!

[condwiramurs.livejournal.com]

* Well done, Harry! Truly, thinking to hide somewhere where your relatives can’t see you is a masterstroke of genius, indicative of a brilliant mind.

ROFL. Though for him, it *is* a stroke of genius, sadly. Hermione usually does indeed do all the thinking for him. And later the laundry too.


and the unjustifiable sense of entitlement (I saw Voldemort come back, therefore I deserve a key role in the war!).

Entitled? Harry? Naw. Never. How could you say that?

(Also, Harry supposedly hates having to be the BWL and have to be this symbol, to lead, or having to put effort into difficult things, yet he's furious that he's not the most important person in the Order with a main role, being a leader and rallying symbol, making all the tough decisions....Which is it? At this point it just seems like another reason for him to get irrationally angry.)

I too like the word 'wending.' Good word. ;)

And note that Harry's desire to "vent his frustration" upon Dudley and co., who repeatedly attack him physically upon no or merely verbal provocation, is entirely unlike Draco's desire to "vent his frustration" upon the gang of bullies who repeatedly attack him magically upon no or merely verbal provocation. Totally different, got that?

The Dementors weren't actually with Voldemort in VoldWar I, IIRC; that's a new development (and it would be too idiotic even for the WW to go back to entrusting the prison full of Death Eaters to them afterward had they been with Voldie then). But Harry really doesn't have much cause to disbelieve the possibility of Dementors there anyway.

Thanks for all the sporkage. One needs a dose of sanity in one's diet. ;)

[oryx_leucoryx]

The Dementors weren't actually with Voldemort in VoldWar I, IIRC; that's a new development (and it would be too idiotic even for the WW to go back to entrusting the prison full of Death Eaters to them afterward had they been with Voldie then). But Harry really doesn't have much cause to disbelieve the possibility of Dementors there anyway.

Especially after he heard Voldemort announce he was planning on making some kind of alliance with them.

[madderbrad.livejournal.com]

OOTP was where the series started to jump the shark for me.

I've commented on another forum just recently on how OotP was perhaps the best book of the series - whatever that means ;-) - until HBP was published and we discover that anything of importance in the fifth novel is dropped and forgotten. The D.A. - gone. The prophecy - emasculated. Occlumency - forget it. An alliance with the giants? Never happens, doesn't matter. The Order of the Phoenix? Superfluous. And so forth.

I still like OotP; it's the D.A. that drives the book for me, Harry & Co. *doing something*. And it's a good source of H/Hr scenery, so be careful how you go in the your sporking! :-)

[oryx_leucoryx]

Department of Mysteries? Career women in Wizarding society? The troubled relationship between wizards and other magical races (case in point - that statue)? etc.

[madderbrad.livejournal.com]

Harry's love for his godfather / remorse over his death?

The Sorting Hat's plea that all should unite from their 'deadly foes'?

Here's one of the big ones (for 'technical' types like me):

"Wand!" Harry muttered frantically, his hands flying over the ground like spiders. "Where's - wand -come on - lumos!"

He said the spell automatically, desperate for light to help him in his search - and to his disbelieving relief, light flared inches from his right hand - the wand tip had ignited. Harry snatched it up, scrambled to his feet and turned around.

This is the only time in the entire series, that I know of, where a wizard manages to cast a spell *from* his wand *without touching* his wand. Yes, in the first book Rowling hadn't worked out what she was doing and had Dumbledore and Quirrell just waving their hands, but once things settled down wands were a necessary accoutrement for making spells. But in OotP Harry uses his wand ... without touching it.

This seemed a very deliberate act by Rowling; I wondered for two years what was to become of it. I know of one excellent fan fiction story which capitalised on it. But, in the end ... it was just something she'd chucked in for no reason, with no thought. There would be oodles of such moments in DH, but I do believe this was one of the most concrete of them in the earlier books.

What else was a one-book wonder for OotP?

[madderbrad.livejournal.com]

What else was a one-book wonder for OotP?

Well, I guess I'm pre-empting the sporking!! We'll have to work out a list as the sporking proceeds!

[aasaylva.livejournal.com]

*high-fives you*
Another OotP supporter! To me, OotP seemed to live up to the idea of passing from fairy-tale children' book into YA-territory and I loved it for that. But then HBP came and smashed it to pieces...

[madderbrad.livejournal.com]

*high-fives back*

Yes, that's a good view of it; I too felt that OotP kicked things up a notch, that Harry & Co. *had done* things and would proceed to act with even more vigour in books to come.

But then HBP came and smashed it to pieces...

More like 'HBP came and cast a wet blanket over everything'. Harry falling right back into the slot of apathetic subservient schoolboy. What a downer!

[cyotix.livejournal.com]

I love OOTP.

It was what got me into the fandom.

It really escalated the stakes of the story. Sirius died and Harry lost his chance for a normal homelife. We got the prophecy that bound Voldemort and Harry. And it looked like the only hope of victory was a grand alliance with magical creatures/foreign wizards/slyterthins.

And lastly it made me realize how much I adore the character of Hermione Granger. She stuck through with Harry in the entire novel through thick and thin and even when he was screaming down her neck. What an amazing friend.

[sigune.livejournal.com]

*is relieved*

OOTP brought me into fandom and it's still my favourite of the series, because it hinted that there was so much more material to be explored in the Potterverse. Only, nothing ever came of it.

I'm probably alone in liking OOTP!Harry. He was obnoxious, yes, but I liked that the hero of a fantasy series went through a puberty crisis :). I found that surprisingly realistic *g*.

[mary-j-59.livejournal.com]

No, you're not alone. I liked and empathized with Harry in OOTP (for the most part; there are places where he's just selfish and mean), because I thought it normal for a 15-year-old to be overwhelmed by emotions, and because I saw his rage, like Snape's constant anger, as a displacement for grief. The poor kid had a lot to grieve about, after all. I also liked the developing moral complexity. But, of course, all these things that made OOTP seem deep and interesting were completely dropped and/or negated in the last two books.

[aasaylva.livejournal.com]

Yes yes yes and yes!!!!!

[mary-j-59.livejournal.com]

About Harry's rage being reasonable, as a mask for grief - as I said in an earlier essay, Harry's already been through a lot of trauma, including being terrorized and physically hurt during the "resurrection" scene and watching Cedric's murder. But it is odd that we all seem to see his grief as grief for Sirius, when, in this book, Sirius isn't absent, and when he doesn't die till the end of the story. Then, of course, in HBP, Harry shrugs off the death in three weeks or less and buries his grief. Very strange! I thought HBP and DH Harry practically a zombie, when he wasn't being actively unpleasant. I far prefer the recognizable teenager of OOTP. As obnoxious and lazy as he already is in this book, at least I can understand him.

But it's odd that he reacts so strongly to Cedric's death, and hardly at all to Sirius's.

[merrymelody.livejournal.com]

Harry’s longing to vent his frustration on Dudley’s gang.

I love how Dudley's supposed to be such a prick because he beats up younger kids with unfair odds.
Like how Fred and George hiss the new Slytherins (who are, what, four years below them?)
Or more like how they pick on Dudley himself, who's also a Muggle?
Or how George and Harry go for Malfoy, with Fred being held back from making it three-to-one?
Or like how the six DA kids and the Trio practise their new jinxes on the Slytherin Trio (who, hilariously, at the same time deserve it because...well, they were totally planning to outnumber Harry, but not in a heroic 'Everyone rose up in defense' sort of way. The bad, Dudley way. Except the Slytherins are the anti-Muggle ones. Really!)

[aasaylva.livejournal.com]

Can't say I agree with these comparisons:
- I really detest the twins but there IS a difference between being hissed at by two idiots from other "families" and being beaten up by a gang of 3 or 4 boys four years your senior
- the twins picked on Dudley not because he's a muggle, but because he picked on Harry. It's sort of like stealing from a thief. If he subscribes to the idea that it is okay to use superior powers just because he can, then he should be prepared to submit to the same principle himself
- George and Harry started beating Malfoy without bothering to see if the other was doing it as well, because he had provoked both of them quite severely. Don't get me wrong: I do NOT condone it - but again there is a difference between - lets say - killing a man you've just found in bed with your wife and planning to murder someone in cold blood. The way Dudley and his gang seem to have gone about it is a completely different mindset: walking around, looking for an easy victim and then finding fault with them ("What are you looking at? Problem?!")
-as to the Slytherin trio being hexed on the Hogwarts Express: if the text is to be believed (and I'd say it's difficult how to argue if we dispense with that) then they started hexing Harry (three on one) - so why should the DA not have intervened? I think there is a big difference between a "sporting contest" where same numbers on both sides are required to make it a fair match and the mere prevention of something bad happening. If I saw someone trying to hurt someone else, my first concern would be to stop the attack, not making sure the assailant had a sporting chance of winning.

[aasaylva.livejournal.com]

OOTP was where the series started to jump the shark for me
Happy to see you tackle another HP book although this one was (and still is when I ignore the rubbish that came after it) my favourite which certainly will show as I'm prepared to play devil's advocate (whereever possible).

No, Harry, I don’t think the neighbours avoid you because of your scruffiness. More likely, it’s due to your egoism, recklessness, unfriendliness and general lack of empathy.
I doubt that for two reasons:
Harry certainly IS scruffy (I'll never know why JKR insisted on making her hero into some smelly sort of Hippie when even his mum advised Severus on washing his pants...) which - in suburban middle-class IS reason to avoid somebody.
And if we accept how Harry's life at the Dursleys is depicted, then how would the neighbours know him enough to find him unfriendly, egotistical and without empathy?

Yes to the double-standard where Dudley's and Harry's interest in the news is concerned. That, along with several other things, I took as a rather convincing portrayal of a self-righteous teenager - something that had to develop - lead to bad results - make him reconsider and then, eventually, grow up. So, the set-up was done well, but as of DH epilogue, Harry (and his author) seem to be stuck in this mindset of a fifteen year old...

Dto. to the Dursleys being the same mindset as Harry's beloved wizarding mentors Hagrid, Dumbledore and the Weasleys. Cue to elkin's (?) excellent comparison between Aunt Marge and JKR as being practically the same person.

So much yes to mulish Harry - in fact, I thought it rather clever to show that one cannot just be stupid due to an objective lack of brain power but because of not USING your intelligence which certainly is the case here. In fact, I strongly believe Harry's animagus form would be a mule or a donkey...

...would almost certainly not be able to avoid the largest manhunt in recent wizarding history for almost a year.
Not to mention he didn't have any female to wash his pants and do his thinking and warding for him!

Nice to see JK Rowling equating becoming a boxing champion, with all the self-discipline and hard work that implies, with juvenile delinquency.
I'd say that's just something else (apart from maths, biology, history, and politics) where the author doesn't have a clue. If flying requires to have the blood of a flyer and a first-class broom, it stands to reason boxing requires to have a bully's nature and a pair of gloves.

To be fair, Rowling's idea seems to be that Dudley had shown his inclination to use violence with no provocation before - whereas the members of the Duelling Club had not. While I would recommend someone to train in self-defence that doesn't mean I'd be happy to send people there who like using their fists already, just to make them even more dangerous.

Harry’s longing to vent his frustration on Dudley’s gang.
I actually welcomed this, along with Harry provoking Dudley on their way home:
Of course, this is not the approved way a saint is meant to behave (noraChristfigureeither, cough)- but it's realistic. Harry has had four people in whom he emotionally trusted. One of them has recently been killed and the other three seem to have let him down (at least in his slightly over the top conception - cue teenage weltschmerz). He is (understandably!)still furious with Dumbledore, yet doesn't want to acknowledge this and thus tries to take it out on someone else. And here is his cousin who's been more than nasty to him ever since he can remember. IMO, it's healthy to develop the ability to be aggressive - and the way he acts on it is perfectly within reason.

Harry's incredulity re Dementors in Little Whinging (along with him being baffled at realzing Aunt Petunia knew something about the WW) is typical for teenagers who have a hard time to connets the different "worlds" they live in - e.g. their family + surroundigs and college and what's going on there. They play vastly different roles in each of these worlds and thus find it difficult to conceive people from one world to fit into the other.

[for-diddled.livejournal.com]

I know it's probably realistic for Harry to be such a jerk in this book, but I'd also argue that there's a reason why art regularly differs from real life. For a start, there certainly are many arrogant, whiny teenagers, but there's a good reason why people generally don't like being with them, and they're no more fun in fiction than they are reality. Secondly, Harry's the protagonist, and should therefore observe a stricter moral code than most people, especially given that he's supposed to overcome Voldemort using the power of love. Finally, it just seems really inconsistent for him to shrug off years of abuse and neglect by the Dursleys, but for almost getting killed by Voldemort to affect him so badly. It just looks to me like JKR had decided that true art is angsty, so thrown in lots of angst without stopping to wonder whether it's good to read, consistent or thematically helpful.

[jodel-from-aol.livejournal.com]

>Harry has had four people in whom he emotionally trusted. One of them has recently been killed and the other three seem to have let him down (at least in his slightly over the top conception - cue teenage weltschmerz).<

He emotionally trusted Cedric Diggory?

Now, Cedric was a very nice boy, but Harry scarcely knew him. If you are talking about Sirius Black, Sirius was still alive and well and in hiding at this point. Harry doesn't know that Albus is going to spend a year pointedly ignoring him yet, either.

We're only at the opening of OotP. No fair justifying Harry's attitudes now by things that won't happen until the following June.

[ladyhadhafang.livejournal.com]

The bits about the perfectly manicured lawns and the teeth grinding made me giggle. :3