Philosopher's Stone Chapter Eleven
Dec. 27th, 2011 11:54 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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deathtocapslock
*Magnificent title. In this chapter JKR tries and fails to emulate school sports as they are depicted in the British Boarding School genre.
*I wonder if Hagrid ate the animals whose skins he wears?
*Gryffindor is all set to move up to second place in the House Championship. Just don’t ask how, JKR’s maths wouldn’t stand it.
*Harry is officially the secret weapon, but that should read “the only player of any significance.”
*Well where were those useless mattress carriers? I ask you. We never saw them during the game did we?
*Hermione is Harry’s friend as long as she does his homework for him...! Poor girl. Does she actually believe that Harry counts as a friend or has she realised that he is the centre of the Potterverse and is latching onto him for that reason?
*The A5 Quidditch Through the Ages is about Harry’s reading level, I know, I read it too. Deathly Hallows contradicts everything it says about flying with magic.
*Seekers get the worst injuries, because they are the only players that the beaters need to bother about.
*No no, Hermione was a stickler for other people obeying the rules, she was always relaxed about breaking them herself!
*Hermione lent Harry a library book because he was too lazy to take it out himself?
*That’s the spirit Ron! I always liked his witty aspersions, delivered in the true Gryffindor character.
*Yeah why should Hermione let the boys copy her work? She should just keep doing it for them to save them the trouble.
*Harry sees a horrible sight – Snape and Filch are alone and Snape has his robes pulled up. I wouldn’t want to see Filch in that position either.
*Yeah clear off Potter, this isn’t a peep show. Snape must think he is as voyeuristic as James was about seeing Snape without his pants.
*So for a teacher to deduct points, the pupil has to hear them say it?
*Harry’s mind can only hold the one question; “what is the dog guarding.” Without that question, his mind would be completely empty.
*Is Seamus trying to rub it in, or is this a compliment delivered in the Gryffindor fashion?
*Harry can remember who Dean is because of the association of his supporting West Ham. Random historical fact – Rasputin’s memory was so bad that he could only remember his friends by making nicknames for them. Should Harry have tried this more often? Dean is “the West Ham Fan.”
*The banner says “Potter for President”?! President of what?
*Wood’s speech is taken from a muggle context – but he is not muggleborn, since he didn’t know about Basketball. I suppose he must have heard it from a muggleborn and thought it sounded cool.
*Flint may have troll blood in him, that would explain his shortcomings – his ancestry is impure. Are we sure JKR does not have a nationalist or neo-nazi type of mindset?
*”What an excellent Chaser Angelina is – and rather attractive to...” That Lee Jordan, he fails to keep the commentary impersonal as badly as Zach Smith failed at doing so. Oh well. IOIAGDI!
*Why bother commenting on the Chasers? Their work is completely superfluous. It’s the Seekers who matter, with their catching of the shiny object.
*In this chapter the narrator jumps around a lot. Normally it follows Harry, but now it suddenly distances itself from Harry and settles on Ron and Hermione amidst the spectators. Oh no, Hagrid is here...
*Wood had a talent for stating the obvious. All Harry needed to know was “catch the small object that moves suddenly.” Even a cat could comprehend Harry’s role in the game. Which sadly, is the only role that matters.
*The Twins had a taste for the tacky even here. Harry sees them flashing their wristwatches ostentatiously.
*Does Higgs have as expensive a broom as Harry has?
*Flint blocks Harry from winning the game! Really Flint, that would only be Okay If A Gryffindor Had Done It.
*Dean would rather be watching a football match. Boring as they are, at least the rules are logical!
*Hagrid suddenly considers Quidditch too brutal now that Harry’s playing it...? But surely he always knew that the beaters hit solid iron balls at all the other players? Perhaps he believes the rules should only be changed so that no one should attempt to knock Harry out of the air.
*But then no one, not even Lee Jordan, makes aspersions about the bludger nearly hitting Harry on the head.
*Interfering with a broomstick is powerful Dark Magic. No, the definition of Dark Magic will not become any clearer as the series progresses.
*Hermione changed her view on Snape very quickly. I suppose she must have taken Ron’s word earlier in the chapter, that he wouldn’t put anything past Snape. In the film we get to see Quirrell acting very nearly as suspiciously as Snape was (he was gazing at Harry and being unnaturally still).
*The referee is useless. Oh well, Flint is a cheat. Scoring in a surreptitious manner should only be Okay If A Gryffindor Does It. I have no doubt that everyone agrees.
*Hermione knocks Quirrell over by accident...! Lame. In the film it is Snape who knocks Quirrell by giving a start when he realises he is on fire. That looks better, although it leaves the question of why he didn’t just punch or knock Quirrell to stop him casting his hex.
*Really Neville isn’t acting like a Gryffindor here. He should relish the sight of danger! No wonder Malfoy taunted him about not being in the right house.
*Well since Harry was not unconscious, he won the game. This is actually better than JKR’s original idea of Hedwig catching the Snitch for him...! Oh for the days when the editors still did their job ;)
*The narrator rejoins Harry and does not leave him again during this book.
*Did Hagrid win Fluffy in a game of cards?
*Egodore giving Hagrid important information was just a way of ensuring that it would be leaked to the trio. He would not even have needed to tell Hagrid to leak it to them, Hagrid’s incompetence is his only reliable quality.
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no subject
Date: 2011-12-28 06:40 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-28 12:02 pm (UTC)It's a bit like "terrorism" in that sense - basically violence, but only when the "bad guys" do it.
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Date: 2011-12-28 03:51 pm (UTC)And yet frequently berates and harasses the boy that she’s supposed to be in love with to the extent of sending dangerous birds to attack him when he dares to go out with a girl who isn’t her. Yet there are people who believe that *Ron* is abusive or would be abusive to Hermione and that Harry/Hermione is the pairing where Hermione would be with her true equal?
Your comparisons are interesting, though, considering how I’ve seen people call Ginny Weasley “Harry’s personal Bellatrix.”
/She is, in short, the Potterverse Ideal Woman (no disgusting leaky eyes or wet kisses from her, but pure devotion to Harry)./
She may never give Harry ‘wet kisses,’ but Hermione does cry a lot (and for some reason, we’re not supposed to view *her* as a crybaby, unlike Cho). I think that in certain passages (can’t remember which ones), her eyes are indeed described as “leaking,” which, to be fair, repulses Harry as much as Cho’s crying does.
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Date: 2011-12-28 04:08 pm (UTC)I think that one of the most frustrating things about Snape and Harry’s relationship is that Harry never really learns anything by the end of PS/SS, to the extent that he treats Snape exactly as he did before. True, we can chalk it up to Dumbledore manipulating Harry’s feelings with his lies about Snape’s reason for saving Harry (honestly, did JKR not look back and realize that the revelation of Snape’s motivation in DH made everything that Dumbledore said in PS/SS a blatant lie?). But even if Harry believes that Snape was only trying to protect him because of the life debt (which is also proven worthless in DH), that doesn’t change the fact that Snape was trying to *save his life* and that just because Snape was an unpleasant person didn’t mean that he was the bad guy.
Yet whenever something ominous pops up again in later books, Harry’s mind always goes back to Snape. Even before Harry learns that Snape was once a Death Eater, he always thinks the worst of him. There’s not even a scene where Harry grudgingly thanks Snape for trying to save him in PS/SS and the two briefly clear up some misconceptions before mutually agreeing to keep disliking each other, to comic effect. And with the constant presence of Voldemort and Death Eaters and the corrupt Ministry and every other threat that’s much more urgent than a harsh teacher giving him detentions and making snide remarks, Harry’s stubborn, persistent urge to viscerally hate Snape and blame him for everything just makes him look really childish.
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Date: 2011-12-28 05:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-28 05:39 pm (UTC)(Sorry. Dumbledore telling Snape to watch Quirrel was the last straw for me. Just when I thought his character and role couldn't be diminished any further, even his brains had to go. Ugh.)
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Date: 2011-12-28 05:42 pm (UTC)President of the UK? Since nothing remotely useful is taught at Hogwarts, and Gryffindor is the most anti-intellectual of all the Houses, I wouldn't be surprised if the Gryffindors don't know they live in a monarchy.
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Date: 2011-12-28 06:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-28 07:03 pm (UTC)But QuirrellMort knew Severus was the one countering his curse, as he will reveal in the last chapter of this book. Severus only got away with his actions in this book because he managed to convince the returning Tom that he thought he was only acting against the unworthy Quirrell rather than his master.
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Date: 2011-12-28 07:08 pm (UTC)whitehound thinks Rowling intended for Albus to lie. She says that it is a trope in British media that when someone says something about how dear truth is the person is about to lie, that anyone who makes a big deal about the 'value' of truth is going to be truthful very sparingly. Can any other Brit confirm this?
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Date: 2011-12-28 07:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-28 08:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-28 08:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-28 08:24 pm (UTC)-I'll shut up now :p.
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Date: 2011-12-28 08:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-28 09:34 pm (UTC)But Hagrid mentions the minister earlier on.
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Date: 2011-12-28 10:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-29 12:47 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-29 01:14 am (UTC)This is brilliant. I hadn't thought about it, but you're absolutely right.
Typical Rowling's Informed Attributes. Rowling will tell you something about a character and will then consistenly SHOW the complete opposite, and yet you can't object to that character's misbehaviour because you were TOLD how this is simply not true. Argh!
But that's typical of narcissists and their acolytes. They tell you how wonderful they are, so they are wonderful, regardless of their actual behavior, let alone how they treat others. Because others don't matter. If someone is being abused by a narcissist and/or their lackeys, they must deserve it, or the narcissist and lackeys wouldn't be abusing them. If someone opposes a narcissist and lackeys for any reason, that's also proof they're horrible people: Since the narcissist has already been defined as Ultimate Good, anyone who opposes hir must therefore be Ultimate Evil. Only if the the opponent turns out to actually be on the narcissist's side can s/he be considered good, but only because s/he has been redeemed by hir proximity to/submission to/acknowledgment of the narcissist's goodness. There. Doesn't that all make perfect sense?
*Hermione lent Harry a library book because he was too lazy to take it out himself?
Harry is just training for the day he has a personal House Elf to make him sandwiches and bring him library books.
LOL!
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Date: 2011-12-29 01:18 am (UTC)I think she also cried when she mind-raped her parents, but it's been pointed out she appeared to be crying for herself in that case, not them.
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Date: 2011-12-29 01:35 am (UTC)I don't think she gave a rat's ass by that time, if she remembered at all, which she probably didn't. DH's atrociousness always reminds me of a story I read about Trent Reznor in Rolling Stone. When he was working on The Downward Spiral, he got bogged down and couldn't finish it. A friend tried to help motivate him, and their conversation went something like this:
Friend: What's your motivation in doing this album?
Trent: To get it fucking done.
Friend: That's the stupidest goddamn reason I've ever heard for doing an album! If that's the way you feel, don't do it! Don't do it until you can come up with something so great it's a crime for the world not to hear it!
JKR's problem is she didn't have anybody like that friend who was honest and independent enough to get in her face and say, "This book sucks, Jo. You're going to be ripping off your fans if you release it as is. Is that what you want? To steal from little kids and their parents just because you can't be arsed to write something decent, not even good, just decent? And where did all that wand allegiance rubbish come from? Did you just pull that out of your arse so you could finish off the book?
"If this is really the best you can do now, go to your publisher and tell them you're burned out and you need an extension. It's not like they're going to refuse you. It's far better for you to temporarily disappoint your fans by releasing the book six months or a year late than to disappoint them permanently by shoveling a load of shite on them, and then charging them big bucks for the privilege."
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Date: 2011-12-29 04:31 pm (UTC)I didn't like that addition in DH. I still believe Snape knew on his own regardless of JKR retrograding her failed hero.
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Date: 2011-12-30 12:00 am (UTC)No, JKR's problem was that by that time she was writing for the movies, which had a rapidly aging cast and therefore could not afford to wait for her to get real inspiration for the tale.
She had painted herself in the corner of releasing her volumes in July to coincide with the release of whatever latest Potter movie was hitting the theaters that summer; the Half Blood Prince movie was being released in July 2007, and she had to get the last book published and released to coincide with the movie's premier.
So integrity flew out the window (if there was ever any to begin with)...
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Date: 2011-12-30 12:08 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-30 01:43 am (UTC)