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deathtocapslock2012-10-07 07:50 pm
HBP Chapter One: "The Other Minister"
* Because really, who could resist sporking the novel which gave us ChestMonster!Harry and some of the worst romance in the history of children’s literature?
* I remember having something of a love-hate relationship with HBP when I first read it. On the one hand, it was good to see that Harry was no longer a yelling, stroppy jerk; on the other, I was a bit disappointed to find out that nothing actually happened in the entire course of the novel. Grr!
* This chapter in particular always struck me as something of a mistake. Not only does it delay the start of the actual plot (such as it is) whilst adding no interesting information, but the whole idea of an entire magical society living totally separated from the Muggle world is rather far-fetched. Having an entire chapter centred around the idea just draws attention to the implausibility, and makes it harder to maintain the suspension of disbelief, IMHO.
* The Prime Minister’s main concern isn’t with all the people who have died, but with the fact that the Opposition are blaming him for it. Nice to see that the Muggle characters in these books are just as big a load of self-centred jerks as the magical ones.
* “We shall arrange for the president to forget to call.” Yep, nothing like demanding that people drop all their appointments and speak to you immediately, and mind-wiping anybody who gets in the way. Who are the villains in this series, again?
* Is it just me, or does “the Prime Minister of Muggles” sound like a rather condescending way of addressing him? Sort of like they’re saying “Yeah, you’re so beneath us, we can’t even be bothered to address you by your proper title.”
* I so wish the PM would just say “No, I’m not going to meet Fudge, sod off.” People need to stand up to the wizards more often.
* JKR’s prose style really isn’t very good here – it’s full of clichés like “it would haunt him until his dying day” and “who in the wide world…?” It makes the whole chapter feel rushed and sloppy, like even the author hated it and just wanted to finish it as quickly as possible.
* The Prime Minister apparently has trouble with words like “Sirius” and “Quidditch”. I wonder how he copes when negotiating with foreign governments, when he’d have to deal with far more difficult words and names.
* “Oh, by the way, Prime Minister, we’re bringing a load of dangerous creatures into the country. We thought we’d tell you, even though we couldn’t actually care less what you think about this. Bye.”
* “Whatever the press and the [O]pposition might say, the Prime Minister was not a foolish man” – well, thank you for telling me that, JKR. I know I couldn’t have worked it out by myself.
* I don’t know why, but whenever I get to the bit about the PM calling Fudge “the Other Minister”, I always think of that Mitchell and Webb sketch about the second Mrs. de Winter.
* The PM finally grows a bit of backbone and starts yelling at Cornelius. Took him a while, but I’m going to ignore that, because it’s just so good to see a Muggle standing up to a wizard for once. More please!
* Of course, the fact that Voldemort’s been going around randomly killing Muggles just makes it even more unbelievable that the wizarding world hasn’t been discovered yet.
* And again the Prime Minister is worried more about politics than about people actually dying. FFS, man, there are more important things in life than getting re-elected!
* That hurricane in the West Country was really the work of giants. Yeah, oversized magical humanoids, massive gusts of wind – they’re just so easy to confuse, right?
* TBH I doubt that Amelia Bones’ death would spark headlines such as “Breakdown of Law and Order”. A series of murders might, but a single, isolated case would probably provoke curiosity and moral indignation rather than fear of anarchy.
* Anybody know how Scrimgeour’s name is pronounced? I’ve always been saying it like “Scrim-jee-or”, but that probably isn’t right.
* Wow, Scrimgeour’s really being very rude to the Prime Minister, as indeed was Fudge. I wonder whether it’s only Muggles they treat like this, or whether they’re as discourteous when speaking to other magical leaders. If so, that might explain why no foreign governments seem to offer any help against Voldemort.
* And finally the chapter’s over. Seriously, what was the point? Aside from the “previously on Harry Potter” bits which we all knew anyway, the only information we were given was that Voldemort was killing Muggles, Amelia Bones had been murdered and Scrimgeour was the new Minister for Magic, all of which could have been revealed by having Harry read a Daily Prophet article. Other than that, this chapter underlined the sheer implausibility of the books’ central premise and made all the characters look like jerks. For Heaven’s sake, editors, where were you when we needed you?
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Me too! Before I realized how horrible the Sectumsempra incident and all of the other cases of Harry’s jerkiness in this book were, I actually liked this Harry because I was so relieved that he was no longer Capslock!Harry, whom I detested with a passion. I didn’t even care that his characterization was sudden and inexplicable; I was just so relieved that the old Harry was back. Or so I thought.
/The Prime Minister’s main concern isn’t with all the people who have died, but with the fact that the Opposition are blaming him for it. Nice to see that the Muggle characters in these books are just as big a load of self-centred jerks as the magical ones./
Or, if you want to be cynical and uncharitable, the Prime Minister is really just a strawman politician: weak, corrupt, and selfish.
/Is it just me, or does “the Prime Minister of Muggles” sound like a rather condescending way of addressing him?/
Yes, we don’t call foreign leaders, “Prime Minister of Frenchmen” or “Prime Minister of Japanese.” We call them “the French prime minister” and the “Japanese prime minister.” Or “Prime Minister of France” and “Prime Minister of Japan.”
/People need to stand up to the wizards more often./
Except that in the rare instances that they do, things tend to go badly for them, such as the cases of Frank Bryce and the Dursleys.
/The Prime Minister apparently has trouble with words like “Sirius” and “Quidditch”. I wonder how he copes when negotiating with foreign governments, when he’d have to deal with far more difficult words and names./
Again, I think that JKR is just trying to make him look like a simpleton.
/Of course, the fact that Voldemort’s been going around randomly killing Muggles just makes it even more unbelievable that the wizarding world hasn’t been discovered yet./
That’s where Voldemort’s lack of a consistent and believable motivation really hurts the story. Why is he randomly attacking Muggles like this? Is he trying to alert Muggles to the existence of the wizarding world? Is he trying to prove to the wizarding world how shoddy their secrecy laws are? Is he just a crazy, Muggle-hating lunatic who’s killing Muggles for the heck of it? Why is he doing this?
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Not that this would have affected what Voldemort did, obviously, but I do wonder. Maybe it just boiled down to how confident they were that they could win very, very quickly.
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Well, we have 2 murders: A middle-aged woman (Amelia Bones) murdered in a 'locked room mystery' and another woman murdered around the corner from Downing street. So one has the police baffled, the other (Order member Emmeline Vance) apparently problematic because of the location - perhaps an indication that the PM's security is at risk? Good thing Kingsley was sent there to watch out - he alone can protect the PM from 40 DEs, giants, werewolves and any number of dementors.
BTW, any idea what Emmeline Vance was doing near no. 10 Downing st?
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We not only have her murder but also the imperio that didn't quite work right on one of the muggle junior minister who worked at #10. Someone must have been on watch because he was taken to St. Mungos. Without a wizard/witch on the scene, then there wasn't anyone to know he needed magical help.
Note that while he was quacking like a duck, he also ended up trying to strangle the healers. Presumably, he was imperio'd to strangle the Prime Minister.
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