Deathly Hallows, chapter 2

[anehan]

In Memoriam

* The Dursleys are leaving tea cups outside Harry's bedroom door. What are they, house elves?

*Harry has never learned to heal wounds and thinks it's a serious flaw in his magical education. Maybe he ought to have, you know, studied during the six years at Hogwarts instead of letting Hermione do all his work for him. Sorry, Harry, but you have no one else than yourself to blame. Normal people, if they had a lunatic after their blood, would have actually devoted some time for making sure they weren't completely unprepared.

* Harry has never cleaned his trunk before. Gross. Our Harry isn't much for hygiene.

* Finding a fragment of the mirror Sirius had given him, Harry feels a sudden upsurge of bitter memories, stabs of regret and longing. He suffers, I tell you.

* Harry is going to take his photograh album and a stack of letters with him. Good lord, what does he think he's going to do with them. The boy is an idiot.

* And we come to the sickening obituary by Elphias Doge. One more person whom Dumbledore managed to hoodwink into believing he was a noble person.

* Dumbledore never revealed the remotest anti-Muggle tendency. Except when he bullied the Dursleys. But that doesn't count, because the Dursleys totally deserved it.

* Dumbledore became the most brilliant student Hogwarts had ever seen and constantly outshone his friends. Bet he liked that. It would have done good for him to be second-best at something. Instead, everything confirmed him in his belief that he was superior to others and that it was his duty to manipulate others for the greater good.

* According to Doge, Dumbledore never had Ministerial ambitions. True enough. He just wanted to take over the world.

* "Albus Dumbledore was never proud or vain". Ahahahahahaa!

* Dumbledore's losses "endowed him with great humanity and sympathy". Bitch, please. The man is clearly incapable of empathy.

* Doge was right in one thing, though: Dumbledore always worked for the greater good. Too bad his methods and definition of "greater good" were rather questionable.

* Harry had thought he knew Dumbledore quite well. What made him think that? The great openness Dumbledore displayed in his dealings with Harry, perhaps?

* Harry thinks that the idea of a teen-aged Dumbledore was odd, like trying to imagine a stupid Hermione. Much as I love Hermione, I have no problem in imagining her stupid. She isn't half so clever as she likes to think. For example, what good did it do to the DA to brand the traitor's face? It didn't prevent Marietta from squealing.

* The only personal question Harry had asked Dumbledore was the only one he suspected Dumbledore hadn't answered honestly. That's too naïve even for Harry.

* Unpleasant Skeeter may be, but I at least would rather read her book than any more of Doge's pennings. There might ever be a shred of truth in what she writes, if you manage to discount the more lurid details.

* Skeeter calls the Potter-Dumbledore relationship unhealthy, even sinister. Brava! At least someone finally got it right.

* Another chapter in which nothing happens comes to an end. I really need that alcohol to get through this.



Informed Attributes:
Dumbledore is noble. No, really.

Misdirected Answering:
Did you hear what Dumbledore got up to as a teenager? What do you mean, you're not interested?

Nut o' Fun:
Desiccated beetle eyes.

Final score: 3. Nothing happens in this chapter.

Comments

[anehan]

Hello, and welcome to DTCL!

What's funny about this is that he thinks that, and then never even bothers to learn, relying on Hermione instead.

It's sad that I'm not the least bit surprised by that. He really is a lazy sod.

DH really is the worst book in the series. Even OotP and HBP had something to redeem them, but not so DH. I have to confess that I have no very clear memory og what happens in DH, because it's all so scattered and random and there isn't a real plot to sustain it.

[j-lunatic.livejournal.com]

*Nods* I've tried to reread it, but I keep skipping over the Camping Trip From Hell and jumping ahead to Neville's entrance. And they're going to make two movies out of this? What, are they going to shoot the tent sequences in real time?

[anehan]

Two movies? Oh my god.

[tabaquis.livejournal.com]

Well, they said that about GoF, too, but they didn't... which is too bad, it really could have used it.

[jodel-from-aol.livejournal.com]

It seems to have been confirmed.

Well do you blame Warners? There may not be a story in this book, but there are at least seven potential grand spectacular set-pieces. And that's too many for one movie.

Besides, heaven forfend that anyone should fail to have the whole Harry Potter franchise yapping at their heels until they can get the theme park open...

[tdotm.livejournal.com]

I can blame them! The story's so weak in DH. I thought they'd cut the camping down to nothing. Harry and Ron could row, and end up not talking, but Ron stays. Then, when Harry sees the Doe, Ron pops out for a pee, follows and saves him and we're spared scenes that this trio really aren't good enough to handle. (Rupert Grint's ok, but Emma Watson can suck the atmosphere out of any moment with a quick waggle of her eyebrows)

Warners should be careful with the locket's evil influence thing. They don't want Tolkien's tetchy son to be distracted from suing New Line and turn his attentions to JKR's embarrassing rip off.

Plus 5 of the set pieces are exactly the same. Seven Potters, The Ministry, Godrics Hollow, Xeno Lovegood, Malfoy Manor. They're attacked by the baddies and just get away in the nick of time.They could easily have cut two. Much as I really fancy the idea of a snake bursting out of an old ladies neck, you don't want the DEs to keep looking stupid. Oh wait.

[va32h.livejournal.com]

Gary Oldman's been doing press for the Dark Knight, and he tells a story about Daniel Radcliffe calling him to say that WB is doing two movies for DH "because there's just so much material". And then Gary Oldman says he laughed at Radcliffe for being so naive and gently explained to him that WB is just trying to milk the last few drops of cash out of the franchise.

[esotery.livejournal.com]

oh, that's so funny

[mmmarcusz.livejournal.com]

Did Oldman also explain that young Daniel was not, in fact, a wizard? And that the reason Dumbledore changed wasn't a Face-Imploding Charm but that the original actor died?

[mmmarcusz.livejournal.com]

*Nods* I've tried to reread it, but I keep skipping over the Camping Trip From Hell and jumping ahead to Neville's entrance. And they're going to make two movies out of this? What, are they going to shoot the tent sequences in real time?

Maybe they saw the "Che" movies and thought, hey, 2 films of sitting in tents in the woods. Hasta la profita siempre!

[jodel-from-aol.livejournal.com]

And does not really connect to anything that preceeded it. We really got our noses rubbed in the fact that 2/3 of the elements introduced in the previous two books went nowhere and apparantly were never *intended* to go anywhere.

HBP got up my nose by ignoring all the new stuff pointed out in OotP. DHs goes that even better by not ignoring, but *contradicting* the new stuff in HBP.

Funny thing about how Harry cannot heal wounds, and yet had no problem fixing Demelza Roberts's split lip after a collission in Quidditch practice in HBP...

[tabaquis.livejournal.com]

You know, JKR has said repeatedly that she doesn't reread her old stuff. She works from (apparently) a large, general outline. She's admitted repeatedly that most of her fans know her world a lot better than she does.

The woman's obviously never heard of a concordance :P And shame on her editors for not pointing this crap out.

[horridporrid.livejournal.com]

You know, JKR has said repeatedly that she doesn't reread her old stuff.

To which I always wonder, "Why?". Not just, why don't you reread, but more importantly, why are you admitting you don't reread? Does she think it's a good thing? Why is it a good thing? Just... why?

[jodel-from-aol.livejournal.com]

Being very uncharitible about the caliber of the poses Rowling seems determined to strike in public, I'd say she thinks it enhances her; "Yes, I know I'm a genius." act, "I take dictation from the Universe, and do not *need* to consult my sources."

[tdotm.livejournal.com]

I said below that if Healing charms were described as Newt Level Charms (which would make sense as there must be some risk and need for expertise involved) then Harry wouldn't look like such a fool. And it's totally belivable that Hermione would have studied them in her own time, as she has no life away from Harry and Ron. (Certainly no family worth mentioning)

However I'd forgotten what happened in HBP (me and JKR both).

JKR actively contradicts herself from book to book. It's apparent from her later books that she REALLY needed to reread the books over and over. I'm intrigued as to why she's not embarrassed at her incompetence at remembering her own work. Why is she broadcasting it in public? I'd say stupidity, laziness or arrogance.

[tabaquis.livejournal.com]

I ask myself the same thing every time she gives an interview that blatantly contradicts either her prose or a previous interview. Why? I'm not even published yet, and I have COPIOUS notes, I cross-reference everything, I try to be terribly careful of continuity errors and such. It's literally incredible to me that she has the caliber of resources that she has - not just MONEY but a host of fanatically devoted fans who are willing to catalog, cross-reference, and organize EVERYTHING about her world... and she can't even be bothered to read her own books.

Of course, I wouldn't want to re-read the prose either. :P

[mary-j-59.livejournal.com]

Ha! Rowling is Trelawney! (sorry for jumping in, but I couldn't resist.;))

[montavilla.livejournal.com]

Is a concordance similar to a bible? In the Vander Ark trial, she mentions her editors having a couple of bibles for the series.

Which makes DH even weirder, unless they were really rushing to get the book out. Which I don't know why they would be. Even when the publishing date was announced, I thought it was much too soon and I would have gladly waited another year if it had resulted in a better book.

(Of course, the publishing world revolves around me.....)

But I think there may have been pressure from the movie world as well as the fan world for an early release of DH, since those actors aren't getting any younger....

[tdotm.livejournal.com]

I wish the publishing world did revolve around you....

There's no point in having a bible if you can't get JKR to use it. I said before that not being edited was the worst problem of the book. I should have said the second half of the series. Her fame rocketed after Prisoner of Azkaban, and the quality of the books started to plummet. That's no coincidence

If she's too important to be edited, then surely she's too important to be pressured into publishing early? It's not like she's worried she'll have to return an advance. Or can't renegotiate the deadline on a contract. They'd have jumped to her tune - they already did in the EDITING. If she'd wanted another year, she'd have got it.

In the films, the characters are all 17/18 now. They could easily be played by 23 year olds. That's why we have id - because some people look years younger then they are and some years older. An HP producer said as much in a recent interview - not all 18 year olds look the same. I don't believe there'd have been too much pressure.

I think she was fed up with the whole thing. She wanted the praise, but not to put up with the pressure, and she got spoiled by a bunch of yes-publishers. Emperor's new clothes indeed. It's up to us to point out that she's naked!

[anehan]

I think she was fed up with the whole thing.

It seems to me that she was burned out by GoF, and never really got the groove back.

[jodel-from-aol.livejournal.com]

I've been saying that for weeks. It took a long time to sink in, but I really do think that's what happened. She burnt out with GoF, possibly when a plot hole opened up beneath her and she fell in.

I honestly don't think she ever recovered. That's why the whole back half of the series has been incoherant, disconnected flailing.

Of course since the point at which she burnt out is the point that the mega-media showed up with contracts, and she (probably thinking that she *would* get over it) signed them, she hadn't any really good way of backing out of the project without repercussions that she didn't want to contemplate.

But it is interesting the number of excuses she's waved at us over the last year for *not* writing. I don't think I have a lot of confidence in anything she's likely to churn out now.

[anehan]

I remember her saying something like she was burned out after she finished GoF (very understandable considering it's a hell of a long book and at that time she was still churning out a book a year--anyone would be burned out after that and the beginnings of the media hullabaloo) and had to take a year off from writing HP.

[(Anonymous)]

She burnt out with GoF, possibly when a plot hole opened up beneath her and she fell in.

Well, the first huge, series-wrecking plot hole actually opened in PoA with the time-turner. Because it would have been soo easy for Sirius or anybody else who cared about the Potters to save them. Or for devoted DEs to save Voldy. JKR really should have left time-travel alone.

[cressida0201.livejournal.com]

No, I wouldn't say that ruined everything. She just needed to set some limits on the time-turners. She'd already suggested that they were rare and hard to get at; all she had to do was add something like "They can only be used to go back a maximum of three hours, and it was more than three hours before the bodies were discovered/the Ministry wouldn't authorize their use in this case."

[cressida0201.livejournal.com]

the point at which she burnt out is the point that the mega-media showed up with contracts

I'm pretty sure the contracts happened before the release of GoF, or at least were being negotiated before then. I remember because the "waiting for GoF" period was when I first read the books and started getting into online discussion, and I remember people mocking those who were worried that the movies would "ruin everything" by taking away our personal images of the characters.

My own theory is that once the franchise went multimedia, JKR was just stretched too thin. She was having unprecedented control over the movies, plus she was going on book tours, being interviewed, and general having to live the life of a celebrity. I think she spread herself too thin and became exhausted, and that's when she burned out.