Deathly Hallows Chapter 2
May. 19th, 2009 04:23 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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deathtocapslockDeathly Hallows: Chapter 2
In Memoriam
This chapter starts with the bang-o sentence: “Harry was bleeding.” Way to get our attention! Unfortunately, we’ll eventually find out that Harry is bleeding because he’s an idiot.
Humorously, Harry steps on a teacup placed just outside his room. I think it would have been funnier if Harry had been barefoot. Then he’d be bleeding in two places and he’d have to hop to the bathroom. Then, maybe he could lose his balance on the slippery tiles and end up with his head in the toilet. I’m really surprised Rowling missed his opportunity.
Instead, Harry merely picks up the pieces of broken teacup and throws them into a bin, speculating that the cup is Cousin Dudley’s “clever” idea of a trap.
I’d like to take a moment here to comment on Dudley’s devolution as a villain in the series. In PS/SS, Dudley was mercilessly beating on Harry and terrorizing all the other kids at school from even considering Harry as friend material. He was then punished with by karma and Hagrid with a pig’s tail. And after that he… what does he do, exactly? Nothing much to Harry as I recall. In CoS and PoA, he’s just there, enjoying the adoration of adults who dislike Harry. In GoF, he’s fat. In OotP, he’s shaped up and he’s bullying other kids—but not Harry. In HBP, his only crime is to refuse an alcoholic drink (which, in our country would be considered responsible behavior for an underage boy).
So, in DH, Dudley is reduced to placing teacups outside Harry’s door in a vain attempt to express his admiration. Something which Harry, who is apparently blind to Dudley’s actual mindset, interprets as a hostile action. No, Harry. Dudley isn’t your enemy. He’s your House Elf.
But, then Harry is distracted by the thought that he has four whole days until he can do magic. Not that his magic can heal anything. Even the narrator on Harry’s shoulder thinks he’s lame for never taking a Wizard’s First Aid class.
That should have been one of the elective courses, don’t you think? They could have called it the “Spells That Aren’t as Flashy as Turning Hedgehogs into Pin Cushions But a Whole Lot More Useful” class.
As for me, I’m distracted with wondering why Dudley didn’t set the teacup on an end table or something. Or maybe knock on the door so that Harry would get the tea before it got cold. But then, he’s never been portrayed as being very clever.
You know, I’m not trying to be mean about Harry... he is the hero and I’m trying as hard as I can to like him, but I can’t get over this next bit. We’re told that in six years, Harry’s never really unpacked his trunk completely, but always left a layer of “mulch” at the bottom. Is this a boy thing? I’m a really messy person, but I unpack my bags when I get home. And, if there’s broken glass in it, I clean it out. Even if it means lugging in the vacuum cleaner to my room. It’s not like I have this handy little stick on me at all times that will magically clean stuff.
Also, if I cut myself on something embedded in “mulch,” I put Bactine on the cut. Or iodine. Or clean it out with alcohol. Just because you’re a wizard doesn’t mean you can’t get infected.
Oddly, Harry thinks that his uncle and aunt will probably burn his things in the middle of the night, because they are so anti-magic. He’s obviously forgetting that his aunt and uncle are supposed to leave in an hour or so for parts unknown. The last thing they’d do is lug his stuff along with them for the pleasure of setting it on fire.
Among the things Harry is leaving behind are his school robes. What he’s keeping is his Muggle clothing. This sounds like he might be thinking of hiding out in the Muggle world. Or, that Rowling has finally owned up to the fact that Wizard clothing is stupid.
Harry packs the Marauder’s Map, not that the map will have any purpose on his Quest.
He also packs a small fragment of mirror (which he cut his finger on) and the locket which “cost” Dumbledore’s life. It seems that Harry values things by how much pain they have caused him. Or by how important they are to eventually wrapping up the plot in a surprising twist!
Meanwhile, Hedwig is pretending to sleep because she hates Harry. I’m not making it up. That’s in the book.
Hehe. Harry finds the newspaper he was looking for by remembering the short mention of Charity Burbage’s resignation on the front page. Too late, J.R! You’re placing the Chekhovian gun on the mantelpiece after it was fired!
In my book, this chapter takes up approximately 16 pages. Of those, 11 pages are filled with stuff about Albus Dumbledore’s life. Didn’t we have an entire chapter in the last book dedicated to his funeral? There wasn’t this much coverage of the John Kennedy assassination! (On the other hand, there was some effort to actually catch the man who murdered Kennedy, so maybe it balances out.)
The first article, by Elphias Doge goes something like this: I met Dumbledore when he was eleven and it was awesome! He awesome to me and awesome to Muggles. He was an awesome student and when we graduated, we were going to go on an awesome trip! But his mom died, so he didn’t go. But he was still awesome! He went on to get an awesome job as a teacher! Then he had an awesome duel and even more awesomely turned down the job as Minister of Magic! Wasn’t he awesome?
Dumbledore’s defeat of Grindelwald is considered a turning point in wizarding history on a par with the enactment of the Statute of Secrecy or the downfall of Voldemort. Consequently, it was never included in the history class at Hogwarts.
Harry feels ashamed about how little he knew Dumbledore. I think Harry’s giving himself a bum rap here. He tried to ask a personal question once when he was eleven and even then he could tell Dumbledore was lying.
Besides, Harry never even asked anyone about his parents. Nor does he know the names of Hermione’s parents. So, you know, asking personal questions isn’t Harry’s strong suit.
Then, Harry notices that Rita Skeeter is being interviewed about her upcoming book on Dumbledore’s life. Feeling the need to become enraged, he decides to read through a six-page article of “lies” about his beloved mentor.
By the way, nobody in the U.S. would ever write an interview like this (what with the descriptions of Rita tossing her hair back and such). Is this a common style for British tabloids?
Rita promises her readers that there’s a lot of nastiness in the Dumbledore family—much worse that Aberforth’s illegal goat charms. I don’t know how much nastier you can get than screwing goats. Maybe that isn’t such a big thing in the wizarding world, when you have half-giants and half-goblins running around. But it puts a whole new light on the Blast-Ended Skrewts, doesn’t it?
Rita brings up a controversial take on the famous Grindelwald duel, declaring that Grindelwald basically gave up. I wonder if this is a dropped part of the story. Why make the duel controversial, unless it has some bearing on the Elder Wand storyline? But, since we never find out how the duel went down, this never really goes anywhere and just becomes part of the whole “Was Dumbledore Just a Big Phony?” debate.
Rita goes on to insinuating that there was something “sinister” in Dumbledore’s relationship with Harry. Not that gay = pedophile by any means, but this might have been a good place to bring up the fact that Dumbledore was gay. I find Rita rather restrained for not mentioning it.
Or maybe Doge should have, just to enhance Dumbledore’s awesomeness. After all, Dumbledore appears to be the only gay person in the entire history of Wizardry.
Revolted and repulsed, Harry balls up the newspaper and throws it with all his force at the bin. Bwahaha. Nothing funnier than someone trying to throw a balled-up newspaper with force. I think that’s the nerdiest thing Harry’s ever done.
In his rage, Harry picks up the fragment of mirror and sees a flash of blue—just like Dumbledore’s eyes! He is despondent at the thought that Dumbledore’s blue eyes will never pierce him again. But he does get the consolation of having the mirror cut his finger again as he picks it up. See? They did pierce you after all!
Fan Service:
Shout-outs to Draco’s badge from GoF and Ron’s Sneakoscope from PoA.
Sirius’s two-way mirror finally makes it return!
References to Dumbledore/Harry slash! (Should that be Humbledore?)
Fan Slappage:
No, Harry can’t use the mirror to communicate with Sirius in the afterlife.
DVD Extras:
INT. DAY – GREENHOUSE NUMBER ONE
A first-year student with a pock-marked face listlessly prunes a Flutterby bush. In the background, other students can be seen working on other bushes in groups of twos and threes.
A boy, wearing the Gryffindor colors approaches. The sun, shining behind this head, turns his red hair into a golden nimbus.
GRYFFINDOR
Hullo. You look as though you could use a partner. I’m Albus. Albus Dumbledore.
The listless student, ELPHIAS DOGE, squints up at Albus.
ELPHIAS
Elphias Doge. No one wants to work with me. They’re afraid I’m catching.
ALBUS
That’s silly. Dragon Pox is only contagious for the first two weeks.
He takes out a pair of secaturs and squats down. They begin working on the bush. After a moment:
ELPHIAS
Oh, I say! You’re Dumbledore. Is it true that your father is in Azkaban?
Albus nods.
ELPHIAS
I’m sure it wasn’t as bad as the papers made it sound.
ALBUS
It was.
ELPHIAS
Oh, sorry.
There is an awkward silence. Finally, Albus sits back on his heels:
ALBUS
Well, that’s a jolly good job, if I do say so myself.
They smile shyly at each other.
ALBUS (cont’d)
So… shall we go wank off behind the shed for a bit?
ELPHIAS
(beaming) Oh, I say! Rather!
FADE OUT
In Memoriam
This chapter starts with the bang-o sentence: “Harry was bleeding.” Way to get our attention! Unfortunately, we’ll eventually find out that Harry is bleeding because he’s an idiot.
Humorously, Harry steps on a teacup placed just outside his room. I think it would have been funnier if Harry had been barefoot. Then he’d be bleeding in two places and he’d have to hop to the bathroom. Then, maybe he could lose his balance on the slippery tiles and end up with his head in the toilet. I’m really surprised Rowling missed his opportunity.
Instead, Harry merely picks up the pieces of broken teacup and throws them into a bin, speculating that the cup is Cousin Dudley’s “clever” idea of a trap.
I’d like to take a moment here to comment on Dudley’s devolution as a villain in the series. In PS/SS, Dudley was mercilessly beating on Harry and terrorizing all the other kids at school from even considering Harry as friend material. He was then punished with by karma and Hagrid with a pig’s tail. And after that he… what does he do, exactly? Nothing much to Harry as I recall. In CoS and PoA, he’s just there, enjoying the adoration of adults who dislike Harry. In GoF, he’s fat. In OotP, he’s shaped up and he’s bullying other kids—but not Harry. In HBP, his only crime is to refuse an alcoholic drink (which, in our country would be considered responsible behavior for an underage boy).
So, in DH, Dudley is reduced to placing teacups outside Harry’s door in a vain attempt to express his admiration. Something which Harry, who is apparently blind to Dudley’s actual mindset, interprets as a hostile action. No, Harry. Dudley isn’t your enemy. He’s your House Elf.
But, then Harry is distracted by the thought that he has four whole days until he can do magic. Not that his magic can heal anything. Even the narrator on Harry’s shoulder thinks he’s lame for never taking a Wizard’s First Aid class.
That should have been one of the elective courses, don’t you think? They could have called it the “Spells That Aren’t as Flashy as Turning Hedgehogs into Pin Cushions But a Whole Lot More Useful” class.
As for me, I’m distracted with wondering why Dudley didn’t set the teacup on an end table or something. Or maybe knock on the door so that Harry would get the tea before it got cold. But then, he’s never been portrayed as being very clever.
You know, I’m not trying to be mean about Harry... he is the hero and I’m trying as hard as I can to like him, but I can’t get over this next bit. We’re told that in six years, Harry’s never really unpacked his trunk completely, but always left a layer of “mulch” at the bottom. Is this a boy thing? I’m a really messy person, but I unpack my bags when I get home. And, if there’s broken glass in it, I clean it out. Even if it means lugging in the vacuum cleaner to my room. It’s not like I have this handy little stick on me at all times that will magically clean stuff.
Also, if I cut myself on something embedded in “mulch,” I put Bactine on the cut. Or iodine. Or clean it out with alcohol. Just because you’re a wizard doesn’t mean you can’t get infected.
Oddly, Harry thinks that his uncle and aunt will probably burn his things in the middle of the night, because they are so anti-magic. He’s obviously forgetting that his aunt and uncle are supposed to leave in an hour or so for parts unknown. The last thing they’d do is lug his stuff along with them for the pleasure of setting it on fire.
Among the things Harry is leaving behind are his school robes. What he’s keeping is his Muggle clothing. This sounds like he might be thinking of hiding out in the Muggle world. Or, that Rowling has finally owned up to the fact that Wizard clothing is stupid.
Harry packs the Marauder’s Map, not that the map will have any purpose on his Quest.
He also packs a small fragment of mirror (which he cut his finger on) and the locket which “cost” Dumbledore’s life. It seems that Harry values things by how much pain they have caused him. Or by how important they are to eventually wrapping up the plot in a surprising twist!
Meanwhile, Hedwig is pretending to sleep because she hates Harry. I’m not making it up. That’s in the book.
Hehe. Harry finds the newspaper he was looking for by remembering the short mention of Charity Burbage’s resignation on the front page. Too late, J.R! You’re placing the Chekhovian gun on the mantelpiece after it was fired!
In my book, this chapter takes up approximately 16 pages. Of those, 11 pages are filled with stuff about Albus Dumbledore’s life. Didn’t we have an entire chapter in the last book dedicated to his funeral? There wasn’t this much coverage of the John Kennedy assassination! (On the other hand, there was some effort to actually catch the man who murdered Kennedy, so maybe it balances out.)
The first article, by Elphias Doge goes something like this: I met Dumbledore when he was eleven and it was awesome! He awesome to me and awesome to Muggles. He was an awesome student and when we graduated, we were going to go on an awesome trip! But his mom died, so he didn’t go. But he was still awesome! He went on to get an awesome job as a teacher! Then he had an awesome duel and even more awesomely turned down the job as Minister of Magic! Wasn’t he awesome?
Dumbledore’s defeat of Grindelwald is considered a turning point in wizarding history on a par with the enactment of the Statute of Secrecy or the downfall of Voldemort. Consequently, it was never included in the history class at Hogwarts.
Harry feels ashamed about how little he knew Dumbledore. I think Harry’s giving himself a bum rap here. He tried to ask a personal question once when he was eleven and even then he could tell Dumbledore was lying.
Besides, Harry never even asked anyone about his parents. Nor does he know the names of Hermione’s parents. So, you know, asking personal questions isn’t Harry’s strong suit.
Then, Harry notices that Rita Skeeter is being interviewed about her upcoming book on Dumbledore’s life. Feeling the need to become enraged, he decides to read through a six-page article of “lies” about his beloved mentor.
By the way, nobody in the U.S. would ever write an interview like this (what with the descriptions of Rita tossing her hair back and such). Is this a common style for British tabloids?
Rita promises her readers that there’s a lot of nastiness in the Dumbledore family—much worse that Aberforth’s illegal goat charms. I don’t know how much nastier you can get than screwing goats. Maybe that isn’t such a big thing in the wizarding world, when you have half-giants and half-goblins running around. But it puts a whole new light on the Blast-Ended Skrewts, doesn’t it?
Rita brings up a controversial take on the famous Grindelwald duel, declaring that Grindelwald basically gave up. I wonder if this is a dropped part of the story. Why make the duel controversial, unless it has some bearing on the Elder Wand storyline? But, since we never find out how the duel went down, this never really goes anywhere and just becomes part of the whole “Was Dumbledore Just a Big Phony?” debate.
Rita goes on to insinuating that there was something “sinister” in Dumbledore’s relationship with Harry. Not that gay = pedophile by any means, but this might have been a good place to bring up the fact that Dumbledore was gay. I find Rita rather restrained for not mentioning it.
Or maybe Doge should have, just to enhance Dumbledore’s awesomeness. After all, Dumbledore appears to be the only gay person in the entire history of Wizardry.
Revolted and repulsed, Harry balls up the newspaper and throws it with all his force at the bin. Bwahaha. Nothing funnier than someone trying to throw a balled-up newspaper with force. I think that’s the nerdiest thing Harry’s ever done.
In his rage, Harry picks up the fragment of mirror and sees a flash of blue—just like Dumbledore’s eyes! He is despondent at the thought that Dumbledore’s blue eyes will never pierce him again. But he does get the consolation of having the mirror cut his finger again as he picks it up. See? They did pierce you after all!
Fan Service:
Shout-outs to Draco’s badge from GoF and Ron’s Sneakoscope from PoA.
Sirius’s two-way mirror finally makes it return!
References to Dumbledore/Harry slash! (Should that be Humbledore?)
Fan Slappage:
No, Harry can’t use the mirror to communicate with Sirius in the afterlife.
DVD Extras:
INT. DAY – GREENHOUSE NUMBER ONE
A first-year student with a pock-marked face listlessly prunes a Flutterby bush. In the background, other students can be seen working on other bushes in groups of twos and threes.
A boy, wearing the Gryffindor colors approaches. The sun, shining behind this head, turns his red hair into a golden nimbus.
GRYFFINDOR
Hullo. You look as though you could use a partner. I’m Albus. Albus Dumbledore.
The listless student, ELPHIAS DOGE, squints up at Albus.
ELPHIAS
Elphias Doge. No one wants to work with me. They’re afraid I’m catching.
ALBUS
That’s silly. Dragon Pox is only contagious for the first two weeks.
He takes out a pair of secaturs and squats down. They begin working on the bush. After a moment:
ELPHIAS
Oh, I say! You’re Dumbledore. Is it true that your father is in Azkaban?
Albus nods.
ELPHIAS
I’m sure it wasn’t as bad as the papers made it sound.
ALBUS
It was.
ELPHIAS
Oh, sorry.
There is an awkward silence. Finally, Albus sits back on his heels:
ALBUS
Well, that’s a jolly good job, if I do say so myself.
They smile shyly at each other.
ALBUS (cont’d)
So… shall we go wank off behind the shed for a bit?
ELPHIAS
(beaming) Oh, I say! Rather!
FADE OUT
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no subject
Date: 2009-05-20 01:04 am (UTC)God, was it this early we started hearing about DD's life? I guess it makes sense. If she's going to put it in 8 more times she needs to start early and space them out.
It's funny the way Harry feels guilty for never much talking to DD about his past...as if he ever had a conversation where he really could have done taht...but he never feels guilty of, like, not wanting to actually spend time with Sirius before he died. Or, hell, feeling badly for getting Sirius to the MoM by accident.
The defeat of Grindelwald really goes nowhere. It occurs to me now that I wonder why Dumbledore just didn't have to defeat the guy since that would be all tragic. And also he would be symbolically defeating his own gayness.
I know people have claimed that Doge makes it clear that DD's gay, what with their trip planned, but JKR makes it pretty clear that DD was totally celibate forever so I doubt she's suggesting that here.
no subject
Date: 2009-05-20 03:33 am (UTC)Bwahahaha!
Is this a boy thing?
I think it's JK Rowling's idea of a boy thing, yes. I don't think it's actually a boy thing. Most of my male friends are quite neat, neater than me, and I've only met a few people (male or female) who are tolerant of anything that could be called "mulch" in their possessions. But the sitcom idea of What Boys Are Like says that boys are hopelessly dirty, and that's what JKR likes.
Dumbledore’s defeat of Grindelwald is considered a turning point in wizarding history on a par with the enactment of the Statute of Secrecy or the downfall of Voldemort. Consequently, it was never included in the history class at Hogwarts.
Or, you know, in the first six books.
So, you know, asking personal questions isn’t Harry’s strong suit.
This was always the biggest weakness of the books for me--the sublime and inhuman incuriosity of Harry. Unbelievable, and it made Harry difficult to respect as a character even in his likable moments.
Maybe Rita Skeeter has class? Standards? Maybe she's actually a layered character, an interesting anti-heroine!
Nah.
no subject
Date: 2009-05-20 03:36 am (UTC)Meanwhile, Hedwig is pretending to sleep because she hates Harry. I’m not making it up. That’s in the book.
I KNOW!! So weird since she's about to be totally dead. Hating Harry. How do you screw up the emotional pull of a pet's death? This is how.
Re the DVD extra: HAH! :D
no subject
Date: 2009-05-20 04:17 am (UTC)Rowling's having to kill Hedwig because she wanted Harry isolated was bad enough. The way she chose to do it just makes Harry look bad. If he had any thought at all for his pet and her safety, he would have let her fly free.
Even nastier, this emphasizes the idea that anyone - or any creature - who hates Harry will come to a bad end. Ugh.
I love the DVD extras, too.
no subject
Date: 2009-05-20 04:26 am (UTC)Potentially it's a rather more interesting story than DHs. But it was effectively over by the time Tom got out of Dodge after killing Hepzibah and making off with her treasures. But Tom only has a cameo part in it, and Harry is not even a walk-on.
(I had fun with it in the 'O, the Times are Out of Joint!' essay. Nothing in it is proven -- but nothing is counter-indicated either I am pretty sure.)
no subject
Date: 2009-05-20 04:31 am (UTC)I'd cut Dudley some slack, though - he's only been around Harry for what, a few months total in the last seven years? And much of that time Harry was locked in his room or something. All he knows is that Harry had good reason to be a jerk to him earlier, since he'd tormented Harry, and that Harry saved his life anyway. He's barely seen Harry at all since then and doesn't know what he's really like... I'd say that making Dudley, Designated Bully, better at reevaluating his opinions of people when new information comes up was a bad plan on Jo's part, but I don't think she realized what she was doing.
no subject
Date: 2009-05-20 08:23 am (UTC)loving these recaps
Date: 2009-05-20 08:34 am (UTC)I always kinda liked Dudley (love the boxing champ leather jacket makeover, cracked me up) although obviously I understand how Harry's natural sense of justice would be repelled by beating up on people when you're older and have them outnumbered (Dudley for Gryffindor!); but it figures the 'well, he might not be Satan' revelation would suck, since JKR can't show someone as having even mildly positive attributes without having to metaphorically rim Harry.
(I love the part later where Petunia goes over the top praising Dudley for his little moment of niceness, ironically echoing the author and Harry.)
Rita goes on to insinuating that there was something “sinister” in Dumbledore’s relationship with Harry.
Evil people are homophobes, unlike good liberal people who say live and let live (sexlessly, anal squicks us.)
Also, journalists are always lying about innocent celebrities (I'M NOT NAMING NAMES HERE, BUT I FEEL JK ROWLING HAS SUFFERED NEEDLESSLY.)
Oh, and this charming hint at Teh Gay can be fitted in, but nothing positive in anyway, and since Dumbledore wouldn't just come out and say 'Harry, I am afflicted with same-sex cooties', there could be no possible way for an author to allow the audience the information, the same as we never found out the sexuality of Hagrid, Michael Corner, Zabini, Andromeda, Penelope Clearwater, Hannah Abbott, because they wouldn't have announced it and there was no point in the story to make it a plot...(the sexuality of babies not even born at this point in the story is also of paramount importance, as the epilogue shows.)
no subject
Date: 2009-05-20 12:14 pm (UTC)At this point I vaguely remember not caring – I stopped liking Harry about 1000 pages ago. It didn’t bode well for the rest of the book, no matter how tension filled it might be (mwah!) if I didn’t like the protagonist at the start of the climax.
- I agree that Dudley had been neutralized by being the fall guy of various magical shenanigans. But even if he hadn’t, a cup of tea right outside the door wasn’t much of a trap – especially for someone who didn’t need to hide his bullying. The twins might do it for a laugh, then if caught could tell Molly they were only trying to be nice. Dudley could have thrown a grenade into Harry’s bedroom and if Vernon was at all bothered, it would only be because he'd need to re-decorate.
I would have preferred 1) the twins sneaking in to leave it there, 2) Dudley trying to pick on Harry, but forgetting how to be a real bully out of fear, or 3) Dudley throwing the grenade. The reality just confused me. Why did it take two years and one month for the fact that Harry saved him to sink in? Why had he not shown any gratitude/admiration before then? Especially in the month or so since Harry finished the 6th year. Or maybe he had and Harry just hadn’t noticed – how unaware of others could Harry be? (Answers on a postcard to Bloomsbury Publishing). If Dudley had to buy into the Harry love (and I’d rather he didn’t) It would have been better if Harry had noticed it gradually over the past month at least – JKR would have had to cut the teacup of inexplicable character change, but there was more of that on the way.
- “Even the narrator on Harry’s shoulder thinks he’s lame for never taking a Wizard’s First Aid class.”
I’m with you/him on that. If JKR had said that First Aid along with certain glamour spells are dangerous if they’re performed wrongly, I’d have bought that. If for that reason, they were taught in 7th year, when the pupils are of age, I’d have accepted that as well. That Plot Device Granger had read ahead, could be presumed. As JKR wrote it, it specifically made Harry look like a fool. Why would she do that? Why not say nothing at all, which would be an improvement?
Even worse, I vaguely remember that Harry performed a healing spell during a Quidditch match before. Am I wrong? Did JKR forget? Did she care? If Book 7 needed Harry being unable to do them, why not get Madame Hooch or even Hermione to perform the Healing spells previously? This just makes me mad, yet it’s so trivial! I need to pace my fury.
- “You know, I’m not trying to be mean about Harry” – Go right ahead.
“he is the hero” Mwah!
“and I’m trying as hard as I can to like him” It would help if you had programming, like the GinnyBot, it’s not going to happen through his actions or personality.
- Hey Harry, why not let Ron take Hedwig at the end of 6th year? Or at least ensure you finally let her fly free when things get dangerous. That said, the fate you condemned her to, is in my Top Five Deathly Hallow moments!
- The Mirror – nice idea, badly done. I'm sure I’ll say that again.
- This chapter starts with lots of little things that clash with things we’ve seen previously, followed by chat about Dumbledore that should have been cut by 66%. Still, at least Rita Skeeter’s assassination of Dumbles’ character is believable as something she’d do. I just don’t understand JKR’s determination to assassinate Harry’s character. It’s on a smaller scale in this chapter, but it’s been going on for books by now.
- Why are your piss taking extras better than the actual book?
no subject
Date: 2009-05-20 01:17 pm (UTC)And It never even crossed his mind to give the map to Ginny, such a caring unselfish boyfriend.
no subject
Date: 2009-05-20 02:09 pm (UTC)But then, that was my feeling throughout this book. So many more interesting ideas felt swept away so that the whole country could sit around waiting for this kid to find his plot coupons and get the girl.
no subject
Date: 2009-05-20 02:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-20 03:45 pm (UTC)Yes, the "middle game" was at least potentially interesting. And at least it was actually *about* the frapping Hallows. For all the good they did, it would have played better if they had turned out to be nothing but a myth.
The Hallows were a whole different story, really. Tom only wandered in across a corner of it. And Harry only got dragged in because Tom insisted on doing it.
That's the insurmountable problem with Rowling's later books. It's hard to blame a newbie writer for burning out when they discover that they've overreached themself. But to turn elements into symbols and decide that randomly plopping a symbol into your story is the same thing as building in what the symbol *means*, is just plain lazy, stupid, and disrespectful of your audience. Throwing in a random war orphan, does *not* show the reader the cost and tragedy of war. We don't care about Teddy Lupin. We never even met him.
no subject
Date: 2009-05-20 03:55 pm (UTC)Pity she didn't at least have her secretary do it.
no subject
Date: 2009-05-20 05:13 pm (UTC)Or not at least checking that DAMNED present that Sirius gave him in OotP, out of simple courtesy, even if he didn't plan to use it. Are there no 'Thank You' letters in the Wizarding World? Or at least not remembering that Sirius had given him something for exactly such an occasion when he was finally persuaded to try to contact Grimmauld Place before blundering into the Ministry like a brainless buffoon.
I honestly don't know why Sirius' spirit bothered to come back to accompany the little ingrate as he walked to his death.
no subject
Date: 2009-05-20 07:07 pm (UTC)The first half of the series *feels* like it was all planed in one gulp, and the wanderings off the central path don't feel like anything other than amusing side-trips. But somewhere in GoF she seems to have lost the map.
Frankly, I think the plot hole she admits to having fallen into in that book was a lot worse than she ever told us. Since what she did tell us was back at a time that the *last* thing that she dared to admit to, mid-series, was that her whole story had come apart on her. I think she may have down-played just how bad the situation was. In retrospect, almost *nothing* that came out after GoF feels like it grew organically from the first half of the series, even though any number of the incidents in them were sure to have been a part of the original outline.
I think that the "plot hole" sucked her whole damned story down into it, and she didn't really *have* another story to tell (possibly because the story had turned into a fantasy, and she doesn't really respect fantasy).
no subject
Date: 2009-05-20 07:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-20 07:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-20 09:23 pm (UTC)She must have kept plugging away, and her lack of coherent plotline was what caused her to start repeating herself and losing control of her own story. That was fatal, because as you rightly say, the storytelling was her forte. I'd like to say that she lost confidence in herself as she got into more of a muddle, but she actually seemed to become more arrogant, so that can't be a reason. In fact, arrogance probably led to the appalling lack of editing that started in Goblet of Fire.
I'm not aware of her problems with GoF, apart from Ron's lost cousin in Slytherin(?) but it must have been something vast to throw her off course like that. My first major gripe with the series is in that book - why on earth didn't Not-Moody create a port-key and whisk Harry off within the first month? It's maybe the first major plot-hole, too big to fan w*nk away. In one of these re-caps, I suggested that the spell to give Voldemort a new body, (obviously particularly dark magic) had to be performed on the Summer Solstice. Weak, I know, but if she’d included it (or some other explanation) in the text, it’d have just been accepted, no questions asked. Maybe her original story covered this, but why didn’t she tie up the loose ends when she had to change course?
I don’t know what she had planned originally, but I refuse to believe that she couldn’t come up with an equally good plan B. After all, me and you and a dog named Boo do it on this site and many others all the time. I wish she HAD employed a Ghostwriter, preferably one who could double up as a GhostStoryTeller, who could have helped her plan the second half of the series. Someone here (was it you?) said that she SAID she took 6 months to plan the last three books, but I find it hard to believe – they just seem so haphazard compared to the first four, which did follow an obvious plan.
JKR admitted that she started to look at Potter websites from about 2000. Wasn’t that when GoF was published? She started to realise just how much she and her work was adored and immediately she and it became far less adorable.
no subject
Date: 2009-05-20 10:18 pm (UTC)The narrator is obviously one of those logical Muggles, and even though not the kind that views everything Harry produces as solid gold, is still busy filling in tiny holes on his behalf. Seriously, though, why isn't there something like a Wizard Scouts Guide? That might be cool enough for Harry to read.
I wonder if Hogwarts had Home Economics/Domestic Science classes. Where do witches learn to wield their wands over pots?
Harry packs the Marauder’s Map, not that the map will have any purpose on his Quest.
Au contraire. The ability to look at Ginny's dot and feel truly sorry for himself? Priceless. (I thought, with the finale in the previous book, he'd be obsessively following Snape's dot, so the surprise for me -- well not so much of a surprise, really -- was Harry's complete inability to strategize, combined with severe attention deficit disorder. "He killed Dumbledore, and I'm going to... oh, I don't know... what was I talking about? Maybe I'll just sit here and watch Ginny's dot.")
Meanwhile, Hedwig is pretending to sleep because she hates Harry. I’m not making it up. That’s in the book.
Hedwig was no doubt the only witness to weeks of Harry's repeated CAPSLOCK OF RAGE and microseconds of self-blaming guilt. Can you blame her for turning her back? She'll get hers.
11 pages are filled with stuff about Albus Dumbledore’s life. Didn’t we have an entire chapter in the last book dedicated to his funeral? There wasn’t this much coverage of the John Kennedy assassination! (On the other hand, there was some effort to actually catch the man who murdered Kennedy, so maybe it balances out.)
Oh, it so doesn't balance out. Where were the friggin' Aurors? Dumbledore and Harry weren't that out of favor when the old coot was murdered. What was Snape doing before his appointment as Headmaster? Redecorating Grimmauld Place at his leisure?
Harry feels ashamed about how little he knew Dumbledore.
I feel ashamed at how much I know.
By the way, nobody in the U.S. would ever write an interview like this (what with the descriptions of Rita tossing her hair back and such). Is this a common style for British tabloids?
From the U.S. perspective, I've noticed lots of written interviews with women include comments on personal appearance and behavior, much more so than interviews with men. Why, some (admittedly amateur) interviews with JKR describe her having an evil look and a maniacal laugh. That's probably where she got the style.
Rita goes on to insinuating that there was something “sinister” in Dumbledore’s relationship with Harry.
Good instincts, that Rita. She probably had a line on the "intends for Harry to die" story. Probably through Snape, who talks in this sleep. (Nod to
Revolted and repulsed, Harry balls up the newspaper and throws it with all his force at the bin. Bwahaha. Nothing funnier than someone trying to throw a balled-up newspaper with force.
I love your deleted scene. In mine, the newspaper flies off the rim of the bin and hits Hedwig on the head, causing her to launch a vicious attack on Harry. Fearing for his safety, he locks the owl in the cage. That will teach her.
In his rage, Harry picks up the fragment of mirror and sees a flash of blue—just like Dumbledore’s eyes!
Dumbledores are creepy voyeurs.
BTW, I saw Star Trek, and this (http://asylums.insanejournal.com/snapedom/217313.html) was the result. I loved the movie, but on reflection, found it bittersweet.
Edited for typo -- sorry.
no subject
Date: 2009-05-21 12:19 am (UTC)Really, this entire book seems to be all about discomfort and dislike.
The way she chose to do it just makes Harry look bad.
The tin-ear towards this sort of thing is so strange to me. JKR should have known better. She should know how to play to her readers sympathies and how to play up her hero. And yet she gets it so wrong here.
Long-arsed post Part 1
Date: 2009-05-21 01:04 am (UTC)Rowling has always been good at the kind of tale that *looks* just fine on a surface reading, but if you give it a poke, it falls apart. The stories are playful and fun because *she* is playing, and she is having fun. But she doesn't build sound foundations, and when she *isn't* having fun, the reader knows it.
And she was certainly not going to admit to the public that she was in trouble with the series before it was any more than half over. And the arrogance that you note was probably largely defensive, since she felt that she was under the gun. And she was right. No one really wished her ill, but she was now in a position that she had to deliver on a contract that she was no longer equipped to handle. Her story had a hole in it, and she didn't have another story, or a patch.
Even the underpinnings of the best of her work fall apart under closer examination. I still think that PoA was her best novel. It fit together just about perfectly. We got the pieces of the faux "mystery" at *just* the proper pacing, and the big reveal managed to surprise us *exactly* as it was supposed to. Yet when you look back it is clear that there was no cheating, everything that we were told pointed *straight* at that final reveal. And the distractions that were strewn in our path were all well built, and completely plausible within the context of the story. The fight between Ron and Hermione over their pets? The uproar over the Firebolt? The hints that Hermione was being in more than one place at the same time? The hints that there was something off about Lupin? Every one of these *worked*.
But the backstory comes apart as soon as you give it a 2nd look. It's like the backstory isn't really built into the action. It's just there to give everything an excuse. There is no *door* from the tunnel into the shack? Not even a *broken* door? And Albus trusted the safety of the *entire school* (and the village as well!) to his own secrecy, a word of honor of a child who was not going to be in his right mind when it *mattered*, and an animate *tree*? That is balancing the whole spinning world upon a teacup.
Perhaps that is the right metaphor for the whole problem. You can enjoy watching a top spinning away, solidly balanced on a tiny point. But as soon as it slows down it starts wobbling, staggering, and eventually topples over. And, as soon as Rowling lost momentum, the series was hosed. She never got back up to speed. Or, not to the speed she needed to be at in order for the story to regain its balance.
She claims to have spent something like three months going over her master plan with a fine tooth comb to be sure there were no more of such plot holes to fall into before sitting down to write OotP. What I now suspect is that she spent that time going over it to see what could be salvaged. I think that whatever happened in GoF blew a hole through the whole middle of the story. And no, she *couldn't* dig herself free. She doesn't have it in her to do that. She has an endless supply of funny *little* ideas, and a bottomless well of grade-school jokes, but she really doesn't seem to have any *big* ones. I mean, think about it. Has she *ever* managed to convincingly deploy what anyone could really call a *big* idea? She's managed some fairly deep feelings, yes. Occasionally, when she wasn't determined to chew the scenery while she did it. But *ideas*? No, not really. WHenever she tries she just comes across as confused. She isn't really a "big idea" person. And the story had grown beyond the point that it would still run on a stream of little ones.
It didn't change on her and then go adrift. It ran aground at book 4 and while she managed a few good scenes after that, she never got it afloat. I suspect that it was never really seaworthy in the first place.
Long-arsed Post Part 2
Date: 2009-05-21 01:04 am (UTC)Like why didn't Tom take control of Ginny, call up the Basilisk, and send it straight into the Great Hall during the Halloween feast if he wanted to do some damage? Why fart around painting warnings on the walls, going to the trouble to call up the Basilisk just to petrify the caretaker's cat, and send it straight back to the dungeon? Obviously, since everything happens for the convenience of the author, he decided to fart around because Rowling needed the villain to do something to kick off the main event and she wanted it to be a bit creepy, but essentially small potatoes.
Re: Long-arsed Post Part 2
Date: 2009-05-21 03:40 am (UTC)I do understand what you say about the plotting, but I disliked POA when I read it (this is where my dad stopped reading the series), and, in retrospect, all the things that bother me so much about the last two books (not the last three) are fully present there already.
I'm a Snape fan, as you know, and POA was when I began to love him - and to question Dumbledore, perhaps, though I certainly wasn't doing it consciously. The man was clearly in so much pain at the end of the book; he was in agony - and it was played for laughs. I hated that. After DH, I hate it even more.
The conclusion of POA also seems to require a fair bit of stupidity on the part of the adults. Why on earth, for example, didn't Lupin and Black stun Pettigrew, the way the kids did poor Snape? But that's just one example.
Someone on Ferretbrain said the same thing: that the basic tone and problematic morality of the books are quite clear already in POA, if not before. I agree.
Re: Long-arsed Post Part 2
Date: 2009-05-21 05:30 am (UTC)It's a very bad mix, really. Cartoons can be fun, certainly, (and, "animation" does not necessarily equate to "cartoon" but Rowling's use of the tropes certainly does!) but they are a really poor vehicle for presenting moral truths, because, being essentially the property of the Trickster, they are inherently amoral in their violence and irresponsibility. And the story of Harry Potter is not a Trickster story. The very fact that Rowling seems unaware of this basic mismatch seriously undermines the claims that she knew what she was doing.