death to capslock

Resolving the wrong story problem

2023-03-20T00:00:37Z

Posted by: sunnyskywalker

Film Crit Hulk’s essay “Black Widow and the Latent Last Act Blues” has some interesting thoughts about story beginnings and endings and how they work together to provide catharsis. (I haven’t yet seen Black Widow, but the essay makes sense anyway, so don’t worry if you haven’t either unless you care about spoilers.) He thinks the beginning of the movie is pretty great in isolation, but doesn’t properly set up the end, which makes the emotional resolutions at the end feel tacked-on and lackluster.

“that’s supposed to be the big lesson that’s at the heart of everything, right? And we genuinely do get the sentiment / fallout of it, but we’re still missing the most important thing that makes us care for it. Because there isn’t that first act thing where we experience the heartbreak of that along with them. […] ‘What is the thing they can do at the end of the movie that they couldn’t do at the beginning?’”

And this helped me crystalize one of my main problems with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Now, there are a lot of problems with that book. The one I’m going to focus on here is Harry’s resigned march to his death. There are a lot of problems with this scene too — and I think one of them is that it wasn’t set up properly.

This is where one of the main themes of the whole series reaches its climax: that you have to accept death, not try to fight it forever. But…did Harry need to learn that lesson? ( Read more... )

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Thoughts on Hermione and Bias

2014-02-07T22:07:00Z

Posted by: terri-testing.livejournal.com

Oneandthetruth’s sporking of DH 23, specifically the detailed comparison of how Jo described Hermione’s torture to how the author had earlier treated Xeno’s, made me realize that Jo had used the exact same technique, with similar effect, in earlier books.

( ”Specifically” )

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Deathly Hallows, Chapter 23: Malfoy Manor

2014-01-02T19:11:00Z

Posted by: oneandthetruth.livejournal.com

Beethoven was right: It’s vastly harder to rewrite something you’ve finished than to write something entirely new. Especially when you have to revert to HTML because that’s the only way to enter tables on LJ. Aaaaagggggghhhhh!!!!!

I apologize if they look weird, but I followed the instructions, and that's how they turned out. However, the instructions were posted almost eight years ago, and LJ has changed its programming some since then. It's also possible I couldn't transfer my tables because I wrote this on iPages, not Word.

Are everybody’s barf bags at the ready? All right, then, let’s go!( Read more... )

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Imaginary encyclopedia from Russian HP fandom

2012-03-01T17:50:00Z

Posted by: sunnyskywalker

Ekaterina Sedia translated some Russian fans' article titles for a fantasy (as in, it unfortunately doesn't exist... yet...) encyclopedia of feminism in Harry Potter. Some sample titles:

- House Elves: Just Like Women, Only Ugly and Invisible
- Professor Vector, or Anonymity of Women in Mathematics
- Luna Lovegood, Tom Riddle, Harry Potter: Good Children Don't Get PTSD
- Conventional Man is Allowed Anger but not Grief. Harry Potter: The Masculinity Trap
- Remus Lupin and the "Good Cripple" Archetype

I thought this community might appreciate this list. Now, if only it were a real encyclopedia...

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Harry Potter and the Death Cult

2011-12-02T13:45:00Z

Posted by: sweettalkeress.livejournal.com

So recently I was reading this (actually really excellent) Pokemon fanfic, which appears to have been an attempt to iron out a rather confusing Pokedex entry. Basically, the fanfic revolves around the idea that a certain species of Pokemon has a custom that all young male members of the community must kill their own mothers as a rite of passage. Anyone who can’t do it is disgraced and treated as vermin for the rest of his life- failure to kill your own mother is considered a sign of despicable cowardice. The more I thought about this fic, the more I realized that there’s a similar parallel in Harry Potter- except that instead of the message being, “If you’re truly a real man and worthy of belonging, you’ll kill your own family on instruction,” it’s “If you’re truly brave, a true Gryffindor, you’ll kill yourself on instruction.”

( Read more... )

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Re-Titling Game

2011-11-18T20:52:00Z

Posted by: sunnyskywalker

So, there's this quote on Red Hen that I've been turning over in my mind:

"When you take a clear overview, Rowling’s books stopped being “about” their titles after PoA. [...] The Goblet [...] was carried in, got confunded, spouted something that tossed Harry into the soup, boogied off and we never saw it again. [...] The Order was just about totally irrelevant to the course of the actual story [...] The Half-Blood Prince was a somewhat different proposition, I agree, but he wasn’t the story either. Or not the main story. [...] [The Deathly Hallows] would be the McGuffin that kicks off a major part of the adventure, or they will be some gaudy peripheral issue that Harry cannot access, until the final showdown."

Whereas the philosopher's stone was a driving force (albeit mysterious) to the first book, the Chamber of Secrets was essential to the second book, and the prisoner who escaped from Azkaban was absolutely essential to the book's unfolding plot and conclusion.

So, looking back at the latter four books...

- If you kept their titles, how would you make the titles actually relevant? (Maybe the Goblet of Fire not only spits out the Champions' names, but is waiting for them at the end of the final task, and so it ends up being Harry's semi-goal and is the object which transports him and Cedric to the graveyard, for instance.)

- If not, which titles would you choose instead?

Goblet of Fire had a working title of Harry Potter and the Doomspell Tournament. Cheesy, but at least more relevant. Harry Potter and the Triwizard Tournament would be equally relevant, but also a bit boring. Harry Potter and the Three Tasks? There must be something better.

Order of the Phoenix might work better as Harry Potter and the Department of Mysteries, given that Harry's dreams/visions drive a lot of the action and are crucial to the climax. But I'm sure there are other options too.

Half-Blood Prince... I dunno. Harry Potter and the Room of Requirement? Not very zingy. You could go the movie route and make Draco's task less mysterious, and call it Harry Potter and the Vanishing Cabinet.

...and so on. We have some brilliant minds here; surely we can come up with good titles!

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JK Rowling's Literary Offenses

2011-08-16T13:59:00Z

Posted by: sunnyskywalker

If these have been posted here before, it must have been a while, so I'm sure a review will still be interesting. ( The Well-Tempered Plot Device and Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses )

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Just thought I'd add my own two cents...

2010-09-29T22:52:00Z

Posted by: sweettalkeress.livejournal.com

A little late to the party but enjoying every minute of it. I was thinking of Harry Potter plot holes and similar and suddenly I came across this little list online, and was amazed at how well it fit some of the complaints you guys make.

( Check it out... )

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