![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Wondering about something
Feb. 16th, 2012 07:06 pmI don't know why you care about Harry, but to me, he speaks to the child in me that in fifth grade, when I was eleven, just like Harry at the beginning of the series, looked at her mother and her brother one day and concluded that she must have been adopted because she couldn't understand how the people she called family could make her feel so insignificant and unwanted. To me, Harry represents the idea of rescue, the hope that our real family is somewhere out there. And he reminds me that the family doesn't necessarily choose the child. At some point the child also needs to choose the family.
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
Aug. 4th, 2011 12:39 pmSo I'm listening through my DVD library, starting with HP. And while I'm sitting there on my couch,counting stitches, I finally realize what has always bothered me about the PS (and all subsequent books/movies): Quirrell bursts into the Great Hall to report that there's a troll in the dungeons - and promptly passes out. He's the DADA teacher, for heaven's sake! Why is nobody surprised that he didn't either a) dispose of the troll or b) ask the other teachers to help him do so?
And don't let me get started on the abysmally simple measures taken to "protect" the Philosopher's Stone. You would think Dumbledore hand-picked the tasks to make sure the Trio can get through them. Boo!
Speaking of the tasks: If Quirrell played his way across the chess board, how come the pieces weren't broken afterwards? And if it's one of those "it magically repairs itself" things: How come the winged key was still damaged??? Just to make it easier for Harry to spot, I assume. Boo!
P.S.: This is the tablecloth I'm working on (am making it in black, though):
I can't believe I'm doing this...
Aug. 3rd, 2011 10:05 amI'm about halfway through
JKR is doing what???
Jan. 13th, 2008 07:00 amI have a feeling somebody's testing the waters, and if she isn't stopped, fandom will be on the chopping block next.
I'm supposed to...
Jan. 9th, 2008 09:11 pmThe Chosen One - a sub-type of hero
Jul. 31st, 2007 08:38 am"The Chosen One: must typically fulfill some ancient prophecy and then saves the world, frequently has Jesus complex. Typically requires the help of a Wise Old Man or Elderly Martial Arts Master to fulfill this destiny. Almost always of apparently humble origins. Requires multiple sidekicks, often with radically different skills. (...) Almost always the central character."
How spot-on is that?!
Prophecy? - Check
Saves the world? - Check
Wise Old Man? - Yep
Humble origins? - Check
Multiple sidekicks? - Yep
With radically different skills? - Hermione
Central character? - Check
Jesus complex? - DH!
WARNING: D H S P O I L E R S !
"If literature truly reflects society, then the end of the Harry Potter series spells trouble for us all. Because, after 10 years, 4,195 pages, and over 325 million copies, J.K. Rowling's towering achievement lacks the cornerstone of almost all great children's literature: the hero's moral journey. Without that foundation, her story – for all its epic trappings of good versus evil – is stuck in a moral no man's land."
Or click here.
Another short one on DH
Jul. 25th, 2007 10:16 pmThen I re-read this extremely interesting piece in Red Hen's "About the Potterverse" series about what might occur in the last book and was blown away by how spot-on many of the conclusions were.
And now I'm going to bed in order to be ready for answering questions such as, "What do I need to do to sell water from my well?" tomorrow.
Things that bug me about DH
Jul. 24th, 2007 08:24 amFortunately, there is no need to sum them up myself because ![[info]](https://stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
pir8fancier has done an excellent job at it already - much, much better than I ever could (there is a reason why she is a published author and I'm not... and never will be - LOL).
See here for general gripes and here for Malfoy-specific thoughts.
I need to add a few things, though:
Voldemort not checking Harry's body personally to make sure he's dead? After Harry has escaped him so many times? I'm sorry, but that's stupid and doesn't fit with the descriptions of Tom Riddle as an extremely intelligent person.
How did Molly kill Bellatrix? I thought there was only one Killing Curse!
How come nobody ever uses Felix Felicis or Veritaserum?
If Hermione has a bottomless bag, why did she take all those books and Phineas' portrait - bot not enough food and drink, especially since she knew that it is not possible to conjure either?
The end is here
Jul. 22nd, 2007 02:00 pmI couldn't help it: The first thing I did when I got Deathly Hallows yesterday around noon was read the very last line. Nothing else. Just the last line. And I only did it because I had to re-read Freud's "Rat Man" for my book study group that night and couldn't start DH right away. Yeah, I know, excuses, excuses...
Anyway, I just finished the book and it was an exhilarating read, although it didn't leave me even remotely as stunned and incredulous as HBP did, which I turned right over and read again after I'd finished it because I was sure I missed something while I was barrelling through the pages the first time, some clue, a small hint somewhere that Dumbledore wasn't really dead. There was nothing in DH to affect me like that, not even the character deaths, probably because we all knew from the beginning that this was going to be the story of a violent conflict on a broader scale than we'd seen before, so somebody had to die sooner or later, and it couldn't only be minor characters because that wouldn't have been shocking enough.
I didn't much care for the epilogue, but I hope it'll give rise to more fanfiction about our beloved characters as adults. Menopausal!witches, characters struggling with empty-nest-syndrome, the need to redefine relationships, the search for meaning in the second half of life, and most of all new ships - I can't wait! :-)
Overall, the story was a bit drawn out in places and often reminded me of other, older fantasy stories, but it was original enough to keep me on edge, although the escapes were a tad too spectacular for my liking, some things a bit too repetitive ("OMG Harry, you need to close your mind!"), and the King's Cross scene made me think of Neo waiting for the train, but oh well... All in all I feel rather smug that I guessed correctly who would survive and who would end up together (although I didn't much care for the pairings), and I'm relieved that the wait is finally over (at least the wait for the book - when's the next movie coming out? LOL). It's time that I direct my energies towards my own life again.
Here is a post-DH poll.
ETA: Something that keeps bugging me is the whole "wordless magic" thing. Why did JKR even bother with it when everybody ends up shouting curses? - I'm going for my daily walk now. I'm pretty sure other stuff will start bothering me while I'm out there.
