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alenxa_classic/me jumps around happily squealing "My ship won! My ship won!"
/me remembers the rest of the book and calms down enough to get superficially literary.
Seriously, how many people didn't see that coming? I read about kids being "shocked" and think, Wow, this really is the only thing they've ever read.
I read on Sunday night, as planned, except that I stayed up waaaaay past my bedtime and got through half the book. Monday, before I picked it back up, I made a series of lists, the first of which was "Pairs." Not couples, but oppositions or associations, mostly people, being used as comparison/contrast fodder. It was pretty long, as I allowed myself to enumerate separately all Harry's major foils (Voldemort/TMR, Draco, Neville) and included a couple of weak or obvious comparisons because I felt obligated to put Hermione, Ron and Ginny somewhere in the mix. Not all of them were as black and white as Dumbledore's hands, but it's hard to ignore pairs like Morfin and Merope, Sirius and Regulus (see below), Narcissa and Bellatrix, the two ministers (Prime and Magic). Snape and Lupin are each their own encapsulated dualities. It bugged me that I couldn't find a good partner for Tonks, but not so much since everyone was going on about her not taking bereavement well, so I sort of let that one hang as a comparison. Now I'm just poingy.
The next list was "Questions," most of which were answered later in the book. After that came "Other Groups," which was a better place for the Trio + Ginny, but really, they form thematically sensical pairs no matter how you divide them. The triad I didn't realize at the time, though, is Harry, Snape, and Voldemort. That's going to come into play later, I bet, as an exercise for the reader in nature vs. nurture and how we choose to be who we are.
Attraction......hoo boy, a powerful force. I wanted to sit Hermione down over some tea and scones and explain patiently that treating a guy like vermin isn't exactly the best way to get him to realize you're a better choice than whoever he's with. Believe me, dear, I know this, and if you were able to think clearly about it right now, you'd realize it pretty quickly too. Lots of couples sort of waking up and taking notice, which makes me wonder if Snape ever had anyone he was really, truly attracted to. Would make sense to bring it into play, but only if there was anything laid down already, which I don't remember that there has been. As for Snape himself, I'm inclined to believe that he's on nobody's side but his own. Which makes him dangerous for whichever side he can be pointed at.
Probably the biggest surprise about the book was that, on some issues, JKR went exactly where many readers would expect her to go. You don't exactly have to be a genius sleuth to guess that Malfoy's task is to kill Dumbledore; and given his failure to do in Harry when he has the chance (which also rules out his assignment being Harry's death), it seems inevitable that his reluctance and Snape's survival instinct will bring about the exact result of Chapter 27. I've been saying for years that Dumbledore would buy it at the end of book 6, and anyone who wants to take issue with the kill-the-mentor trope can just bite me. The way it's set up, Voldy's ultimate goal is immortality, the better to rule the world with, and Dumbledore is in his way. Voldy suspects Draco isn't quite as full of Death Eater convictions as he ought to be and sets him a test, knowing that either way it goes, one problem will be taken care of. Snape, on the other hand, stands to gain credibility from making the UBV, knowledge about Draco no matter what happens, and a possible ally in his personal gray zone or a weakness to exploit in Voldy's carefully laid plans. He, like Voldy, is all about surviving the experience, and both of them are getting their ducks in a row. Unfortunately, Dumbledore is caught in their deadly game of chicken. (Yes, please shoot the pun now.) Dumbledore's death isn't necessary to cement Harry's loyalty to Hogwarts and the Good Fight, but doing a David Eddings like this will definitely serve to galvanize others into whatever it is they're going to choose to do. (Those who've read the Belgariad know what I'm talking about; those who don't might like that first series if they don't mind that some people consider it bookslumming.) I wouldn't be surprised to find some Slytherins wondering if they shouldn't jump ship while they can.
Predictions:
1. There will be a juncture at which Vader kills Palpatine so that Luke doesn't have to. Exactly who is keeping whose hands clean, I don't know. Evidence points to one of the two fleeing bad boys as suitable for the dirty work, either of whom would send legions of fangirls and fanwomen into happy shrieks at the thought of having known all along that their baby wasn't really evil. But you never know, it could be Neville.
2. The ghost of Obi-Wan (excuse me, portrait of Dumbledore) will be cryptic, amusingly annoying, and, once the Big Dummies Figure it Out, immensely and indispensably helpful.
3. Knowing Voldy's background will be helpful to Harry for more than just finding Horcruxes; as he's no good at Occlumency, the next best deterrent to mind-reading is to make it a bad experience for the attacker.
4. R.A.B. is Regulus. The missing Horcrux may, therefore, already technically be in Harry's possession, if he would just go to 12 Grimmauld. But he probably won't, not until a good dramatic point in the book. Too bad, since he might also find information on another Horcrux or two that would greatly speed up his quest. (This last based on the actual replacement of the fake Horcrux, which could imply that R.A.B. knew which one s/he would be getting out of the basin. Then again, if, as I suspect, anyone with a Dark Mark would be able to get the locket out without needing to drink the potion, s/he could have pulled it out, got a good look, gone home for a replacement, and then done an Indy.)
5. One Horcrux is a person. Don't know who. If it's Harry, the choices of outcome are: murder-suicide; death of Voldemort-body and subsequent mental battle for ownership of Harry's body, which Harry would win because he has people to live for; figuring out how to destroy the soulbit without dying, possibly by losing a body part, and then defeating Voldy. If he is a Horcrux, he might have become so as a result of a failsafe on Voldy which would create a Horcrux out of the nearest object in the event of a successful Avada Kedavra. So, Voldy zaps the Potters and has plenty of murder-energy in reserve, gets his AK rebounded on him, and gets Horcruxed (is that a word?) into baby Harry on his way into limbo. There would also be a need to deal with the question of whether Harry would be a wizard at all without Voldy's soulbit, which may be what JKR has hinted at regarding the similarity of their powers. Problem: if Voldy placed the failsafe, he would know there was a Horcrux somewhere at Godric's Hollow and have the ability to go look for it. But solution: maybe he thinks he found it, or maybe he's looking for it right now.
6. Book 7 will echo SS/PS structurally more than thematically. CoS and HBP had thematic echoes of memory, young Voldy, and destruction of a Horcrux; PoA and OotP mostly had shared characters. JKR has set up a seventh book with a convenient series ofdungeons challenges, which are likely to be graduated in difficulty and/or suited to particular characters, just as with the puzzles at the end of book 1 (and the climaxes of about a kajillion other works of film, TV, literature, etc). And it seems likely that, as before, Voldemort's downfall is going to be his insistence on working alone and assumption that everybody else works that way too. Such is the problem with a severely twisted worldview.
Comments welcome.
/me remembers the rest of the book and calms down enough to get superficially literary.
Seriously, how many people didn't see that coming? I read about kids being "shocked" and think, Wow, this really is the only thing they've ever read.
I read on Sunday night, as planned, except that I stayed up waaaaay past my bedtime and got through half the book. Monday, before I picked it back up, I made a series of lists, the first of which was "Pairs." Not couples, but oppositions or associations, mostly people, being used as comparison/contrast fodder. It was pretty long, as I allowed myself to enumerate separately all Harry's major foils (Voldemort/TMR, Draco, Neville) and included a couple of weak or obvious comparisons because I felt obligated to put Hermione, Ron and Ginny somewhere in the mix. Not all of them were as black and white as Dumbledore's hands, but it's hard to ignore pairs like Morfin and Merope, Sirius and Regulus (see below), Narcissa and Bellatrix, the two ministers (Prime and Magic). Snape and Lupin are each their own encapsulated dualities. It bugged me that I couldn't find a good partner for Tonks, but not so much since everyone was going on about her not taking bereavement well, so I sort of let that one hang as a comparison. Now I'm just poingy.
The next list was "Questions," most of which were answered later in the book. After that came "Other Groups," which was a better place for the Trio + Ginny, but really, they form thematically sensical pairs no matter how you divide them. The triad I didn't realize at the time, though, is Harry, Snape, and Voldemort. That's going to come into play later, I bet, as an exercise for the reader in nature vs. nurture and how we choose to be who we are.
Attraction......hoo boy, a powerful force. I wanted to sit Hermione down over some tea and scones and explain patiently that treating a guy like vermin isn't exactly the best way to get him to realize you're a better choice than whoever he's with. Believe me, dear, I know this, and if you were able to think clearly about it right now, you'd realize it pretty quickly too. Lots of couples sort of waking up and taking notice, which makes me wonder if Snape ever had anyone he was really, truly attracted to. Would make sense to bring it into play, but only if there was anything laid down already, which I don't remember that there has been. As for Snape himself, I'm inclined to believe that he's on nobody's side but his own. Which makes him dangerous for whichever side he can be pointed at.
Probably the biggest surprise about the book was that, on some issues, JKR went exactly where many readers would expect her to go. You don't exactly have to be a genius sleuth to guess that Malfoy's task is to kill Dumbledore; and given his failure to do in Harry when he has the chance (which also rules out his assignment being Harry's death), it seems inevitable that his reluctance and Snape's survival instinct will bring about the exact result of Chapter 27. I've been saying for years that Dumbledore would buy it at the end of book 6, and anyone who wants to take issue with the kill-the-mentor trope can just bite me. The way it's set up, Voldy's ultimate goal is immortality, the better to rule the world with, and Dumbledore is in his way. Voldy suspects Draco isn't quite as full of Death Eater convictions as he ought to be and sets him a test, knowing that either way it goes, one problem will be taken care of. Snape, on the other hand, stands to gain credibility from making the UBV, knowledge about Draco no matter what happens, and a possible ally in his personal gray zone or a weakness to exploit in Voldy's carefully laid plans. He, like Voldy, is all about surviving the experience, and both of them are getting their ducks in a row. Unfortunately, Dumbledore is caught in their deadly game of chicken. (Yes, please shoot the pun now.) Dumbledore's death isn't necessary to cement Harry's loyalty to Hogwarts and the Good Fight, but doing a David Eddings like this will definitely serve to galvanize others into whatever it is they're going to choose to do. (Those who've read the Belgariad know what I'm talking about; those who don't might like that first series if they don't mind that some people consider it bookslumming.) I wouldn't be surprised to find some Slytherins wondering if they shouldn't jump ship while they can.
Predictions:
1. There will be a juncture at which Vader kills Palpatine so that Luke doesn't have to. Exactly who is keeping whose hands clean, I don't know. Evidence points to one of the two fleeing bad boys as suitable for the dirty work, either of whom would send legions of fangirls and fanwomen into happy shrieks at the thought of having known all along that their baby wasn't really evil. But you never know, it could be Neville.
2. The ghost of Obi-Wan (excuse me, portrait of Dumbledore) will be cryptic, amusingly annoying, and, once the Big Dummies Figure it Out, immensely and indispensably helpful.
3. Knowing Voldy's background will be helpful to Harry for more than just finding Horcruxes; as he's no good at Occlumency, the next best deterrent to mind-reading is to make it a bad experience for the attacker.
4. R.A.B. is Regulus. The missing Horcrux may, therefore, already technically be in Harry's possession, if he would just go to 12 Grimmauld. But he probably won't, not until a good dramatic point in the book. Too bad, since he might also find information on another Horcrux or two that would greatly speed up his quest. (This last based on the actual replacement of the fake Horcrux, which could imply that R.A.B. knew which one s/he would be getting out of the basin. Then again, if, as I suspect, anyone with a Dark Mark would be able to get the locket out without needing to drink the potion, s/he could have pulled it out, got a good look, gone home for a replacement, and then done an Indy.)
5. One Horcrux is a person. Don't know who. If it's Harry, the choices of outcome are: murder-suicide; death of Voldemort-body and subsequent mental battle for ownership of Harry's body, which Harry would win because he has people to live for; figuring out how to destroy the soulbit without dying, possibly by losing a body part, and then defeating Voldy. If he is a Horcrux, he might have become so as a result of a failsafe on Voldy which would create a Horcrux out of the nearest object in the event of a successful Avada Kedavra. So, Voldy zaps the Potters and has plenty of murder-energy in reserve, gets his AK rebounded on him, and gets Horcruxed (is that a word?) into baby Harry on his way into limbo. There would also be a need to deal with the question of whether Harry would be a wizard at all without Voldy's soulbit, which may be what JKR has hinted at regarding the similarity of their powers. Problem: if Voldy placed the failsafe, he would know there was a Horcrux somewhere at Godric's Hollow and have the ability to go look for it. But solution: maybe he thinks he found it, or maybe he's looking for it right now.
6. Book 7 will echo SS/PS structurally more than thematically. CoS and HBP had thematic echoes of memory, young Voldy, and destruction of a Horcrux; PoA and OotP mostly had shared characters. JKR has set up a seventh book with a convenient series of
Comments welcome.
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no subject
Date: 2005-07-21 10:46 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-07-21 02:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-07-21 04:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-07-22 04:34 am (UTC)A duality for Tonks... how about Fleur? JKR herself suggests the comparison through Ginny at the top of page 94. Bill ends up quasi-werewolf, and Tonks ends up with a werewolf. Both ladies have something magical about their appearance. They're both in it for love, despite substantial social and financial obstacles. Their personalities make an otherwise stark contrast, highlighting the interconnectedness of people who love.
As for Dumbledeath, I was almost certain even reading book 1 that it'd have to happen eventually. I overshot a bit. I thought it'd be in the last book. And I hoped it wouldn't. I know, I know, the trope. And JKR's writing is too steeped in tropes to begin with to break from them. I just sort of wish he'd been indisposed. I mean, Harry already faced Voldy alone in book 4. As long as D's out of the momentary picture, Harry still gets the glory. Then again this does heighten the sense of urgency for book 7, and since, imho, most of book 5 had more urgency than most of book 6 despite open warfare from Voldy, this was probably the best decision for the trajectory of the series.
I did think for a while that Dumbledore would be replaced, that Harry would ask his favorite flavor of jam and get the wrong answer. In fact I thought that when Dumbledore came back at midnight the night Harry retrieved the memory, it wasn't Dumbledore... Harry stumbled into the office and gave him all the information he needed to play along... and he was so uncharacteristic in the oceanside cave. Earlier in the novel, we saw him deftly refuse to allow Voldemort to dictate the terms of a conversation in his office, and then in the cave he completely caved in to Voldy's terms. Oh, I, uh, guess I HAVE to smear my blood on this rock and drink this neon green potion. Well, okay. But no. It was Dumbledore. He lifted the protective spells around Hogwarts.
no subject
Date: 2005-07-22 05:09 pm (UTC)And that's the big loose end (OK, second big loose end, after the necklace). I was concerned that the dark mark was a distraction. And do we know whether anyone can re-enact those spells as effectively as Dumbledore himself?
no subject
Date: 2005-07-23 02:34 am (UTC)