Alright everyone. It's time to leave your review of HBP. Since we've discussed all of the books, feel free to include your assessment of the entire series. Predictions of what you think will happen in HBP are, of course, encouraged.
Summarize HPB. I won’t say I didn’t enjoy some of it because I did. The characters are too well-known and loved to me now to not enjoy some of the scenes written out in HBP. It still isn’t my least favorite book, (CoS is), but it’s really close. Some of these points, I’ve made elsewhere, so they may seem familiar.
I am not so disappointed that I could not enjoy the humor in the book, HBP. As I said before, I’m already in love with these characters and JKR still has a flair for the ensemble dynamic to keep me entertained. I particularly enjoyed Ron’s misadventures in love, while under the influence and not. No, it did nothing to advance plot or delve into character expansion but it made me laugh; and anything that makes me laugh these days deserves a modicum of praise.
The problem I have with HBP is that it falls so short in what it needed to accomplish as the set-up segment to the final novel. Yes, you could argue that the pieces are there. Mentor dead, hero motivated, task outlined…yadda yadda yadda. The way these items were laid out to us as readers was choppy, lackadaisical, and way below the standard set in the previous two books.
The most annoying thing to me has absolutely nothing to do with shipping. It is the complete sell-out of potential that HP as a series had going for it. So many issues are now thrown into a cut and dry, black and white, good versus evil formula that it seems the book has taken a step down from the path of the series. Was the previous subtext imagined? Unintended? A wander down the path of depth and shades of grey? Why have Snape be the ultimate villain when he could portray the mirror to Harry; someone “chosen” to perform a task that should be asked of no one. Why have Dumbledore appear the martyred mentor instead of one misguided by agendas showing that the “greater good” is in the eye of the beholder as well. Poor Draco, such a vast source of dimension only to fall flat as a device for plot advancement.
There is so much untapped potential now in the series. It isn't that we have to dig deeply for it, it IS there. I think perhaps we overestimate the subject matter itself, not so much the details as others think we do. It is a series supposedly for children's literature, goodness knows that is another “anvil-sized” message I’ve seen over and over. I think the failing of JKR is in thinking it can't be more than that and that it must fall within a certain formula or criteria for it to remain so.
How often have we read a kids' book or been to see a movie and thought...Yeah, it was good for a kids' book...or a Disney movie. Why have two separate standards? Harry Potter had the potential to leap beyond the stereotype, the groundwork was there! Did she just not realize it? We shouldn't have to fit children's media into a set framework of lowered expectations; to do so is a disservice to them. Children are capable of comprehending things in shades of grey; we should give them more credit. JKR should give them more credit.
I am not so disappointed that I could not enjoy the humor in the book, HBP. As I said before, I’m already in love with these characters and JKR still has a flair for the ensemble dynamic to keep me entertained. I particularly enjoyed Ron’s misadventures in love, while under the influence and not. No, it did nothing to advance plot or delve into character expansion but it made me laugh; and anything that makes me laugh these days deserves a modicum of praise.
The problem I have with HBP is that it falls so short in what it needed to accomplish as the set-up segment to the final novel. Yes, you could argue that the pieces are there. Mentor dead, hero motivated, task outlined…yadda yadda yadda. The way these items were laid out to us as readers was choppy, lackadaisical, and way below the standard set in the previous two books.
The most annoying thing to me has absolutely nothing to do with shipping. It is the complete sell-out of potential that HP as a series had going for it. So many issues are now thrown into a cut and dry, black and white, good versus evil formula that it seems the book has taken a step down from the path of the series. Was the previous subtext imagined? Unintended? A wander down the path of depth and shades of grey? Why have Snape be the ultimate villain when he could portray the mirror to Harry; someone “chosen” to perform a task that should be asked of no one. Why have Dumbledore appear the martyred mentor instead of one misguided by agendas showing that the “greater good” is in the eye of the beholder as well. Poor Draco, such a vast source of dimension only to fall flat as a device for plot advancement.
There is so much untapped potential now in the series. It isn't that we have to dig deeply for it, it IS there. I think perhaps we overestimate the subject matter itself, not so much the details as others think we do. It is a series supposedly for children's literature, goodness knows that is another “anvil-sized” message I’ve seen over and over. I think the failing of JKR is in thinking it can't be more than that and that it must fall within a certain formula or criteria for it to remain so.
How often have we read a kids' book or been to see a movie and thought...Yeah, it was good for a kids' book...or a Disney movie. Why have two separate standards? Harry Potter had the potential to leap beyond the stereotype, the groundwork was there! Did she just not realize it? We shouldn't have to fit children's media into a set framework of lowered expectations; to do so is a disservice to them. Children are capable of comprehending things in shades of grey; we should give them more credit. JKR should give them more credit.
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