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.
I'm far more ambivalent after having re-read HBP than I was after my initial read. There are still a lot of moments in the books that I'm fond of, a lot of concepts she introduced that I like, but I think JKR ultimately let us down in the execution. She went back on all of the promises the writing in OotP made to us. Love it or hate it, OotP was a purely character driven book. Harry's emotional state was key to the entire thing, and nearly every precipitating event in the course of the book either flowed from it, or caused an important emotional reaction from Harry that led into other things. Heck, even the shipping in that book tied back into the plot. If Cho hadn't liked Harry, she might not have gone to the DA, and if she hadn't gone Marietta wouldn't have, etc.
HBP had none of that. Harry's emotional state -- if one could even pick one out from the furiously distant and exposition heavy prose -- has nothing to do with the plot. His suspicions play no part in anything until the climax. Does he cause anything to happen
( ... )
... so the only satisfying thing to me about Dumbledore is that he's dead.
Hee hee hee. I am so looking forward to seeing your reaction - if we're both still frequenting common areas of the cyber world in two years time - when Dumbledore comes back in the seventh book!
I have zero imagination, but a few of the post-HBP stories I'm reading have Dumbledore's presence continued via his magical portrait. The painting was noted as being 'asleep' at the end of HBP, wasn't it? I think they're spot-on in their extrapolations ... that's a clear (anvil-sized?) pointer to the probability of it 'waking up' in book #7 to give Harry all the advice he needs ... you know, all that training that Dumbledore should have given him in HBP.
I think I'll cry and/or throw the book against the wall if Dumbledore comes back to life. The portrait . . . well, that's to be expected. It's a godawful plot device -- but hey, at least there's an excuse for it if he's a portrait. There's no reason that JKR would have introduced it if it wasn't going to awaken in the next book. As a memorial, it's redundant since we have the tomb, and she could have shown it in the background in book seven. It's almost a sure bet that it'll awaken. Although I have a fairly desperate hope that it will give advice to someone other Harry. It's such a gruesomely trite, obvious plot device that the only way I can see any life being breathed into it is if the portrait advises Draco -- or falls into Voldemort's hands and unwilling advises him. But, yeah, I say desperate simply because I'm not ready to label my hopes as delusional yet.
Because shipping, ultimately, is about how the characters act when they are around each other. And I don't like how Hermione acts about Ron in HBP, or vice versa. I don't like how Harry acts about Ginny in HBP, or the tiny snippet we see from her side of the relationship.
Hmm, shipping. It made me laugh until I realized that JKR was actually serious.
HBP was a big step back from the storytelling of OotP for me, so I can't say I clearly understand where she is going.
Totally agree; actually this reminds me of one thing I forgot to address in my post...thematically, HBP definitely loses out in comparison to OotP as an installment in the series. Over eighty percent of JKR's plot has hinged on the subject of choices, with the other twenty percent being about rejecting destiny (in a way). And with OotP, precisely because it was so dark, the door was left open for so many possibilities -- I mean, here the good characters were choosing to behave just as rottenly as the bad characters, morality was at an all-time low, and there was
( ... )
And with OotP, precisely because it was so dark, the door was left open for so many possibilities
Yes, definitely. I think the darkness and agency of the characters is very much an interactive relationship. The characters in OotP had agency, and lacking knowledge, it made everything very uncertain and very scary. In HBP, Harry has knowledge but no agency -- and while that could conceivably lead to an even scarier plot (no matter what he does, it ultimately helps the bad guys) it didn't. There was a sense of surety to everything, that nothing really had consequences and that there was no immediate danger and even if there was, hey, luck'll see you through.
Um, JKR might still be going for this angle; but this theme took a heavy blow with Tom Riddle's backstory, no matter how much I might have liked it. Tom was born into madness, therefore he was mad. YayI don't know if she's trying or not anymore, honestly. She could be, and simply be delaying the consequences of the morally ambiguous (at best) actions of the heroes until next
( ... )
HBP had none of that. Harry's emotional state -- if one could even pick one out from the furiously distant and exposition heavy prose -- has nothing to do with the plot. His suspicions play no part in anything until the climax. Does he cause anything to happen ( ... )
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Hee hee hee. I am so looking forward to seeing your reaction - if we're both still frequenting common areas of the cyber world in two years time - when Dumbledore comes back in the seventh book!
I have zero imagination, but a few of the post-HBP stories I'm reading have Dumbledore's presence continued via his magical portrait. The painting was noted as being 'asleep' at the end of HBP, wasn't it? I think they're spot-on in their extrapolations ... that's a clear (anvil-sized?) pointer to the probability of it 'waking up' in book #7 to give Harry all the advice he needs ... you know, all that training that Dumbledore should have given him in HBP.
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Hmm, shipping. It made me laugh until I realized that JKR was actually serious.
HBP was a big step back from the storytelling of OotP for me, so I can't say I clearly understand where she is going.
Totally agree; actually this reminds me of one thing I forgot to address in my post...thematically, HBP definitely loses out in comparison to OotP as an installment in the series. Over eighty percent of JKR's plot has hinged on the subject of choices, with the other twenty percent being about rejecting destiny (in a way). And with OotP, precisely because it was so dark, the door was left open for so many possibilities -- I mean, here the good characters were choosing to behave just as rottenly as the bad characters, morality was at an all-time low, and there was ( ... )
Reply
Yes, definitely. I think the darkness and agency of the characters is very much an interactive relationship. The characters in OotP had agency, and lacking knowledge, it made everything very uncertain and very scary. In HBP, Harry has knowledge but no agency -- and while that could conceivably lead to an even scarier plot (no matter what he does, it ultimately helps the bad guys) it didn't. There was a sense of surety to everything, that nothing really had consequences and that there was no immediate danger and even if there was, hey, luck'll see you through.
Um, JKR might still be going for this angle; but this theme took a heavy blow with Tom Riddle's backstory, no matter how much I might have liked it. Tom was born into madness, therefore he was mad. YayI don't know if she's trying or not anymore, honestly. She could be, and simply be delaying the consequences of the morally ambiguous (at best) actions of the heroes until next ( ... )
Reply
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