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.
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. Yay
I 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 book just as she's delaying the redemption of Draco and Snape. But, even if she is delaying those things I think it's very, very bad choice that is undermining the quality of the series as a whole. A story isn't thematically coherent if it's only coherent at the end of the story, instead of all the way through. Maybe JKR has decided that "themes" (just as romance and a multitude of other inappropriate aspects) ought to be played as a mystery too?
And there's still his (presumably omniscient) portrait to deal with.
Despite my dread, I confess that I hope JKR purposefully pointed out that portraits only react with "catch-phrases" to defuse the idea of portrait!Dumbledore as omniscient or somehow integral to the seventh book.
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. Yay
I 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 book just as she's delaying the redemption of Draco and Snape. But, even if she is delaying those things I think it's very, very bad choice that is undermining the quality of the series as a whole. A story isn't thematically coherent if it's only coherent at the end of the story, instead of all the way through. Maybe JKR has decided that "themes" (just as romance and a multitude of other inappropriate aspects) ought to be played as a mystery too?
And there's still his (presumably omniscient) portrait to deal with.
Despite my dread, I confess that I hope JKR purposefully pointed out that portraits only react with "catch-phrases" to defuse the idea of portrait!Dumbledore as omniscient or somehow integral to the seventh book.
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