Blogging The Deathly Hallows: Prelude and Chapter 1

[albalark]

 Today and for the next 36 posts, the subject of this space will be a chapter of, what is for me the most problematic book in the entire Harry Potter series:  The Deathly Hallows.  I am not going to write these posts pretending that I can un-know what I know, so on the remote chance that there are are any of my flisties who *haven't* read DH and

Comments

[accioslash]

I'll be interested to read your thoughts. True confession time, I never read DH. Well, not from beginning to end. I read the famed 'carpet book' as it was released, but that was not released in order and what I recall most is this first chapter, The Prince's Tale and the epilogue

[therealsnape]

I think, too, an important death like McGonagall (or Tonks) in the first chapter would have set the stage of the book in the way JKR kept telling us in interviews that no one would be exempt from potential death in this book. I can quite see what you mean, and in theory I fully agree. But in practice ... I'm so very glad it wasn't McGonagall. It's bad enough that we ardent lovers of the Old Ladies in Canon lost dear Amelia Bones ...

[accioslash]

Heh, well, I'm not much of a McGonagall fan, but I just recall some of the speculation at the time was that it was her and I really liked the in your face attitude that no one was safe by it being someone 'important' right from the get-go. Though, truly, my apologies to anyone who is a fan. I was thinking more in terms of drama than that the loss would have been significant to other fans.

[therealsnape]

No offense taken. I quite see what you mean in terms of the speculation, and you're right from a literary point of view. But McG is in about every fanfic I've written, so my first reaction was rather along the lines of 'Merlin, JKR could have done that, indeed!' What would I have written about?

[therealsnape]

When DH came out, Lord S. and I decided to go to the midnight-sales in our bookshop. Not that we were going to dress up or anything, even though they gave prizes for the best outfit. We felt we were crazy, adults doing this, but we also felt it was the only time in our lives we'd see madness on this scale, and we wanted to be a part of it

[albalark]

I wasn't in any online fandom then, so little did I know that five years later I would leave for a 3-day conference in the UK with people of whose existence I was unaware, and heartily envied by other dear friends I didn't know then either. I didn't even know I had a great-niece ... Funny how that worked out, huh? ::hugs:: BTW, the envy will be greatly assuaged by a steady stream of reports and pictures. :-) And your great-niece sends her regards :-*

We felt we were crazy, adults doing this, but we also felt it was the only time in our lives we'd see madness on this scale, and we wanted to be a part of it. Oh, I know what you mean! ::g:: I'm glad I had my niece to share it with - it's a lovely memory for the two of us.

an engaging child dressed as Harry asked Lord S. whether he was dressed up like Snape, "You're really cool, Sir!" I have a picture in my mind's eye of Lord S. wearing the sort of grin that would never have been seen on Severus Snape's face at that!

Never have I waved him goodbye so cheerfully, for from that

[lash_larue]

We went to the midnight thing at Barnes and Noble. Surprisingly, we were not the oldest ones there.

I predicted Snape, and the reasons for it, but thought the scar as horcrux was a bit hokey for some reason. Got R.A.B. and the locket.

I was never able to take Tom seriously as a villain because of the transparent bullcrap of his stance on "purebloodedness". Villian please, you're as much a mutt as anybody in the story, and your mama dressed you funny.

I don't believe that I have thought about the books as much as you have, but that would kind of follow naturally, since I tend not to think any more than I can help.

The epilog didn't bother me, I ignore whatever of it I don't like and carry on perverting her characters. But I buy all the books, movies, and whatnot because I think she deserves to be rich.

Better her than Donald Trump or Rupert Murdoch.
L

[lash_larue]

PS:

We always bought at least two books...
L

[albalark]

Surprisingly, we were not the oldest ones there. Or local store saw a few that could have been Dumbledore's contemporaries . . . amazing that the books have such broad appeal, isn't it?

I predicted Snape, and the reasons for it, What tipped you off that Lily was the reason? Or was it just a hunch? I can make it plausible after The Prince's Tale, but I just never saw it before then.

I was never able to take Tom seriously as a villain because of the transparent bullcrap of his stance on "purebloodedness". Villian please, you're as much a mutt as anybody in the story, and your mama dressed you funny. LOL! But Adolf Hitler wasn't exactly your Aryan god, either. In truth, it seemed to me that he was manipulating the pure-bloods to get them to do as he wanted them to - he was really all about Tom and ruling the world.

I don't believe that I have thought about the books as much as you have, but that would kind of follow naturally, since I tend not to think any more than I can help. I live in my head . . . I can't help myself! ::g

[lash_larue]

Snape's attitude towards Harry and his reaction to Lily defending him, and yes, I had a feeling about it.

We thought that the stuff Dumbledore was saying after drinking the potion was Snape's memory of pleading with Voldemort not to kill Lily, and that that memory was why Dumbledore trusted him.

All of which may have come after The Prince's Tale, I can't remember chapter names, or what book they were in.
Can't remember who sang what for the most part, either. Bad wiring.

I live in my head on occasion, there is so much room to ramble around since it's not cluttered up with inconvenient facts.

L

[squibstress]

Mr. Squib and I sent the kids away for the weekend, bought two copies and read straight through. We took breaks to eat, use the loo, ect. and discuss what we had read.

Agree w/accioslash that it might have been more effective had it been a more important character to have become snake food in the first bit (but glad it wasn't McG, of course, for my own selfish purposes

[albalark]

Mr. Squib and I sent the kids away for the weekend, bought two copies and read straight through Wow, what fun! I had to read in fits and starts so it took me a few days to finish.

I think accioslash has the right of it, but I definitely am glad it wasn't Minerva. As I said to her, McG was a much closer colleague (as were the other heads of house) and I can't help but think that it would have been utterly devastating to him had it been one of them.

So, what made you think that Severus loved Lily? I searched the earlier books for clues, but never found anything which said 'epic love' to me. :-P JKR had said enough times that Dumbledore was gone for good ("Not doing a Gandalf" is how I remember her phrasing it) that I believed her, so neither Poodles nor I ever considered that he might not be - it was taken as given.

And at some point before Pottermore brings the whole thing crashing down, can we just discuss those "missing canon" moment I am afraid I am not going to consider any backstory given characters on Pottermore to be canon

[squibstress]

So, what made you think that Severus loved Lily?

Don't remember exactly; it may have been Snape's excessive loathing for James (before we even knew what a bullying toerag he was) and the fact that he turned around the time of the Potters' murders. The moment in PS when JKR makes a big deal of Snape looking at Harry's eyes, and all the times we hear that he has "his mother's eyes."

And I agree about the non-canon thing, actually. I'm actually interested in anything JKR has to say about some of the more interesting missing moments--McG's Imperio'ing Carrow to get his wand, how no one suspected anything fishy about Crouch/Mad-Eye, why it's never mentioned that McG was only a year ahead of Tom Riddle--but I don't intend to take any of the backstory as canon.

It's just her (selfish, IMHO) attempt to control the direction of the story after the fact.

If you think about it, she's really talking about writing fanfiction on her own books. I plan to take it as such.

[albalark]

I plan to take it as such. Good plan! ::decides to adopt it::

[shyfoxling]

what were you doing in the summer Deathly Hallows was released?

I was not what you'd call a fannish fan at that time, just a casual one. I was eager for the book to come out and snapped it up when I got a message from the then-cataloger at the library I work in that it was ready to check out if anyone was interested. I had heard already about Certain Chapters (The Elder Wand, The Prince's Tale) and I actually started there. Then I had to find out what happened after, and read to the end. Then I had to find out how we got there, and read from the beginning about halfway through before I went to sleep. But though I was a fan of Severus Snape before this point, I wasn't what you'd call "hardcore"; I had never looked at fanfic or fan journals online, that kind of thing. (Actually, earlier that year I had been dipping a toe into LotR fic and slashfic, and still being squicked by teh buttsecks and having to skim over it. lol.) But DH gave me a "conversion experience" and I fell in love with Severus and haven't really looked back.

[shyfoxling]

P.S. I had been reading the books since 2001 - I read the first four (which is what was out at the time) just before the first film was released, because I figured I ought to before seeing the film, to see what all the fuss was about. So that kind of tells you how long I didn't check out anything in fandom. I think I knew peripherally that it must have been there, because I was vaguely familiar with SF fandom in general and had been to a couple cons (tho I don't remember seeing any Potter cosplayers at the couple BayCons I went to ca. 2002-2003), but somehow it never registered on my radar as something I would care about.

[albalark]

But though I was a fan of Severus Snape before this point, I wasn't what you'd call "hardcore"; I had never looked at fanfic or fan journals online, that kind of thing. (Actually, earlier that year I had been dipping a toe into LotR fic and slashfic, and still being squicked by teh buttsecks and having to skim over it. lol.) But DH gave me a "conversion experience" and I fell in love with Severus and haven't really looked back.

I know what you mean . . . I had no idea that LJ or any of the fanfic ships existed; I didn't discover any of these riches until a couple of years ago and I'm still catching up on all the good things I missed! It's still kind of a shock to me how un-squicked I was at all the gay ships for Severus and the rather explicit descriptions of the fun he was having. ::g:: I guess, I felt he deserved all the love he could get, no matter the source. As long as they did right by him, I didn't care. Merlin, I'm such a schmoop. XD

[shyfoxling]

I've had an LJ account since 2002 (not this one, my personal journal). I just managed to never encounter fandom here in any particular way (see my other comment, tho), I guess because nobody on my flist was really into any fandoms, until I actively went looking.