Impact
Remus forgave Sirius for the trick. Ron forgave Hermione for sending canaries to peck off his face, and forgave Harry for throwing a S.P.E.W. badge at him. Harry forgave Ron for being a prat. So did Hermione. Dumbledore let Snape back into Hogwarts
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I agree; the fun is back. Here's what I wrote during the week before HBP:
Because for me, at least, the tone of the books seems to mirror what's going on in Harry's mind. When fun things are happening-- or even when dangerous things are happening, but Harry's got a positive outlook on them-- the book maintains its momentum well. When Harry is out of sorts, the whole book starts to seem rather ponderous (too heavy for its own good).
But I'm optimistic about how HBP will turn out, and even more so about the still-future Book 7. JKR has remarked, for example, that Harry has to "master his own feelings to make himself useful"-- which seems a reasonable enough hint that indeed he will do so. And if Harry can conquer himself, I am confident that the books will again become thrilling to read (which, for me, OotP was not), and will maintain the plot momentum all the way through, even despite the higher page counts. There will be some horrifying moments, I have no doubt; but I expect that OotP's feeling that "anytime things start to go right, they fall apart" will start to become a thing of the past.
HBP definitely fulfilled my expectations on that count. The "Reading Fun Meter" is swinging back up for me (and it seems that yours has had swings even more extreme than mine!).
Book 7 will be interesting. I expect that the only thing that could really go wrong with it would be if JKR blundered on a major plot twist, scoring at a Leia-is-your-sister level of lameness. The tone, the excitement and humor and everything, should definitely still be there.
Will it surpass PoA? Maybe. What sets PoA apart at this point, even from HBP, was the stunning blitz of revelations in the final sequence (Lupin-is-a-werewolf-and-the-black-dog-is-Sirius-and-he's-innocent-because-Scabbers-is-really-Peter-and-they-made-the-Marauders'-map-with-your-father-and-oh-by-the-way-Hermione-has-been-using-a-time-turner-all-year). Can Book 7 match that? Possibly. We know that this is the book for which JKR has been saving several Big Revelations (including something about Lily). If the Big Revelations in Book 7 work the way they're supposed to, then yeah, it really could be the Book To End All Books. But we'll see.
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Yes.
When Harry is out of sorts, the whole book starts to seem rather ponderous (too heavy for its own good).
Dingdingding. Once again, Dr. C., I agree with you. Harry is best enjoyed when can see the light at the end of the tunnel, no matter how faint, no matter how the revelations send him reeling. As long as he holds to that sliver of truth and hope and determination, things are all right. In OotP - and for good reasons, perhaps - that sliver was lost to him. And so to us.
We'll see about book seven. You're right. I have hopes - but not too high, not too high. I won't do to this one what I did to OotP and crush it to death with expectations and hero worship.
What sets PoA apart at this point, even from HBP, was the stunning blitz of revelations in the final sequence
Yes again.
And I think you're right. If things go as they're meant to, we're in for another blitz. I'd love to feel punch drunk again like I did at the end of Azkaban. My head spun, I swear. It was ridiculous. It was amazing. It was just a book, inanimate, but its ending sequence had a physical impact. I still remember sitting there, alone in my apartment, stunned. Yelling. "No. No! NO!" It was a thrilling experience.
So yes. You're right. It could go either way. We'll just... see.
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Another analogy-- perhaps more relevant for book 7-- is LotR, specifically the Mount Doom scene with Gollum in RotK. I was thirteen when I read it for the first time, and after slowly slogging through the first half of FotR (aided by my school's daily Silent Reading period), had gotten more and more into it, and was figuring that there would have to be some last conflict right before the Ring was destroyed, but-- I wasn't expecting THAT. And finishing the "Mount Doom" chapter and looking up across my parents' living room from the couch to the fireplace and out the windows, I got this weird rush of a feeling, like "oh, wow... I guess the real world does exist after all." The strongest "physical impact" (as you say re. PoA) that I've ever gotten from a book.
As with LotR, HP has also given us hints that the hero's act of pity toward a cringing, loathsome character will play an important role in the final resolution. But JKR has also given herself a lot of room to bring in further twists. What will become of Snape? What impact will the Lily revelation have? Surely Dumbledore's influence will still be a key, won't it? Surely Harry will find some better way to finish off Voldemort that merely a crude Avada Kedavra, won't he? And above all, how will Harry's capacity for "love" (that oh-so-ambiguous word) turn out to be at the heart of it all?
I agree about the need for caution. Both times I've gone a-summitting across the continent (for the PS/SS movie and for the OotP book) it's been nice to the the people, but in neither case did the artistic focus of the trip turn out to be as exciting as expected. I don't think I was as crushed by OotP as you were, but still, it wasn't the thrilling read that I had allowed myself to expect.
But even so, I remain optimistic about Book 7. This isn't George Lucas that we're talking about (who appears to have been working from a broad concept and figuring out the plot as he went along). It's not even JRR Tolkein (who drafted a lot of his story not being entirely sure how it would end).
(It isn't OotP anymore, either. The "problem" with OotP was not a lame plot; it was just that Harry needed to go through some stuff that we hadn't fully realized was coming.)
JKR has known since before she even drafted Book 1 how the ending was going to work out. And whatever she knew about the series gave her the artistic impetus to pursue the whole massive project, even through the near-starvation year with Jessica as a baby when she had no way of knowing that she would ever make a penny from it. So it seems that, whatever the ending is going to be, JKR likes it very, very, very much; and I think I'm being reasonable in hoping that we're going to like it very much too.
And so I say: The risk is there, to be sure, and shouldn't be ignored; but I think we have solid grounds for optimism.
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