Impact

[arabellasq]

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

Comments

Re: After the Two-Year Winter

[dr_c]

I made the mistake of reading PoA for the first time in a chair at the local Barnes & Noble (the same store where you and your sister came for the "ROXin' Adventure" mini-Summit a few years ago, in fact-- wish I'd thought to point out the significance at the time), and of rushing too fast through it and having to go back over the last few chapters at the end to convince myself that, yes, Sirius really was innocent, it wasn't just a trick. But yes, I agree, a thrilling experience (just that it would have been more so if I'd read it properly).

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.