Harry also gets free sundaes every half an hour. Wow. Does he look a little more like Dudley by the end of the week or what?
It's interesting to get the reminders of how very fantastical these books were back in the beginning. Very "kids eye view" with the sort of exaggerations that would especially appeal to children. (A sundae every half hour?!? AWESOME!) But there is the uncomfortableness of reality bumping up against it. Maybe because JKR doesn't stick to her own rules? Can you have one child shown as greedy for loving his dessert while another one equally loving his dessert, somehow (magically!) isn't greedy? Injuries get the same treatment. Later on, Draco can drip blood and it's a funny exaggeration; Harry gets bruised and it's a horrible thing.
I'm also noting how Harry, who can well afford paying for all the sundaes he'd like, still gets it for free. Just like... gosh, every single one of his brooms, iirc. Meanwhile, Ron has to scrimp and save -- or his parents do -- for every item he owns. Another odd, and not dealt with at all, juxtaposition.
Arthur has of course heard all about what happened to Aunt Marge.
Arrrgh! Seriously? What an opportunity for a little message about misusing his superior power gone to waste! (Another sign that JKR didn't so much lose her way as have all her mistakes pile up to a point they became too big to ignore.)
Hermione says Harry’s blowing up his aunt isn’t funny. After all, she’s amazed he wasn’t expelled.
Which is code, I think, for "Way to go Harry!" After all, if the voice of prim disapproval is sounded, you must have been doing something right, right?
Hermione is taking Muggle studies because she thinks it will be fascinating to see them from the wizard pov.
The cultural indoctrination continues. This is where Hermione learns that mind-raping your parents is a good thing. They're Muggles; they need to be kept well in hand by the superior wizards around them (bless their hearts).
So Hermione chooses to buy the cat that attacks Ron’s rat on sight.
When I first read this I liked the idea that Hermione would pick the most difficult pet in the shop. It seemed to fit her character: going for the challenge, embracing the awkward, showing some empathy for a creature labeled difficult, and at the same time a total blindness to its effect on those around her. But... it's never taken anywhere. Hermione never has to face the fact that her pet wanted to kill her friend's pet, never took responsibility for the danger she put another into. She doesn't learn anything. (In an incredibly weird move, somehow it's Ron who learns a lesson. Or something.)
So in the end, I suppose this is the beginning of the long slide into Hermione becoming my one of my least favorite characters. (When I finished HPB, one of the reasons I didn't reread was I didn't want to cement Hermione as a distasteful character for me. I was expecting a final growth spurt that would undo what had been done. Alas.)
Ginny goes red and mutters hello to Harry without looking at him. It’s amazing the way that if you look back at past books, Peter’s true personality is actually clear in Scabbers and Barty Crouch’s true personality is clear in Fake!Moody…yet the fantastical Ginny of OotP and HBP remains completely hidden.
*nods* Yeah, I think Ginny is probably JKR's most failed character (and that's saying something) in that she never actually becomes a character. This particular Ginny (who I personally found charming, along with the Ginny who put her elbow in the butter dish) is just not related to the Ginny of OotP or HBP or DH.
It's like those last three books had a different girl stepping into the role each time. And the audience just wasn't supposed to notice that an entirely different character kept showing up. (Rather tentatively, I'll say that I do think Ginny was one particular girl all the way up until OotP. And then the mad casting shifts began. If my memory is serving me at all well.)
Percy, of course, can’t hide his personality.
Awww, Percy... *snuggles him* I adored how awkwardly pleased and proud he was of his brand new badge. He was a good kid. *studiously ignores the twins*
The Crookshanks thing is very weird. I mean, it's part of the theme of people snuggling these animals that are behaving dreadfully, but it's more like a joke than a character trait--depending on the character. I think Herimone's love of Crookshanks is supposed to be funny, like Hagrid's love of his animals, where of course Aunt Marge just proves herself a dreadful person with her awful dog.
I mean, Hermione doesn't seem to see Crookshanks as a challenge at all, and as we'll see later, she's amazingly insensitive about other peoples' pets, always just denying that Crookshanks would go after Scabbers when we see him go after Scabbers. But then, iirc, things sort of get shifted as if it was all about Crookshanks being innocent and Scabbers guilty instead of being hurt that your friend doesn't care if your pet dies at the hands of hers.
I like Ginny 1-4 as well. OotP is then almost like a drumroll for OotP. That book already started highlighting her every scene with a "watch--watch! Ginny's going to be awesome and cool here!" view, but it's in HBP where we see her really in action insulting everybody and everything when Harry doesn't have the time. Then in the 7th book she's like the symbol of hearth and family. It totally is like seeing a different girl stepping into the role each time.
I mean, Hermione doesn't seem to see Crookshanks as a challenge at all...
I remember having an enormous epiphany in Mike Smith's blog where I realized that most of what I saw in the books wasn't really there. It was all expectations I brought from my own reading past. And yes, this is definitely one of those moments. ;)
In the end, Crookshanks becomes another uncomfortable juxtaposition where JKR's humor doesn't quite fit with the drama she's going for. One of those jokes that goes on too long and suddenly you realize the butt of the joke is actually in pain down there on the floor. And everything changes.
Crookshanks isn't that big a challenge though. The biggest problem for Crookshanks is Scabbers (even if he was you common or garden rat) and if he wasn't there you really wouldn't have noticed Crookshanks. In fact, for all his supposed "cleverness", really what use is Crookshanks after this book?
Indeed. He never warns anyone about 'Moody' (I don't think they ever have a chance to be near one another) or Umbridge, or Harry-when-he-has-visions, or Draco in HBP, or Crabbe/Goyle-as-girls. Of course a warning from him would have given too much away. So he is safe in the common room where all he ever complains about is Harry and Ron cheating in Divination. He doesn't even complain about McLaggen.
Yes. And when I was reading "The Silver Doe", I was thinking for myself: why, oh why Hermione left Cookshanks with the Weasleys? At least he did not die as stupid, pointless dead as Hedwig. ;o))
When it's all over, it does turn out that Crookshanks wasn't a problem-pet and that there wasn't really anything for Hermione to handle, true. But as the story was being told, it looked like Hermione had adopted a badly socialized pet out of pity. And that she thought the simple goodness of that action would make up for any difficulty to follow so she didn't take any responsibility for her cat threatening her friend's pet.
That it all got brushed away into a non-event (or twisted into Crookshanks being the good pet all along) goes towards JKR not showing an interest in her characters' growth. The mistake I made, as a reader, was looking for those moments and sort of forcing them in even when they weren't really there.
(Though I think it's interesting that this all takes place in a book where another animal is badly handled, hurts a child because of it, and we're supposed to feel sorry for the owner.)
Just wanted to say I agree with you about Hermione and Crookshanks. Really, she doesn't even take the simple step of keeping that cat in his carrier on the train. It's a very rare cat that will sit quietly in a moving vehicle, and she knows how irascible hers is. And this applies to Ron, too. I always wondered why he let Scabbers run loose all the time. Doesn't he know rats constantly chew? I'm surprised he (or anyone else in that dorm) had anything left in one piece.
It's interesting to get the reminders of how very fantastical these books were back in the beginning. Very "kids eye view" with the sort of exaggerations that would especially appeal to children. (A sundae every half hour?!? AWESOME!) But there is the uncomfortableness of reality bumping up against it. Maybe because JKR doesn't stick to her own rules? Can you have one child shown as greedy for loving his dessert while another one equally loving his dessert, somehow (magically!) isn't greedy? Injuries get the same treatment. Later on, Draco can drip blood and it's a funny exaggeration; Harry gets bruised and it's a horrible thing.
I'm also noting how Harry, who can well afford paying for all the sundaes he'd like, still gets it for free. Just like... gosh, every single one of his brooms, iirc. Meanwhile, Ron has to scrimp and save -- or his parents do -- for every item he owns. Another odd, and not dealt with at all, juxtaposition.
Arthur has of course heard all about what happened to Aunt Marge.
Arrrgh! Seriously? What an opportunity for a little message about misusing his superior power gone to waste! (Another sign that JKR didn't so much lose her way as have all her mistakes pile up to a point they became too big to ignore.)
Hermione says Harry’s blowing up his aunt isn’t funny. After all, she’s amazed he wasn’t expelled.
Which is code, I think, for "Way to go Harry!" After all, if the voice of prim disapproval is sounded, you must have been doing something right, right?
Hermione is taking Muggle studies because she thinks it will be fascinating to see them from the wizard pov.
The cultural indoctrination continues. This is where Hermione learns that mind-raping your parents is a good thing. They're Muggles; they need to be kept well in hand by the superior wizards around them (bless their hearts).
So Hermione chooses to buy the cat that attacks Ron’s rat on sight.
When I first read this I liked the idea that Hermione would pick the most difficult pet in the shop. It seemed to fit her character: going for the challenge, embracing the awkward, showing some empathy for a creature labeled difficult, and at the same time a total blindness to its effect on those around her. But... it's never taken anywhere. Hermione never has to face the fact that her pet wanted to kill her friend's pet, never took responsibility for the danger she put another into. She doesn't learn anything. (In an incredibly weird move, somehow it's Ron who learns a lesson. Or something.)
So in the end, I suppose this is the beginning of the long slide into Hermione becoming my one of my least favorite characters. (When I finished HPB, one of the reasons I didn't reread was I didn't want to cement Hermione as a distasteful character for me. I was expecting a final growth spurt that would undo what had been done. Alas.)
Ginny goes red and mutters hello to Harry without looking at him. It’s amazing the way that if you look back at past books, Peter’s true personality is actually clear in Scabbers and Barty Crouch’s true personality is clear in Fake!Moody…yet the fantastical Ginny of OotP and HBP remains completely hidden.
*nods* Yeah, I think Ginny is probably JKR's most failed character (and that's saying something) in that she never actually becomes a character. This particular Ginny (who I personally found charming, along with the Ginny who put her elbow in the butter dish) is just not related to the Ginny of OotP or HBP or DH.
It's like those last three books had a different girl stepping into the role each time. And the audience just wasn't supposed to notice that an entirely different character kept showing up. (Rather tentatively, I'll say that I do think Ginny was one particular girl all the way up until OotP. And then the mad casting shifts began. If my memory is serving me at all well.)
Percy, of course, can’t hide his personality.
Awww, Percy... *snuggles him* I adored how awkwardly pleased and proud he was of his brand new badge. He was a good kid. *studiously ignores the twins*
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I mean, Hermione doesn't seem to see Crookshanks as a challenge at all, and as we'll see later, she's amazingly insensitive about other peoples' pets, always just denying that Crookshanks would go after Scabbers when we see him go after Scabbers. But then, iirc, things sort of get shifted as if it was all about Crookshanks being innocent and Scabbers guilty instead of being hurt that your friend doesn't care if your pet dies at the hands of hers.
I like Ginny 1-4 as well. OotP is then almost like a drumroll for OotP. That book already started highlighting her every scene with a "watch--watch! Ginny's going to be awesome and cool here!" view, but it's in HBP where we see her really in action insulting everybody and everything when Harry doesn't have the time. Then in the 7th book she's like the symbol of hearth and family. It totally is like seeing a different girl stepping into the role each time.
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I remember having an enormous epiphany in Mike Smith's blog where I realized that most of what I saw in the books wasn't really there. It was all expectations I brought from my own reading past. And yes, this is definitely one of those moments. ;)
In the end, Crookshanks becomes another uncomfortable juxtaposition where JKR's humor doesn't quite fit with the drama she's going for. One of those jokes that goes on too long and suddenly you realize the butt of the joke is actually in pain down there on the floor. And everything changes.
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At least he did not die as stupid, pointless dead as Hedwig. ;o))
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When it's all over, it does turn out that Crookshanks wasn't a problem-pet and that there wasn't really anything for Hermione to handle, true. But as the story was being told, it looked like Hermione had adopted a badly socialized pet out of pity. And that she thought the simple goodness of that action would make up for any difficulty to follow so she didn't take any responsibility for her cat threatening her friend's pet.
That it all got brushed away into a non-event (or twisted into Crookshanks being the good pet all along) goes towards JKR not showing an interest in her characters' growth. The mistake I made, as a reader, was looking for those moments and sort of forcing them in even when they weren't really there.
(Though I think it's interesting that this all takes place in a book where another animal is badly handled, hurts a child because of it, and we're supposed to feel sorry for the owner.)
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