Harry Potter fandom, is that all you've got?
I am somewhat disappointed in you. Or possibly living a very sheltered internet life. Because nothing really has even approached the crazy of the academic who I met at an interview lunch who wrote Harry Potter fanfic to (and I quote, even if I cannot summon up the lunatic glare in her eyes) 'rescue Hermione from JK Rowling's antifeminism.' I believe that she thought that Hermione was a real live person that Rowling kept locked in a box and took out when she needed to annoy feminists. Or, perhaps, just this woman personally.
I just don't get the rage about the ships. I understand that you'd be sad if you really wanted Harry and Hermoine to end up together, but Rowling did say repeatedly that that wasn't going to happen and these are, after all, her characters. And the books, despite the terrifying amount of porn about teenage wizards running around Hogwarts doing everything that moves, are not even all that much about romantic love. I know that this is not a particularly original observation, but they're about friendship primarily: the trio stick together not because they're having it off in the Forbidden Forest every second they can, but because they're friends. Even the one act that sets the whole series in motion - Lily Potter's sacrifice of her life for her son - is about familial and not romantic love. If there's anything that Rowling privileges in the books it is friendship and family as the tightest bonds there are - or, rather, should be, because it's not as if some people don't betray those bonds.
I really enjoyed the book from start to finish (with perhaps the exception of the completely random introduction of Krum, who seemed to be there primarily to say that Ginny was pretty*). I especially enjoyed the continuing uselessness of the entire Malfoy clan, who hopefully did not pass on their ineffectual wandwork to the next generation. They're like the French aristocracy: nice house, great sneering skills, but entirely useless in any situation. The lower class Weasleys on the other hand do not waste their time perfecting curling the lips but actually learn things and do not have other people manhandle and steal their magical appendages. I have never gotten fandom's love of Draco, he just seems so...dumb. And it's not as if he's any better in the films (and the kid who plays him cannot act at all, IMO).
I also surprisingly enjoyed the sort of redemption of Snape and the back story of him and Lily. And the revelations that Dumbledore was as frail as any human. Someone once complained to me that they couldn't enjoy the books because they were too conservative and in love with authority (with Dumbledore as perfect headmaster being the prime example of that). I'd like to reread the first four books and see what I think about that in the early books, but I will say that since The Order of the Phoenix Rowling has been taking an axe to all of Harry's cherished beliefs about the figures he values from James Potter to Dumbledore in some fairly brutal ways.
Now I really want there to be prequels so I can find out how James turned into someone Lily would want to date and how Snape became a death eater. Sadly if I turn to fanfiction I am just going to get another set of young boys having it off in the prefects bathrooms. How does anyone ever pass their exams at Hogwarts with all the time spent oiling each other up and lusting? Maybe there is an O.W.L. in 'Forbidden Wandwork'?
*Note: I have no issue with Harry ending up with Ginny, she's just always seemed the most boring of the subsidiary characters to me, which might be why I can't really remember anything about the 6th book beyond Dumbledore's death.
ETA: Also, still no visa and living with boxes continues to be no fun at all.
I just don't get the rage about the ships. I understand that you'd be sad if you really wanted Harry and Hermoine to end up together, but Rowling did say repeatedly that that wasn't going to happen and these are, after all, her characters. And the books, despite the terrifying amount of porn about teenage wizards running around Hogwarts doing everything that moves, are not even all that much about romantic love. I know that this is not a particularly original observation, but they're about friendship primarily: the trio stick together not because they're having it off in the Forbidden Forest every second they can, but because they're friends. Even the one act that sets the whole series in motion - Lily Potter's sacrifice of her life for her son - is about familial and not romantic love. If there's anything that Rowling privileges in the books it is friendship and family as the tightest bonds there are - or, rather, should be, because it's not as if some people don't betray those bonds.
I really enjoyed the book from start to finish (with perhaps the exception of the completely random introduction of Krum, who seemed to be there primarily to say that Ginny was pretty*). I especially enjoyed the continuing uselessness of the entire Malfoy clan, who hopefully did not pass on their ineffectual wandwork to the next generation. They're like the French aristocracy: nice house, great sneering skills, but entirely useless in any situation. The lower class Weasleys on the other hand do not waste their time perfecting curling the lips but actually learn things and do not have other people manhandle and steal their magical appendages. I have never gotten fandom's love of Draco, he just seems so...dumb. And it's not as if he's any better in the films (and the kid who plays him cannot act at all, IMO).
I also surprisingly enjoyed the sort of redemption of Snape and the back story of him and Lily. And the revelations that Dumbledore was as frail as any human. Someone once complained to me that they couldn't enjoy the books because they were too conservative and in love with authority (with Dumbledore as perfect headmaster being the prime example of that). I'd like to reread the first four books and see what I think about that in the early books, but I will say that since The Order of the Phoenix Rowling has been taking an axe to all of Harry's cherished beliefs about the figures he values from James Potter to Dumbledore in some fairly brutal ways.
Now I really want there to be prequels so I can find out how James turned into someone Lily would want to date and how Snape became a death eater. Sadly if I turn to fanfiction I am just going to get another set of young boys having it off in the prefects bathrooms. How does anyone ever pass their exams at Hogwarts with all the time spent oiling each other up and lusting? Maybe there is an O.W.L. in 'Forbidden Wandwork'?
*Note: I have no issue with Harry ending up with Ginny, she's just always seemed the most boring of the subsidiary characters to me, which might be why I can't really remember anything about the 6th book beyond Dumbledore's death.
ETA: Also, still no visa and living with boxes continues to be no fun at all.