(no subject)
That whole thing about not reading HBP on Saturday afternoon?
Hahahahahahahahahaha.
(And I skimmed all the really dull Gemara for Kiddushin chp. 2 before mincha. Good thing I am One Of Those People Who Reads Ridiculously Fast. Also, it's summer. Yay, long days. Now, if I hadn't had to spend yesterday shoveling out my home office....)
And now, spoilery reactions plus Latin etymology, or:
(1) Why oh why did Rowling have to establish the plural of "horcrux" as "horcruxes" instead of "horcruces"? It would do the Indo-European-speaking world infinite amounts of good to remember that third-declension Latin nouns need to be declined from the genitive, not the nominative. Also, it would have been niftier.
(2) And on a less rhetorical note, what do you think the "hor" stands for? (Those of you who have never studied Latin should know that you still have the Internet at your disposal. Here is a list from a well-respected lexicon of every single Latin word which begins with "hor." I disclaim all responsibility for any theories involving either wild asparagus or pickled mackerel. I also refuse to check Greek on the grounds that I seriously doubt JKR did.) The obvious answers are either hora and various words meaning "hour/passage of time" or horrens and various words related to English "horror" -- and while "horror" fits very nicely with what we know of the horcrux, "hour" allows for some interesting theories about time and destiny.
[(2a) The Ministry keeps its entire stash of Time Turners in one room? Pull the other one, it's got bells on.]
(3) If you had your school-age archenemy immobilized in a society where contagious magic works, even assuming no particular plans to steal a quantity of Polyjuice Potion, wouldn't you ostentatiously cut off a lock of his hair and let him know you'd be using it where it'd do him the most harm?
(4) And aside from that, am I the only person in the universe just plain ol' bored with Draco and Snape, either individually or together? Bleh. Nothing personal for those of you attracted to the characters, but IMO "bad boys" are appealing. "Evil boys" and "whinily self-righteous boys" not so much. And, yes, I'm sure they'll go get redeemed and/or die heroic deaths and/or explain the entire complicated plot to Harry eventually. Whatever. The last antihero I actually liked was Lazarillo de Tormes, and he had a sense of humor.
(5) Just when I was starting to like Harry again, why did he have to go and break up with Ginny (a) using a drastically unconvincing excuse (short of dyeing her hair in red-and-white concentric circles, I'm not seeing how she could be any more a target at this point) and (b) just before her OWLs? I am not terribly concerned about whether or not they end up together, but I am secretly hoping that Ginny recovers from her stiff upper lip just enough to ensure that Harry spends Bill's wedding sporting spectacular bat-bogeys -- and that bat-bogeys are what I think they are.
(6) While we are at it, why did Ginny have to be pining after Harry all this time? Why, yes, "be yourself" is a wonderful piece of advice to offer adolescent readers -- but I could wish it had not been as a method of attracting a crush object. And why did Tonks have to be pining over Remus to the extent of losing her powers and any hint of interesting characterization? And -- look, we were supposed to find Merope Gaunt's love life abnormal, weren't we?
[(6a) And if we don't hear about a male wizard losing his powers due to unrequited love in the next book, is it okay for me to be very, very cross?]
(7) Now, back to the horcrux: calling Book Seven a Standard Fantasy Quest seems to me to be making insufficient use of a fertile canon. Why don't we refer to Book Seven as St. Harry Potter and the Finding of the True Crosses and wait for the Harry-Potter-Is-Evil brigade on the Christian right to implode?
In conclusion, I heart crackpot theories Latin books which are good to think with.
Hahahahahahahahahaha.
(And I skimmed all the really dull Gemara for Kiddushin chp. 2 before mincha. Good thing I am One Of Those People Who Reads Ridiculously Fast. Also, it's summer. Yay, long days. Now, if I hadn't had to spend yesterday shoveling out my home office....)
And now, spoilery reactions plus Latin etymology, or:
(1) Why oh why did Rowling have to establish the plural of "horcrux" as "horcruxes" instead of "horcruces"? It would do the Indo-European-speaking world infinite amounts of good to remember that third-declension Latin nouns need to be declined from the genitive, not the nominative. Also, it would have been niftier.
(2) And on a less rhetorical note, what do you think the "hor" stands for? (Those of you who have never studied Latin should know that you still have the Internet at your disposal. Here is a list from a well-respected lexicon of every single Latin word which begins with "hor." I disclaim all responsibility for any theories involving either wild asparagus or pickled mackerel. I also refuse to check Greek on the grounds that I seriously doubt JKR did.) The obvious answers are either hora and various words meaning "hour/passage of time" or horrens and various words related to English "horror" -- and while "horror" fits very nicely with what we know of the horcrux, "hour" allows for some interesting theories about time and destiny.
[(2a) The Ministry keeps its entire stash of Time Turners in one room? Pull the other one, it's got bells on.]
(3) If you had your school-age archenemy immobilized in a society where contagious magic works, even assuming no particular plans to steal a quantity of Polyjuice Potion, wouldn't you ostentatiously cut off a lock of his hair and let him know you'd be using it where it'd do him the most harm?
(4) And aside from that, am I the only person in the universe just plain ol' bored with Draco and Snape, either individually or together? Bleh. Nothing personal for those of you attracted to the characters, but IMO "bad boys" are appealing. "Evil boys" and "whinily self-righteous boys" not so much. And, yes, I'm sure they'll go get redeemed and/or die heroic deaths and/or explain the entire complicated plot to Harry eventually. Whatever. The last antihero I actually liked was Lazarillo de Tormes, and he had a sense of humor.
(5) Just when I was starting to like Harry again, why did he have to go and break up with Ginny (a) using a drastically unconvincing excuse (short of dyeing her hair in red-and-white concentric circles, I'm not seeing how she could be any more a target at this point) and (b) just before her OWLs? I am not terribly concerned about whether or not they end up together, but I am secretly hoping that Ginny recovers from her stiff upper lip just enough to ensure that Harry spends Bill's wedding sporting spectacular bat-bogeys -- and that bat-bogeys are what I think they are.
(6) While we are at it, why did Ginny have to be pining after Harry all this time? Why, yes, "be yourself" is a wonderful piece of advice to offer adolescent readers -- but I could wish it had not been as a method of attracting a crush object. And why did Tonks have to be pining over Remus to the extent of losing her powers and any hint of interesting characterization? And -- look, we were supposed to find Merope Gaunt's love life abnormal, weren't we?
[(6a) And if we don't hear about a male wizard losing his powers due to unrequited love in the next book, is it okay for me to be very, very cross?]
(7) Now, back to the horcrux: calling Book Seven a Standard Fantasy Quest seems to me to be making insufficient use of a fertile canon. Why don't we refer to Book Seven as St. Harry Potter and the Finding of the True Crosses and wait for the Harry-Potter-Is-Evil brigade on the Christian right to implode?
In conclusion, I heart crackpot theories Latin books which are good to think with.