Lots of HP stuff, I need a life...
Well, I'm back! I actually got back a few days ago, but I unplugged the Internet and promised myself I wouldn't plug it back in again until I'd finished all my work. Which I have, of course, done.
*Cough*
Well, I handed in my last essay of the semester on Monday, so now I just have my dissertation, which is due next Friday and is finished. Sort of finished. Nearly finished. And I've still got 9 days, right? Even though I'm going to spend the whole of next week in a theatre, as our show opens one week today? It'll be fine, right? Oh God, I think I'm going to be sick...
Actually, I am exaggerating slightly, it should be fine. I'm hoping I'll have it completely, 100%, can-do-no-more-to-it finished by Saturday night. We have an all-day rehearsal Sunday, then we're in the theatre all day Monday and Tuesday, and half of Wednesday - the first performance is Wednesday night, then Thursday, Friday, and two on Saturday. My dissertation is due by five o'clock on the Friday, so I'm planning to print off two copies and have them bound during the day on Thursday, and then hand it in Friday morning and breathe a HUGE sigh of relief. :D I can't wait. Then all I have to worry about is the oral presentation! Yay!
Obviously, I won't have much time for fannish pursuits over the next week and a half, but once I have my life back I have a few things planned (I was very, very bored at home over the holidays) - including, but not limited to, the posting of my first ever completed fanfiction, a long and scary essay on the classic Greek trilogy form and how it relates to Harry Potter, and a ridiculously long and very scary list of my rock-solid, I'd-stake-my-GHD-hair-straighteners-on-them predictions for HBP.
For now, I have a few belated thoughts on recent fandom news, cut for length and some minor spoilers.
The cover art:
Or whatever it is, it's a sort of countdown display isn't it? Whatever. It's Ginny. There's absolutely no doubt in my mind...well, maybe a small doubt to cover my bases. Say 98.43% certain it's Ginny, 1.57% it could be somebody else.
I was very happy and excited to see Ron and Hermione together on the cover; not even so much as a shipper, but as a fan of Ron and Hermione as characters. I don't know about anyone else, but I kind of got the feeling that they were pushed into the background a bit in OoP, and I missed them. Fingers crossed for lots of the pair of them in HBP...and some shippiness wouldn't hurt. ;)
Then, as a Ginny fan, I was deliriously happy (and possibly ever-so-slightly smug) at the fact that she was on the cover, until I looked to see what other people were saying. I'm still surprised at the amount of people insisting that there's no way it can be Ginny, because to my mind, there's really no one else it could be. I mean the only other options are either a new character, which seems unlikely to me, or Lily. I can see the arguments for Lily, but the one thing that really makes me doubtful is the layout of the art, the way the girl is at the same level as Ron and Hermione, all looking up at something - I just get the impression we're supposed to think that she's in the same time and space. I also think she looks too young to be Lily, but since we would be talking about some kind of memory anyway, I suppose she could be any age.
As far as I can see, the only two real arguments people are making against it being Ginny are that, firstly, the girl looks 'misty and unreal' - I can see what they're talking about, but since the image has been Photoshopped together, I don't think we can read too much into that - and, secondly, that it can't be Ginny because 'she's not a major enough character', to which I can only laugh until the tears run down my face. Boy, are you in for a surprise!
(And, looking at how much I just wrote, I'm a little scared that I apparently care so much about the cover art. Who knew? Yet another sign of how much I really, really want new canon.)
JKR's site update:
Okay, I know everyone reading this will have read this quote already, but I love it so much I had to quote it again:
"As for the idea of Ron and Hermione having a son… (chuckles as the distant roars of a million shippers reach my ears, all cursing me to an eternity of unsatisfied curiosity)."
Nope, no roaring from me. :D Every now and then, I forget just why I love this woman, and then she does something that reminds me. She is having so much fun with the rabid shippers. Which the best way to treat them, really - and I can say that, as someone who used to be a rabid shipper of the vicious debating variety myself, until I realised just how pointless it all was. I'm just glad the whole thing amuses her, and she can have fun with it as long as she wants, I'll be happily sitting here, laughing and waiting for Book 7 so that I can gloat. (Of course I'm going to gloat, I'm not a saint! That's the point of filtered posts, after all.)
I'm kind of sad she shot down Ron=Dumbledore, though. I never thought it was the most likely of theories, but I loved it as an idea, it was so beautifully thought out.
The new Gryffindor Beaters will be completely new finds of the new Captain’s.
Dear God, look at the grammar in that sentence...the new Captain's what? Anyway, I was slightly surprised by this, I had assumed that the replacement Beaters Angelina found in OoP would stay on. At this rate, they're going to have to replace practically the entire team - what have they got, a Keeper, a Seeker and possibly a Chaser, depending on Katie? You'd think it would be easier for JK not to have to introduce any more new characters than she absolutely needs to at this point. Oh well.
And I still think Ron's going to be made Captain, though I have no real basis for it other than a gut feeling - if not, I love the theory (though I can't remember who came up with it) that Harry will be made Captain but will be terrible at it, and Ron will have to take over.
What else was there?
Oh, yes, Flitwick! I'd always hoped the filmmakers got that wrong, he was nothing like I had imagined. I remember being very puzzled by him when I saw the first film ("What? Who's he? That's Flitwick? Since when was Flitwick a weird little ugly goblin-like thing?").
For some reason, I feel very encouraged by the fact that she likes this one better than 2, 4 or 5; add that together with the fact that HBP is slightly shorter than GoF, and I just feel really hopeful about this book. Not that I'm one of those people saying that she needs to 'redeem herself' or anything like that - on the contrary, I'm one of those odd people who loved Book 5 - but wouldn't it be great if this book was as good as PoA? We can but hope.
As for the book 7 question, I wasn't really surprised by the answer, being as she has a newborn, a toddler and a pre-teen to look after, but I will admit to being a tad disappointed at first. More than that, though, it felt really weird to be thinking about book 7 at all. It makes me feel all nostalgic, remembering the release of books 3 and 4, before I discovered the fandom; my A-level History teacher was obsessed with Harry Potter, even back in the days when most people hadn't heard of it, and just after PoA came out, in one of our last ever lessons before leaving school, she set us a test as revision for our exams. One of the questions was 'By what name is Nicholas Mimsy De Porpington better known'? Three of us got it right, and she was quite upset. :D
That was a fairly pointless story...Anyway, the point is, I have been a fan of these books for years now, I can barely even remember reading them for the first time. During the 3-year wait, part of me believed that we were never actually going to get to read book 5 - then we did, and now book 6 is finished and is being printed, and book 7 will be written in the near future...It just feels really weird, is all.
I think I might be hormonal, I'm getting all mushy and nostalgic over a History teacher I hated. Time for chocolate and a good book, methinks.
I was going to rant about anti-OBHWF people, but I'm too tired and this post is long enough already, so I'll just say this:
I respect your right to ship whatever you want, and acknowledge that people have different tastes and interpret books differently. Is it too much to ask that you extend me the same courtesy? I don't care if it's soppy and sickly and contrived and unoriginal - that's exactly why I like it. In fact, I'm one of the worst offenders, as I'm not a huge fan of H/G as a stand-alone ship (I prefer N/G), I only really like H/G together with R/Hr. Please bear in mind that my all-time favourite forms of entertainment are old musicals and G&S operaettas, the kind where every single member of the cast and chorus is neatly paired off at the end. I love that kind of thing precisely because it is cheesy and adorable. Deal with it.
(The above is not directed at anyone in particular, and especially not anyone on my f-list, just a certain segment of fandom that has been getting me down today.)
*Cough*
Well, I handed in my last essay of the semester on Monday, so now I just have my dissertation, which is due next Friday and is finished. Sort of finished. Nearly finished. And I've still got 9 days, right? Even though I'm going to spend the whole of next week in a theatre, as our show opens one week today? It'll be fine, right? Oh God, I think I'm going to be sick...
Actually, I am exaggerating slightly, it should be fine. I'm hoping I'll have it completely, 100%, can-do-no-more-to-it finished by Saturday night. We have an all-day rehearsal Sunday, then we're in the theatre all day Monday and Tuesday, and half of Wednesday - the first performance is Wednesday night, then Thursday, Friday, and two on Saturday. My dissertation is due by five o'clock on the Friday, so I'm planning to print off two copies and have them bound during the day on Thursday, and then hand it in Friday morning and breathe a HUGE sigh of relief. :D I can't wait. Then all I have to worry about is the oral presentation! Yay!
Obviously, I won't have much time for fannish pursuits over the next week and a half, but once I have my life back I have a few things planned (I was very, very bored at home over the holidays) - including, but not limited to, the posting of my first ever completed fanfiction, a long and scary essay on the classic Greek trilogy form and how it relates to Harry Potter, and a ridiculously long and very scary list of my rock-solid, I'd-stake-my-GHD-hair-straighteners-on-them predictions for HBP.
For now, I have a few belated thoughts on recent fandom news, cut for length and some minor spoilers.
The cover art:
Or whatever it is, it's a sort of countdown display isn't it? Whatever. It's Ginny. There's absolutely no doubt in my mind...well, maybe a small doubt to cover my bases. Say 98.43% certain it's Ginny, 1.57% it could be somebody else.
I was very happy and excited to see Ron and Hermione together on the cover; not even so much as a shipper, but as a fan of Ron and Hermione as characters. I don't know about anyone else, but I kind of got the feeling that they were pushed into the background a bit in OoP, and I missed them. Fingers crossed for lots of the pair of them in HBP...and some shippiness wouldn't hurt. ;)
Then, as a Ginny fan, I was deliriously happy (and possibly ever-so-slightly smug) at the fact that she was on the cover, until I looked to see what other people were saying. I'm still surprised at the amount of people insisting that there's no way it can be Ginny, because to my mind, there's really no one else it could be. I mean the only other options are either a new character, which seems unlikely to me, or Lily. I can see the arguments for Lily, but the one thing that really makes me doubtful is the layout of the art, the way the girl is at the same level as Ron and Hermione, all looking up at something - I just get the impression we're supposed to think that she's in the same time and space. I also think she looks too young to be Lily, but since we would be talking about some kind of memory anyway, I suppose she could be any age.
As far as I can see, the only two real arguments people are making against it being Ginny are that, firstly, the girl looks 'misty and unreal' - I can see what they're talking about, but since the image has been Photoshopped together, I don't think we can read too much into that - and, secondly, that it can't be Ginny because 'she's not a major enough character', to which I can only laugh until the tears run down my face. Boy, are you in for a surprise!
(And, looking at how much I just wrote, I'm a little scared that I apparently care so much about the cover art. Who knew? Yet another sign of how much I really, really want new canon.)
JKR's site update:
Okay, I know everyone reading this will have read this quote already, but I love it so much I had to quote it again:
"As for the idea of Ron and Hermione having a son… (chuckles as the distant roars of a million shippers reach my ears, all cursing me to an eternity of unsatisfied curiosity)."
Nope, no roaring from me. :D Every now and then, I forget just why I love this woman, and then she does something that reminds me. She is having so much fun with the rabid shippers. Which the best way to treat them, really - and I can say that, as someone who used to be a rabid shipper of the vicious debating variety myself, until I realised just how pointless it all was. I'm just glad the whole thing amuses her, and she can have fun with it as long as she wants, I'll be happily sitting here, laughing and waiting for Book 7 so that I can gloat. (Of course I'm going to gloat, I'm not a saint! That's the point of filtered posts, after all.)
I'm kind of sad she shot down Ron=Dumbledore, though. I never thought it was the most likely of theories, but I loved it as an idea, it was so beautifully thought out.
The new Gryffindor Beaters will be completely new finds of the new Captain’s.
Dear God, look at the grammar in that sentence...the new Captain's what? Anyway, I was slightly surprised by this, I had assumed that the replacement Beaters Angelina found in OoP would stay on. At this rate, they're going to have to replace practically the entire team - what have they got, a Keeper, a Seeker and possibly a Chaser, depending on Katie? You'd think it would be easier for JK not to have to introduce any more new characters than she absolutely needs to at this point. Oh well.
And I still think Ron's going to be made Captain, though I have no real basis for it other than a gut feeling - if not, I love the theory (though I can't remember who came up with it) that Harry will be made Captain but will be terrible at it, and Ron will have to take over.
What else was there?
Oh, yes, Flitwick! I'd always hoped the filmmakers got that wrong, he was nothing like I had imagined. I remember being very puzzled by him when I saw the first film ("What? Who's he? That's Flitwick? Since when was Flitwick a weird little ugly goblin-like thing?").
For some reason, I feel very encouraged by the fact that she likes this one better than 2, 4 or 5; add that together with the fact that HBP is slightly shorter than GoF, and I just feel really hopeful about this book. Not that I'm one of those people saying that she needs to 'redeem herself' or anything like that - on the contrary, I'm one of those odd people who loved Book 5 - but wouldn't it be great if this book was as good as PoA? We can but hope.
As for the book 7 question, I wasn't really surprised by the answer, being as she has a newborn, a toddler and a pre-teen to look after, but I will admit to being a tad disappointed at first. More than that, though, it felt really weird to be thinking about book 7 at all. It makes me feel all nostalgic, remembering the release of books 3 and 4, before I discovered the fandom; my A-level History teacher was obsessed with Harry Potter, even back in the days when most people hadn't heard of it, and just after PoA came out, in one of our last ever lessons before leaving school, she set us a test as revision for our exams. One of the questions was 'By what name is Nicholas Mimsy De Porpington better known'? Three of us got it right, and she was quite upset. :D
That was a fairly pointless story...Anyway, the point is, I have been a fan of these books for years now, I can barely even remember reading them for the first time. During the 3-year wait, part of me believed that we were never actually going to get to read book 5 - then we did, and now book 6 is finished and is being printed, and book 7 will be written in the near future...It just feels really weird, is all.
I think I might be hormonal, I'm getting all mushy and nostalgic over a History teacher I hated. Time for chocolate and a good book, methinks.
I was going to rant about anti-OBHWF people, but I'm too tired and this post is long enough already, so I'll just say this:
I respect your right to ship whatever you want, and acknowledge that people have different tastes and interpret books differently. Is it too much to ask that you extend me the same courtesy? I don't care if it's soppy and sickly and contrived and unoriginal - that's exactly why I like it. In fact, I'm one of the worst offenders, as I'm not a huge fan of H/G as a stand-alone ship (I prefer N/G), I only really like H/G together with R/Hr. Please bear in mind that my all-time favourite forms of entertainment are old musicals and G&S operaettas, the kind where every single member of the cast and chorus is neatly paired off at the end. I love that kind of thing precisely because it is cheesy and adorable. Deal with it.
(The above is not directed at anyone in particular, and especially not anyone on my f-list, just a certain segment of fandom that has been getting me down today.)