It's a dry heat

[rahirah]

Now is the time for all native Arizonans to roll down their windows and drive around with the air conditioner off, sneering at the wussy snowbirds who think 110 is hot. Or at least, it's time for me to do that. We do have the air conditioning on at home, but we keep it set above 80.

We're gonna see Prisoner of Azkaban tomorrow, along with half

Comments

[malabud]

Ah yes, the lovely heat of Phoenix. I live in the valley as well, and although I don't love the heat, I hate being cold. I think I'm becoming cold-blooded like a snake after having lived in southern Arizona for practically all of my life. Last month I visited my cousins, who live northward. I just about froze at night! It was kind of nice to get back to the 90+ degree temperatures in Phoenix.

I'm going to see PoA on Saturday as well. I secretly wanted to go tonight for the 12:01 showing, but I do have to work tomorrow. Most HP fans agree that PoA is the best of the five books so far. Structurally, the book flows well. It also has the lengthy Shrieking Shack scene, which is just brilliant in its execution and plot twists. The confrontation between Lupin, Black, and Snape (and Pettigrew) is absolutely riveting, and I think that scene makes the book. On the other hand, the general consensus is that OotP comes in a close second to PoA. OotP isn't as fun to read as PoA and it isn't as tightly plotted. It seems rather murky and aimless in that there's no real major event until the very end. But, I think the murkiness reflects Harry's attitude. The reader can see, even if Harry can't, how much Voldemort is influencing him. He isn't himself in OotP, (as you say, surly, hormone-ridden and thoroughly annoying Harry) and that detracts from the enjoyment of the book. Harry is generally a good kid, but in OotP, that changes rather suddenly and drastically. I'm hoping that now that Harry recognizes Voldemort's influence on him, he'll revert back to type in the next book.

As to your writing, it's nice to see characters who don't seem to deliberately go out of their way to make themselves miserable. It's a lot harder to write happy characters than angsty ones and keep the readers' interest. Yet you manage to do it very well. Cool Writers who write only angst may be Cool, but they limit the development of their writing abilities. Anyone can write angst, but only exceptional writers can convincingly write happy. Your characters have their problems, assuredly, or else there would be no plot, but they are also generally on the right track. That is why, perhaps, you like PoA better than OotP. Harry has his moments of angst in all the books, but he is not constantly brooding and angsty in any except for OotP. Despite everything, Harry's natural disposition is a happy one. That may be one of the reasons so many people like the series.

Well, I think I've spammed your journal enough. Sorry for my rambling there. My comments always seem to go long for some reason. Hmm. :-)

[rahirah]

I was unsure how much Voldemort was really influencing Harry, and how much was just normal the-world-revolves-around-ME teenager. I wonder if perhaps Rowling wasn't sure either, and that's part of the reason for the, as you say, aimlessness. Because really, it wouldn't be at all out of character for someone who's spent the last several books with the world actually revolving around him to get a swelled head and take for granted that he was going to be the big hero, and to resent all those stupid adults who couldn't see how important it was that he be allowed to do what he wanted to. This, alas, is the face of fifteen.

One of Harry's major flaws is that despite tons of evidence that some adults (Dumbledore, Sirius, Hagrid, to some extent McGonigle) WILL believe him and help him, he still keeps important information to himself. So I could see this coming back to bite him on the butt hard. If anything, I thought the book played down his responsibility for what happened a bit too much.

Really, though, I think my main problem with OOTP was that it read like a second draft that badly needed polishing and a LOT of cutting. God knows I have no room to creeb about long-winded writers, but there were huge stretches of OOTP when nothing's happening--or rather, a lot is happening, but the reader doesn't get to see it because we're limited to Harry's POV. Plus: the whole Cho Chang thing felt incredibly forced and awkward, not in the way first romances can be, but in the "I don't have any idea how to write a teenaged boy in the throes of a crush" way. I mean, I know that in a kids' book you can't have Harry jerking off under the covers or anything that a teenaged boy would really be doing in that situation, but I think that Rowling could have gotten into the emotions of it better. The whole thing felt perfunctory--"Note to self: demonstrate Harry is Normal Red-Blooded Boy by introducing disposable girl-crush." Which may have been the point, but it was hard to tell.

I know she was way over deadline with it and under enormous pressure to get it done, and that's probably the reason for the roughness. (I noticed that they were rushed enough that they didn't bother to de-Anglicize it, either, as they usually do for the American editions.) So I sympathize on that point. But it's still in desperate need of another going-over by a stern editor.

But POA The Movie rocked like a rocking thing; they did a fantastic job of paring the story down to the essentials. Pity they won't be able to keep this director; he blows Columbus out of the water.

[malabud]

Personally, I think Voldemort was strongly influencing Harry the entire book. His reactions to certain things were completely opposite of what they had been before. For instance, he is jealous of Ron becoming prefect in OotP and wonders why he, the hero, didn't get that honor. In all of his previous adventures, he was always anxious to share the limelight with whoever else was with him and downplay his own role. Harry has never sought fame or status and for him to do so is out of character, unless you factor in Voldemort's influence. Tom Riddle was a glory hound, to be sure.

Harry does have issues trusting adults, and you would think he'd be over that by now, after five years at Hogwarts, but he's not. It didn't help that none of the adults in OotP told him what was really going on. (My pet theory: The Order wanted Voldemort to go to the Department of Mysteries.) Harry decided that if the adults weren't going to tell him anything, he wasn't going to tell them anything either. So there. Nyah, nyah, nyah. Childish? Definitely. And it got Sirius killed. I think the ramifications of that will hit Harry in book six. Cedric's death was nothing compared to Sirius's when it comes to Harry's responsibility for it. There's a lot of guilt-wallowing in the future for our young hero.

For myself, I thought the book was well written. I think the structure of the book (or lack thereof) was meant to reflect Harry's mood: dark, aimless, murky, and foreboding. But then again, I may be giving Rowling too much credit. If I'm right, the next two books should be much more crisply written and tightly plotted and structured, like books one through three.

I thought the "romance" between Cho and Harry was as realistic as it could be. Admittedly, I am not nor have I ever been a fifteen-year-old boy. However, given Harry's personality and Hogwarts' distance from popular culture, it stands to reason that boys at the school (and Harry in particular) are much less open about such things than muggle boys. The short relationship fit the tone of the books, and that's really all we could ask for.

As to the Anglicization of the book, I think that was intentional. The books are getting progressively more British-sounding. Each successive book has left a little more in. For the first book, the editors probably wanted to take every instance of mum, fringe, jumper, etc. out because they thought American readers wouldn't like it or wouldn't understand it. (That's why they changed it to Sorcerer's Stone from Philosopher's Stone, after all.) It was all about marketability. Now that the books are sure bestsellers, might as well leave all the Britishisms in. Easier on the editors that way.

I completely agree that the PoA movie was excellent. Cuaron did a wonderful job, but he also came on when the young actors were just coming into their true acting skills. Re-watch the first movie and you'll stare at the bad acting of Daniel Radcliffe. He just sits there. His expression never changes! (I can't give him too much flak for that; he was only eleven.) But now, he's so much better! I suspect most people in the HP fandom are praying that Cuaron comes back to do the OotP movie. Wouldn't that be great? He's made some noises about it, but no promises as of yet. I just hope all three of Trio actors come back for every movie. It'd be a shame to lose one of them.

Can you tell I'm an obsessed Harry Potter fan? And I'm spamming your LJ yet again....