Deathly Hallows Thoughts, Properly Organised (and mini-photo blog)
First things first, I have a problem with sticky notes. And sticky flags. Or anything that involves stationary and some sort of adhesive aspect.
I also have a compulsive need to scribble thoughts in the margins. Often they are insightful or used to track various motifs, but sometimes...
(Yes, that's the page with the Ron/Hermione kiss...)
Forgive the shit quality of the images... I can't find the cord to upload photos off my camera, so I had to use my webcam.
On to something a little more literary, perhaps... I meant to do this earlier in the week, but I wasn't quite sure how to go about it. (There was a brief period where I contemplated writing it in the style of songfic in homage to those early days in the fandom, but I didn't think my brain could handle it.)
Yesterday, I remarked upon how the Harry Potter series can be compared to a rent boy. After much deliberation, I have come to the conclusion that, in this regard, I was partially mistaken...
It is no great secret that I was disappointed by Deathly Hallows, for a great many reasons. I have already done a long, rambling, and generally aimless rant about the many things that bothered me (and some things that I liked). Hence and therefore, that is not the intended purpose of this post. (Its purpose is partially for comic relief, partially to discuss the book more generally, and partially because I've actually had time to think about it and my thoughts on the matter are far more clear.) As such, I find it necessary to specify: I was not merely disappointed (this was expected), I was pissed off. It wasn't just that I found the editing shoddy or that Character X wasn't acting like Character X or that the plot felt so contrived that it was painful, it was the combination of all of these things to the point that I wanted to rip somebody's hair out (not mine, as I spend far too much money on its upkeep).
I found reading the book a lot like spending the night with a rent boy, rather than Lucius Malfoy in all his shampooed, coiffured, fanonical glory. (I should take this moment to note that all of this is assumption and none of it is from personal experience...) I mean this in the sense that the rent boy is nice looking and knows what he's doing (because he's obviously had a bit of practice), but is a bit boring on some level. He's predictable and he's not really enjoying it because it's all about getting you off. Lucius, on the other hand, is enjoying it very much. He's not so much worried about you as he is about himself, but he enjoys surprising you a bit and getting a rise out of you. It's more interesting this way and none of it is really perfunctory.
My problem with Deathly Hallows, I think, stemmed from the fact that I felt as though JKR had promised us Lucius Malfoy, instead gave us that same rent boy in a blonde wig, and then expected us to close our eyes, lean back and pretend that we were getting what we wanted. It's a clever party trick, but a little bit too easy for the seasoned readers not to catch on. Nevertheless, I've always cheated at games involving blindfolds (why do you think I was a champion at birthday competitions of Pin the Tail on the Donkey) and the mistake was blindingly obvious from the start.
It was like sex with Ronald Weasley, which Hermione is now unfortunately doomed to at least twice.
Maybe she thought that she was throwing some twists in there, but making Snape Good and Angsty (crying is now canon?), dawdling in the woods a bit (yawn), and giving us the added bonus of (gasp!) the Deathly Hallows (was there a point to this subplot?), but really it just broke the rhythm and made it take that much longer. There were a couple of moments that struck gold, such as Dumbledore's somewhat grey interior (I hated the character, but love what she did) and Nagini coming out of Bathilda Bagshot's corpse, but I'm almost certain that the aim there was entirely accidental.
By the time we got round to the climax, it seemed as though everybody was just ready to get it over and done with (probably a positive decision) and, while McGonagall got to scream, "Charge!" and Harry hallucinated a bit, I didn't feel nearly as much satisfaction as I could have. I am left feeling much the way that Draco probably feels about his thinning hair: rather anxious, but nothing a good fanfic won't cure.
On the bright side, I suppose that it could be worse. Lucius Malfoy could be dead thereby condemning us all to a lifetime of rent boys, the books could have been written in a universe where resurrection is even less likely, or Snape could actually be evil. So, really, I've no right to complain.
I also have a compulsive need to scribble thoughts in the margins. Often they are insightful or used to track various motifs, but sometimes...
(Yes, that's the page with the Ron/Hermione kiss...)
Forgive the shit quality of the images... I can't find the cord to upload photos off my camera, so I had to use my webcam.
On to something a little more literary, perhaps... I meant to do this earlier in the week, but I wasn't quite sure how to go about it. (There was a brief period where I contemplated writing it in the style of songfic in homage to those early days in the fandom, but I didn't think my brain could handle it.)
Yesterday, I remarked upon how the Harry Potter series can be compared to a rent boy. After much deliberation, I have come to the conclusion that, in this regard, I was partially mistaken...
It is no great secret that I was disappointed by Deathly Hallows, for a great many reasons. I have already done a long, rambling, and generally aimless rant about the many things that bothered me (and some things that I liked). Hence and therefore, that is not the intended purpose of this post. (Its purpose is partially for comic relief, partially to discuss the book more generally, and partially because I've actually had time to think about it and my thoughts on the matter are far more clear.) As such, I find it necessary to specify: I was not merely disappointed (this was expected), I was pissed off. It wasn't just that I found the editing shoddy or that Character X wasn't acting like Character X or that the plot felt so contrived that it was painful, it was the combination of all of these things to the point that I wanted to rip somebody's hair out (not mine, as I spend far too much money on its upkeep).
I found reading the book a lot like spending the night with a rent boy, rather than Lucius Malfoy in all his shampooed, coiffured, fanonical glory. (I should take this moment to note that all of this is assumption and none of it is from personal experience...) I mean this in the sense that the rent boy is nice looking and knows what he's doing (because he's obviously had a bit of practice), but is a bit boring on some level. He's predictable and he's not really enjoying it because it's all about getting you off. Lucius, on the other hand, is enjoying it very much. He's not so much worried about you as he is about himself, but he enjoys surprising you a bit and getting a rise out of you. It's more interesting this way and none of it is really perfunctory.
My problem with Deathly Hallows, I think, stemmed from the fact that I felt as though JKR had promised us Lucius Malfoy, instead gave us that same rent boy in a blonde wig, and then expected us to close our eyes, lean back and pretend that we were getting what we wanted. It's a clever party trick, but a little bit too easy for the seasoned readers not to catch on. Nevertheless, I've always cheated at games involving blindfolds (why do you think I was a champion at birthday competitions of Pin the Tail on the Donkey) and the mistake was blindingly obvious from the start.
It was like sex with Ronald Weasley, which Hermione is now unfortunately doomed to at least twice.
Maybe she thought that she was throwing some twists in there, but making Snape Good and Angsty (crying is now canon?), dawdling in the woods a bit (yawn), and giving us the added bonus of (gasp!) the Deathly Hallows (was there a point to this subplot?), but really it just broke the rhythm and made it take that much longer. There were a couple of moments that struck gold, such as Dumbledore's somewhat grey interior (I hated the character, but love what she did) and Nagini coming out of Bathilda Bagshot's corpse, but I'm almost certain that the aim there was entirely accidental.
By the time we got round to the climax, it seemed as though everybody was just ready to get it over and done with (probably a positive decision) and, while McGonagall got to scream, "Charge!" and Harry hallucinated a bit, I didn't feel nearly as much satisfaction as I could have. I am left feeling much the way that Draco probably feels about his thinning hair: rather anxious, but nothing a good fanfic won't cure.
On the bright side, I suppose that it could be worse. Lucius Malfoy could be dead thereby condemning us all to a lifetime of rent boys, the books could have been written in a universe where resurrection is even less likely, or Snape could actually be evil. So, really, I've no right to complain.