Web 2.0 & HP:DH
Now, just to clarify. I completed the book the Monday it came out. I was house/puppy-sitting w/o the internet so I wrote this the night I read the last Potter page. I'm only now just sorta getting around to posting it.t
Wow. Hamlet.
I'd like to read a final body count.
30min later I'm still a bit blown away. Snape was expected and for pretty much those reasons... It had to happen and that's fine. I get it. I could have wished for a better death scene much less a reason... Why give Lupin a kid...with Tonks no less...only to kill them both. Give two of the most marginalized characters, 'cept for maybe Draco, a kid only to kill them. And not only kill them, but give them 1 line to die and another line to be mourned. What the hell.
I bet this doesn't even get mentioned in the DH movie. I bet $10 that the entire Tonks/Lupin family gets nixed and they die without this apparent child.
I'll admit the bit with playing opossum was clever. I dug that. I also love Neville. Oh Gods was he good. A character to be proud of.
Luna...well. She never really developed did she. She learned to stun a person in DA then got to do it in practice. I guess that's growth.
Man, what I wouldn't have given to have seen more page time for Harry and Draco post-Voldy-loo. Hell, even during Voldy-loo. It seems so abrupt for them to jump 19 years later and Draco's sprogged up and at the platform with his own litter.
Speaking of litter...who the hell took "Ted Tonks" the metamorphagus werewolf? Andromeda? Did Remus' lycanthropy even transfer??
Other things I wonder...
What happened to Krum, Charlie, Bill, Fluer and Penelope Clearwater? What about Prof. Sinistra, Trelawny and Vector? Lots of questions.
Still pissed about Snape, Lupin and Tonks. It took me nearly 600pages to kinda groove to them making puppies... even if Lupin was nearly 100% out of his believable sphere of character... to have JKR kill him. I liked Tonks as a character a lot and her getting preggers during war is so out there. Accidents happen yea yea. But honestly.
Thanks for flinching JKR. Mr. Weasly vs. Mr. & Mrs Lupin. Bad exchange. Good Job JKR. Good Job.
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In the wake of DH. I have found an article which I found if not profound, then at least a though provoking. Yay for literary critiques!
“If literature truly reflects society, then the end of the Harry Potter series spells trouble for us all.
Because, after 10 years, 4,195 pages, and over 325 million copies, J.K. Rowling's towering achievement lacks the cornerstone of almost all great children's literature: the hero's moral journey. Without that foundation, her story - for all its epic trappings of good versus evil - is stuck in a moral no man's land.
To be clear: This isn't a critique of Ms. Rowling's values. It's a recognition of a disturbing trend in commercial storytelling and Western society.”
It’s academic analysis like this that really make my heart pound and make my brain kick in. I’ve got to thank my Research Comm. Class for instilling in me a freakish love of rhetorical criticisms and academic dissections of popular culture. Please! If anyone has good ones - Share!
Selected Links
- The Leaky Lounge's list of all academic Potter topics.
- For HP+Politics try eldritchhobbit's selected links
- Hogwartsprofessor.com - Thoughts for the Serious Reader of Harry Potter
I sat the other day for nearly 2 hours watching CSPAN2. They had a fantastic debate between this dude, Andrew Keen, who wrote "The Cult of the Amateur" and a reporter from WiredNews and another chap who has a name that escapes me. But anyways, for anyone who loves to read nerdy stuff about the cultural ramifications of Web 2.0, the "web culture" or even why how the internet is going to be the downfall of the world this interview with Mr. Keen is a pretty darn good read. I would VERY highly advise folks to hit YouTube and watch some of his interviews. The one @ The Strand was really good IMHO (but YouTube doesn't have it). But what do I know, I'm a crappy blogger at best and a cultural consumer at worst.
...oh god. I'm a web-culture nerd aren't I? When did that happen?!