Comments | a_chapter_a_day: Chapter 23

cheeringcharm in a_chapter_a_day

Chapter 23 - Horcruxes

Sep 08, 2005 17:02

After a throw-away scene with the Fat Lady and Nearly Headless Nick, Harry runs up to Dumblegod's office to give him Slughorn's memory. They journey into the pensieve and see the same memory as before, this time with substance instead of mist. Turns out Slughorn did tell Riddle about horcruxes and how they are created. Riddle is most interested in ( Read more... )

Comments 22

annearchy September 8 2005, 22:03:29 UTC

Is this chapter 23?

cheeringcharm September 8 2005, 22:06:47 UTC

Yep. Just fixed it.

schtroumph_c September 8 2005, 22:08:24 UTC

* I am told that his anger was terrible to behold."

Snape?

darkeyedwolf September 8 2005, 22:14:07 UTC

*shakes head* I don't get the end of this chapter, either. The entire point of OotP was the propechy -- it was the Prophecy Book. It was the book where Dumbledore claimed he'd tell Harry everything. Harry flat-out asked if would have to kill Voldemort (or vice versa) in the end, and Dumbledore said yes. But now... Harry can turn his back on his destiny? This major hero quest is no longer about saving the world because he's the only one who can, but about punishing Voldemort for his misdeeds and getting revenge?

cadesama September 8 2005, 23:23:23 UTC

Throw-away is right. I'm not typically in the camp demanding that JKR shorten her books, but why waste page space on something as boring and useless as the Fat Lady harassing Harry when she could do more character development ( ... )

rainfletcher September 9 2005, 09:02:34 UTC

Yeah, that sound you heard was the can of worms being opened. Not differentiating between murder and killing really makes the ending suspect. So does Harry have to defeat Voldemort without killing him? Will Harry die rather than live with a shredded soul? Or do you get a Special Karmic Exemption if you're taking out the Bad Guy?

I wonder if this was moral posturing? JKR says she's not in this to teach the kiddies any lessons (Buddha knows, she didn't do girls in love any favors), but I wonder if not addressing the Difference Between Killing And Murder was intentional as a way to avoid the issue entirely, thus making it appear that she's NOT proselytizing? I don't know if I'm making any sense, but it seems like the author winds up looking like she's making a stand (all killing is bad, period) while trying to avoid making one (sometimes killing is justifiable or unavoidable).

cadesama September 9 2005, 18:26:26 UTC

I don't know if I'm making any sense, but it seems like the author winds up looking like she's making a stand (all killing is bad, period) while trying to avoid making one (sometimes killing is justifiable or unavoidable).You make about as much sense as JKR does on this issue. Just kidding, you make more sense than trying to tell a classic hero's journey while removing all the parts that make it about a hero. She's left behind a contradictory, morally incoherent story for the purpose of "realism" or trying to avoid prosletyzing. If she wanted to do either of those things, I think she should have avoided writing an archetypal, heroic epic ( ... )

schtroumph_c September 9 2005, 15:12:19 UTC

If this Lestrange is indeed Bella's husband, and they all shared knowing looks about Riddle's heritage, why did Bella freak at the suggestion that Voldie wasn't a pureblood in OotP? Of course, maybe it's Rastaban (do we know if he's older or younger?), since Sirius said that all of Snape's gang (including the Lestranges) ended up Death Eaters, so it presumably they were all contemporaries. Still, you'd think Rastaban would let his sister-in-law in on the secret.

It was 50 years ago, it was probably the father of Bella's husband.

Thread 8

annearchy September 9 2005, 01:09:46 UTC

This was one of the chapters about which my daughter said (more than once), "This is boring, do we HAVE to read it?" She's 9 and has listened to me read books 1-5 to her twice over the past 3 years, but she finds this book really difficult to listen to, probably because it's so...talky.

Next we come to the confusing part of the chapter, where Dumblegod tells Harry that he's setting too much store by the prophecy, you know, that thing that the entire previous book centered around. Well, apparently, prophecies are only significant if they are acted on. Since Voldemort acted on the prophecy, he fulfilled it. If he would have ignored it, then Harry would be just like any other kid. Basically, Voldemort created his own enemy.

Ah yes. Well. *cough* So the Big Reveal of OotP (really, of the series through OotP) turns out not to have been such a big fricking deal after all. Good thing Harry didn't spend a lot of time obsessing about it during the summer.