Not that this great broom will in any way give Harry an unearned advantage over any other Seeker, of course. Our brooms, like our choices, simply show who we are.
I've always hated that. And enjoyed the couple of fanfics which have made a point of equalising matters, making things fair between all the Houses, a level playing field.
So Hermione chooses to buy the cat that attacks Ron’s rat on sight. Yup, that neatly fits their pattern all right. Not exactly optimistic symbolism for that marriage.
GOD BLESS YOU.
I loved the snarking against Ginny; please keep it up!! :-)
As I've mentioned in another comment, Ginny didn't really have to worry about things in the first five books, she could take it easy, she was going to be boosted into the prime-time spot of AWESOMELY AWESOME LOVE INTEREST regardless of what she did or how rotten she was. She got a free ride in the series ... and she didn't deserve it.
But here, in deathtocapslock, we'll see her for what she really was, yay!!
Molly says Dumbledore would never let anything
( ... )
It's one of the funniest things about this book the way everyone agrees that the Firebolt makes Harry unbeatable, yet it literally never occurs to anybody to think of it in a negative way--except the Slytherins who are really just jealous that Harry's soul is so much shinier in general.
I'm still surprised about Ginny just because by the end of GoF I pretty much figured her for the top contender of Harry's girlfriend and had nothing against her. And then OotP happened and I was like...really? Because that and HBP so clearly lays out what makes her ideal for Harry and wow, I'd love to hear what other parents had to say about having to deal with the two of them at school meetings.
And then OotP happened and I was like...really? Because that and HBP so clearly lays out what makes her ideal for Harry and wow, I'd love to hear what other parents had to say about having to deal with the two of them at school meetings.Heh
( ... )
Yes, in OotP I was rolling my eyes at all the set ups for Ginny to be awesome and take-no-shit and cool, but it wasn't until HBP where every word out of her mouth was a put down and everybody except Harry (and Luna, who was almost like a pet) was dirt beneath her feet. Very strange
( ... )
LOL love this recap. JKR can be very funny but it's when she's trying to be side-splittingly funny that she sadly isn't.
Everyone eats their way through 5 courses at dinner. I’m so glad we’re away from the fat people so we can get down to enjoying all this good food!
Yes! That really bothers me - it's okay to eat a lot of food as long as you're not fat, because only bad people eat so much that they get fat. But if you're good, then you will stay thin. I don't think JKR did it on purpose but it is upsetting that she's continuing to perpetuate a stereotype.
I don't even think I'm super sensitive about this stuff. I mean, I wouldn't automatically have a problem with fat people and good meals. It's just that there's so much emphasis on the fatness of the fat characters I can't help but think of it anytime anybody tucks into one of these huge meals with such gusto!
Harry also gets free sundaes every half an hour. Wow. Does he look a little more like Dudley by the end of the week or what?
It's interesting to get the reminders of how very fantastical these books were back in the beginning. Very "kids eye view" with the sort of exaggerations that would especially appeal to children. (A sundae every half hour?!? AWESOME!) But there is the uncomfortableness of reality bumping up against it. Maybe because JKR doesn't stick to her own rules? Can you have one child shown as greedy for loving his dessert while another one equally loving his dessert, somehow (magically!) isn't greedy? Injuries get the same treatment. Later on, Draco can drip blood and it's a funny exaggeration; Harry gets bruised and it's a horrible thing.
I'm also noting how Harry, who can well afford paying for all the sundaes he'd like, still gets it for free. Just like... gosh, every single one of his brooms, iirc. Meanwhile, Ron has to scrimp and save -- or his parents do -- for every item he owns. Another odd, and not
( ... )
The Crookshanks thing is very weird. I mean, it's part of the theme of people snuggling these animals that are behaving dreadfully, but it's more like a joke than a character trait--depending on the character. I think Herimone's love of Crookshanks is supposed to be funny, like Hagrid's love of his animals, where of course Aunt Marge just proves herself a dreadful person with her awful dog
( ... )
I mean, Hermione doesn't seem to see Crookshanks as a challenge at all...
I remember having an enormous epiphany in Mike Smith's blog where I realized that most of what I saw in the books wasn't really there. It was all expectations I brought from my own reading past. And yes, this is definitely one of those moments. ;)
In the end, Crookshanks becomes another uncomfortable juxtaposition where JKR's humor doesn't quite fit with the drama she's going for. One of those jokes that goes on too long and suddenly you realize the butt of the joke is actually in pain down there on the floor. And everything changes.
Crookshanks isn't that big a challenge though. The biggest problem for Crookshanks is Scabbers (even if he was you common or garden rat) and if he wasn't there you really wouldn't have noticed Crookshanks. In fact, for all his supposed "cleverness", really what use is Crookshanks after this book?
Harry likes eating breakfast in the Cauldron and watching the other customers. Almost as if he’s a curious boy with interest in the world around him. I’m thinking Dumbledore must have slipped him something to kill this once he got to school.
Aw, I miss curious Harry. There's my little mongoose. Though if Dumbledore did kill his curiosity, I suppose he did it for a good reason. You can't have a mentee who's too curious, after all. Otherwise he might try to learn magic more useful than transfiguring bunny-rabbits into bunny-slippers (I know I've always got too many bunny-rabbits lying around and not enough bunny-slippers), start wondering too much about whether he should hate the Slytherins so much... maybe even begin to question the Holy Word according to Dumbledore.
'Tis better to have an incurious hero, otherwise he might try to do something other than walk to his death on your orders-- like I don't know, trying to find an alternate solution. Perish the thought!
LOL! There’s something wonderful about Harry reminding himself that
( ... )
---" "Well, I haven't been murdered! That's an accomplishment!" Well, in DH that was the main accomplishment of the trio on their camping trip at some point - they even acknowledged it (or rather, Harry did)."
I like the way you specify 'the camping trip'. Seeing as Harry can't even maintain the 'not being killed' thing to the end of the book. To be fair, though, that was planned (though certainly not by Harry) . In fact, in all seriousness, being killed by Voldemort was the genuine high point of Harry's efforts in this book. If it wasn't for Dumbles, he wouldn't even have done that...
Black’s not going to be caught by a 13-year-old wizard, Arthur says, a line that sounds incredibly silly given that you’d think a world war wouldn’t be fought and won by a 17-year-old wizard and his idiot friends, and yet it will.
I know that stuff like that is actually pretty standard in children's book, but I feel as if HP series reached a new lame... I mean, she came up with dozens of adult characters that were *called* knowledgable, skilled, powerful and so on, and so on... And then they just sit there and do nothing while kiddies run around pretending to be heroes. Seriously. There is at least fifty seven ways to engage others and still have Harry where she wanted him.
George is revolted at the idea of being a Prefect, because it would take all the fun out of life, and Ginny giggles. I guess there’s our Big Clue to the firecracker within.Actually, I think that's a good enough clue given that all I got from Ginny's awesome personality was the fact that she turned out to be a really mean, ill-natured girl
( ... )
It's true that the kids saving everything is a children's book staple, but I think it's fair to say that the end of the series stretches it far past the breaking point. I mean, if you want it to come down to Harry and his friends pretty much doing what they did back in PS/SS, don't go to all the trouble of saying it's WWII only in this version everybody just sits around and trembles until the kid saves them! The stakes were both too high and never high enough in DH.
In the children's adventure books I recall, while the protagonists caught the spy, criminal or whoever that chose to take residence in their neighborhood, it was pretty obvious that the police, military or other relevant organizations were tackling the bulk of the situation. OK, so with Harry being a Horcrux and all the various ways he was connected to Voldemort he had to be the one to face him, at least once, but there was a lot more going on in the meanwhile - the country was swarming with dementors, Muggle-borns were being captured, their wands taken away, some killed or soul-sucked, Muggles attacked without knowing by whom - there was plenty for the Order to do even if they were instructed not to take on Voldemort himself. One can't even argue this was going on in the background and Harry's isolation prevented us from hearing of it because even the father of an Order member had no support but other refugees he ran into by chance, and neither did the underground radio station give any information that might help those in need.
Indeed, it doesn't make sense for the entire population to sit on its laurels and wait for a teenager to save the world whilst they bunk down in the cellar with tinned food and biscuits and wait for it all to blow over. It does make me wonder whether Dark Lords popped up throughout history all the time and whist people were scared, they knew it would all be ok in the end because, hey, it always will be. Maybe this is why in GoF people seem to have forgotten about Sirius entirely; the problem just "blew over". In reality too many people did too little; I always thought it astounding that the Order knew that the trio were off on some vague orders from Dumbledore, yet only Lupin volunteers to help (and then only to escape his marriage).
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I've always hated that. And enjoyed the couple of fanfics which have made a point of equalising matters, making things fair between all the Houses, a level playing field.
So Hermione chooses to buy the cat that attacks Ron’s rat on sight. Yup, that neatly fits their pattern all right. Not exactly optimistic symbolism for that marriage.
GOD BLESS YOU.
I loved the snarking against Ginny; please keep it up!! :-)
As I've mentioned in another comment, Ginny didn't really have to worry about things in the first five books, she could take it easy, she was going to be boosted into the prime-time spot of AWESOMELY AWESOME LOVE INTEREST regardless of what she did or how rotten she was. She got a free ride in the series ... and she didn't deserve it.
But here, in deathtocapslock, we'll see her for what she really was, yay!!
Molly says Dumbledore would never let anything ( ... )
Reply
I'm still surprised about Ginny just because by the end of GoF I pretty much figured her for the top contender of Harry's girlfriend and had nothing against her. And then OotP happened and I was like...really? Because that and HBP so clearly lays out what makes her ideal for Harry and wow, I'd love to hear what other parents had to say about having to deal with the two of them at school meetings.
Reply
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Everyone eats their way through 5 courses at dinner. I’m so glad we’re away from the fat people so we can get down to enjoying all this good food!
Yes! That really bothers me - it's okay to eat a lot of food as long as you're not fat, because only bad people eat so much that they get fat. But if you're good, then you will stay thin. I don't think JKR did it on purpose but it is upsetting that she's continuing to perpetuate a stereotype.
Reply
Reply
It's interesting to get the reminders of how very fantastical these books were back in the beginning. Very "kids eye view" with the sort of exaggerations that would especially appeal to children. (A sundae every half hour?!? AWESOME!) But there is the uncomfortableness of reality bumping up against it. Maybe because JKR doesn't stick to her own rules? Can you have one child shown as greedy for loving his dessert while another one equally loving his dessert, somehow (magically!) isn't greedy? Injuries get the same treatment. Later on, Draco can drip blood and it's a funny exaggeration; Harry gets bruised and it's a horrible thing.
I'm also noting how Harry, who can well afford paying for all the sundaes he'd like, still gets it for free. Just like... gosh, every single one of his brooms, iirc. Meanwhile, Ron has to scrimp and save -- or his parents do -- for every item he owns. Another odd, and not ( ... )
Reply
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I remember having an enormous epiphany in Mike Smith's blog where I realized that most of what I saw in the books wasn't really there. It was all expectations I brought from my own reading past. And yes, this is definitely one of those moments. ;)
In the end, Crookshanks becomes another uncomfortable juxtaposition where JKR's humor doesn't quite fit with the drama she's going for. One of those jokes that goes on too long and suddenly you realize the butt of the joke is actually in pain down there on the floor. And everything changes.
Reply
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Aw, I miss curious Harry. There's my little mongoose. Though if Dumbledore did kill his curiosity, I suppose he did it for a good reason. You can't have a mentee who's too curious, after all. Otherwise he might try to learn magic more useful than transfiguring bunny-rabbits into bunny-slippers (I know I've always got too many bunny-rabbits lying around and not enough bunny-slippers), start wondering too much about whether he should hate the Slytherins so much... maybe even begin to question the Holy Word according to Dumbledore.
'Tis better to have an incurious hero, otherwise he might try to do something other than walk to his death on your orders-- like I don't know, trying to find an alternate solution. Perish the thought!
LOL! There’s something wonderful about Harry reminding himself that ( ... )
Reply
Well, in DH that was the main accomplishment of the trio on their camping trip at some point - they even acknowledged it (or rather, Harry did).
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I like the way you specify 'the camping trip'. Seeing as Harry can't even maintain the 'not being killed' thing to the end of the book. To be fair, though, that was planned (though certainly not by Harry) . In fact, in all seriousness, being killed by Voldemort was the genuine high point of Harry's efforts in this book. If it wasn't for Dumbles, he wouldn't even have done that...
Reply
I know that stuff like that is actually pretty standard in children's book, but I feel as if HP series reached a new lame... I mean, she came up with dozens of adult characters that were *called* knowledgable, skilled, powerful and so on, and so on... And then they just sit there and do nothing while kiddies run around pretending to be heroes. Seriously. There is at least fifty seven ways to engage others and still have Harry where she wanted him.
George is revolted at the idea of being a Prefect, because it would take all the fun out of life, and Ginny giggles. I guess there’s our Big Clue to the firecracker within.Actually, I think that's a good enough clue given that all I got from Ginny's awesome personality was the fact that she turned out to be a really mean, ill-natured girl ( ... )
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