Deathly Hallows

[sistermagpie]

I feel weird writing this post, because I don't really feel like posting, yet it seems like I should, and then I think--what, do you imagine the public is waiting on pins and needles for your words? Get over yourself!:-D

Comments

[nidoking]

I think I feel the same way, or at least I'd describe it that way. I was never entirely invested in the books to the point of actual desire to read them and know what happens at any cost. I read the first few quite casually as I got them, asked what the heck was up with Quidditch, and waited for the next one to come out. With the last two, it's been a race to read them quickly so I can experience the books rather than the commentary and spoilers that inevitably follow quickly. I hate when people like something that much, because the more everyone else likes it, the less wholesome it seems to become. We were in the bookstore last night looking at all the merchandise that's sprung from the movies (I doubt anyone would have merchandised the series if it had remained exclusively in book form and JKR had refused to let anyone make a movie), and it just made me want to forget that Harry Potter had ever existed. People BUY this junk because they want to feel closer to the story... it's chess sets and fake wands! You can get that stuff, minus

[sistermagpie]

I think I've managed to avoid a lot of merchandise hype. There's been no getting away from hype in general--I think on my way to work for a while I've passed at least 12 OotP pictures--but I've never been to a release party of anything and I think I've tuned out a lot of merchandise. It always seemed kind of pointless to me, I mean that there was no reason to have stuff that said HP on it. (Though I do have a wand, it's just pretty.;-)

[nidoking]

I bought the Order of the Phoenix game for the Wii, for various reasons. I wanted to see what a Harry Potter game was like, I liked the idea of using the Wii remote to cast spells, and it turned out to come with a free ticket to the movie. And aside from "Barry Trotter and the Unauthorized Parody", that's all the merchandise I've bought. Just media, no 3-D Hogwarts puzzles, action figures, candy, fake props, Quidditch board games...

[_hannelore]

I have to wonder if JKR's need for an epilogue was geared toward younger readers who needed some kind of Murder She Wrote exposition. I wonder if she also wanted to tie up her own little loose ends, but in the end the epilogue just made me laugh... badly.

Honestly, I was ready for Harry to die. It disappointed me to see that she sort of chickened out to those ends.

[sistermagpie]

Honestly, it seems like younger readers would be even less interested in an epilogue than I was--but then, maybe that's because as I said I always hated them with a passion, even more so when I was a kid. I *hated* it when characters my age suddenly grew up and were adults at the end.

[megstuff]

What it mostly made me do is go over all the ways I was reading it wrong, making my issues more central than the author really considered them

This is exactly where I am with it right now. I hope at some point I'll be able to enjoy the series for what it is, now that I *know* what it is, but the things that I really loved, that made it compelling for me, were things that I only *thought* she was writing. (Or alternatively I can find a way to privilege my own reading...I hate to just give it up when I did love it so much.)

[sistermagpie]

Yeah, I'm open to liking things. There was just more in this book that I wasn't really excited by, and I didn't cry at any of the deaths or anything. I admit I was actually happy when Dobby died. And pages later I'd remember he was dead and be happy again.

I did like Dumbledore's backstory on its own, though.

[tiferet]

Now that I know what it actually is, it's something I can't love. If you can...more power to you.

[tsuvi]

Thank you for writing this post! I was begining to feel rather alone in some of my oppinions about DH and it's epilogue, but after reading this I'm glad others have thought some of the same things.

Yonks ago, when I first started hearing about the HP series epilogue, I was seriously apprehensive about such a final ending for the series. Now, after reading the book, some of my fears have come true. I agree... Albus Severus sounds weird on so many levels. Not to mention name confusion? I could hardley keep up with all the children running aorund the final chapter.

Mostley, I was dissapiointed with the lack of moral. JKR has always tlaked about deeper meanings and morals in her books and I thought that her epilogue would be a chance for her to give her last thoughts. Instead, it was a cliched fanfiction filled with many useless facts.

There were moments in the novel as a whole I enjoyed and will remember, but I must say, the epilogue left a bad taste in my mouth.

Again, thank you for your thoughts!

[sistermagpie]

Thanks! I know she was writing about stuff that was probably very resonant for her, just not for me. I wonder if it's a bit like people who read Tolkien and think the way the ring is destroyed is ridiculous.

[alchemia]

i was confused by the christian-ism she said she had and couldn't explain becuase of the book.... I mean, I am assuming Harry = christ figure, esp with the ressurection and all, but uhm, if he was, why'd he go and cast an unforgivable

[caesia390]

i didn't know the christian thing, but i would guess that it's Jesus's Love = Loving One Another, where "loving one another" means having friends and family you're loyal to even when they piss you off

[sistermagpie]

I just read your post--that was really interesting. I didn't think of it that way. Mostly I remember feeling very much that everything had been made WWII because that was basically the situation she wanted them to be in. It was almost like a spell was cast over the world that way. It felt a bit odd after a year of the attitude we had in HBP, and it seemed a little contrived. I didn't feel like I really knew enough to say it couldn't happen that way, but it really just felt like part of the plotline for this particular book, like the politics follow the same kind of timetable as everything else.

[alchemia]

thanks
I did pick up on the wwii stuff earlier as I think several other people did. i just expected it to be kept more general, and I wanted to see more emphasis on house-unity to over come evil (which could be taken easily at face value, or in a general sense of people coming together, or if you wanted to go the WWII parallel rout then they could be how all the countries had to work together etc). Of course Harry is meant to defeat Voldemort- no complaints with that as part of the expected plot, but dropping the ball on the house unity (among so many other things) and having harry save the day in that ministry scene turned it from something i could see read on different levels, to something that felt overly mary-sued, insensitive and offensive to my past.