Sat 18 Aug 2007
I am at this point only four chapters into book six, aka & the Half-Blood Prince. Some thoughts thus far:
- The teacher in me really hates Dumbledore. He wants to shout into D’s ear constantly that they are children for gods’ sakes, that if they get caught doing whatever they’re doing every time Dumbledore encourages them to break every rule and most laws while he looks the other way, they are screwed.
- The kid in me likes Dumbledore just fine.
- The kid in me is weaker than the teacher; as such, I am in direct opposition to most fans of the Harry Potter books by virtue of basically hating Dumbledore.
- At the beginning of HP5 I liked Harry and couldn’t stand Dumbledore. At the end of HP5 I hate Harry and I could almost-maybe like Dumbledore.
- In case an odd-numbered page and one’s goldfish-level memory might lead one to forget, a reminder: no one can Apparate or Disapparate to/from Hogwart’s! If one forgets while reading this sentence, don’t worry; shortly one will have an even-numbered page to read, on which Hermione will surely remind one.
- In case one finds one’s self too occupied forgetting and being reminded of the fact that no one can Apparate or Disapparate to/from Hogwart’s to remember this fact, fifth years have a lot of homework.
- I have posited to Deadblob that – note: there is a subtle reminder in the next fragment – given one cannot Apparate or Disapparate to/from Hogwart’s it is highly likely that one cannot Apparate or Disapparate to/from Hogwart’s because one has far too much homework to do.
- I’m actually really enjoying these books.
- The end of HP5 is just unforgivable. I want to reach into the novel and choke Harry with my own two hands.
- That I feel this way simply means JKR has very successfully made me care what happens.
- Everything about the 5th year Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher – more accurately, both of them – is absolutely brilliant.
- I really want a better understanding of how magic works. It seems like they point their wands and say their
fake Latin wordsincantations and if they really want it then it just happens. Much as I like a lot of the plot points and story effects of magic in the books a part of me finds this a really dissatisfying technology of magic. - Gods almighty, has any setting cried out more desperately for 0th-level detect magic? Jeez.
- If anything bad happens to Lupin in the long run I think I will probably cry my goddamned eyes out.
For now I’m taking a break. In part this is to “let” Deadblob catch up but truth is he’s already passed me. I needed to pull my head out of that world for a while after HP5. Right now I’m reading Boris Akunin‘s The Death of Achilles. Highly recommended; it’s Holmes meets Marlowe meets Bond in Moscow in 1882. The empire is just starting to look a little wilty around the edges and a Russian diplomat trained in martial arts and philosophy is solving murders with his Japanese manservant. It sounds terrible, I know, but it is not. It is quite good.
Mmmm, Japanese manservant. Doesn’t sound terrible to me.
I really want a better understanding of how magic works. It seems like they point their wands and say their fake Latin wordsincantations and if they really want it then it just happens. Much as I like a lot of the plot points and story effects of magic in the books a part of me finds this a really dissatisfying technology of magic.
Yeah, this was one of the bits that I misliked the most. It seems to me that JK left it intentionally vague so that, when written into one of her many plot corners, she can pull out some hitherto unexplained property of magic to let the characters pull through. I’m all for suspension of disbelief and letting her play fast and loose, but find that this contrasts pretty strongly with the high attention paid to detail elsewhere in her world.
Or, more accurate, the high attention paid to the few details repeated over and over and over again… did you know that fifth-years have a lot of homework?
Holmes meets Marlowe meets Bond? Sounds right up my alley. And a Japanese manservant? (Is it like Mr. Moto meets Bunter, because that would be even MORE up my alley.) This is going right to the top of my to-read list.
If anything bad happens to Lupin in the long run I think I will
probably cry my goddamned eyes out.
Now, that’s ODD. I remember when I read HP3 the first time, and when Lupin was introduced, thinking that he reminded me of you. I could have convinced myself that we had shared an email about it, except that was a few years ago. Could it be that werewolves are the flamers of the witching world?
BTW, you can’t apparate/disapparate into/out of Hogwarts. You seem to be confused about that.
;P
1: You would love this novel. In a weird way it reminds me of A Wild Sheep Chase.
2: I was too busy not Apparating/Disapparating to notice the homework, sorry.
3: You will love it. You will absolutely love it.
4: That is probably the coolest thing anyone has said to me in a really long time. I love Lupin. Love, love, love. When I’m done with the series I’m going to go back and reread 3 just because I love Lupin so much. I’m sure we have not emailed about it before, though, because I had not read the book before two weeks ago!
Also, HOW-DEE! Email me, girl!
Hi, Robust. (I post on Unfogged, as perhaps you recall?) I’ve been reading your linked zombie story (liked it very much; the politics are absolutely aces (although I recognize that authorial intent is a myth)) and a bit of one of the novels (not very far in; amusing so far). Also the blog; it’s a very taking one.
Lupin is more-or-less the best character, except for Snape; he’s certainly almost the only likeable adult and the only one with a life that doesn’t depress me profoundly.
Dumbledore, I’ve often felt, as a very nonviolent person, mind you, needs a sock in the jaw.
The cruelty and realpolitik taken for granted by Rowling are very irritating. There are no politics as such in the wizarding world.
I find myself confused about the werewolves; surely a proper society would provide all the wicked, wicked ones with wolfsbane (hooray for alliteration!) and reintegrate them rather than compelling them to live evilly in feral packs? And then there would be much less reason to be, you know, afraid of them. And why are all the wicked, wicked ones so darn wicked? Why aren’t there more like Lupin?
I find myself puzzled by how engaged I am with these books, given that they are not consistant, their politics are terrible, they’re not witty and the plots have massive holes. The very emptiness is I suppose the allure; there’s lots of space to theorize and self-amuse.
Hey, Frowner! I think there’s a lot of predestination at hand in the books. Well, nearly being finished with Book 6, I know there’s a lot of that. Deadblob and I were discussing this the other day and he asked whether I felt that JKR saw Voldemort as ever having been capable of good or redemption and I said no, I didn’t think so, that she has set him up as evil by nature so that we won’t feel bad when he finally gets taken down once and for all. I think there’s a lot of that in these books, a lot of characters who are just fated to go one way or the other, who have no real agency at all. It makes me crazy sometimes but I think she sees it as necessary to (a) soften some of the blows and (b) make sure we know the white hats from the black hats. Simplistic, yes, but these are ultimate kids’ books and most kids’ books are simplistic. (His Dark Materials is an obvious exception and I’m not saying they’re all simplistic or should be.)
I disagree on the witty factor. I think there’s a lot of good wit in there. I have laughed out loud at some of the writing.
And yeah, the “politics,” such as they are come down to the intersection of two perpendicular axes: Good/Evil and Popular/Unpopular. Between them they form the grid on which almost every character can be plotted and around which almost every plot revolves. Snape was unpopular as a kid; is he also evil? Voldemort was both popular and evil, etc., etc. That makes things very simple and cuts out almost entirely the struggles of genuine conviction found in real-world politics. On the other hand, much of real-world politics is opportunism and almost all the petty politics of school years are opportunism, aren’t they? And these are, ultimately, a series of books in which the school mirrors life and life mirrors the school.
I dunno. By the near-end of Book 6 I could describe a lot of things I don’t like about these books. At the same time, I’ve grown to have some mad respect for certain aspects of them. I’ll be able to better express myself when I’m done with the series. For right now, all I can say is that I still love to watch Snape take the piss and I hope Draco gets his ass kicked. I find it very easy to unleash my inner high school junior, and those are his thoughts.