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SPOILERS FOR HARRY POTTER
QUESTIONS:
Does someone want to explain the whole, Voldemort has Harry's blood thing? Got the part about Harry being a Horcrux, and needing to sacrifice himself to live, and all the stuff about the wands, but didn't get the thing about part of Lily's sacrifice being transferred to Voldemort?
Did anyone spend a long time thinking the Malfoys were all dead?
Did anyone else find the epilogue kind of chilling?
Did anyone find the part where the trio were on the run, camping out in different spots, quite slow and a bit drag-y? Especially while Ron was off being a prat?
Who had the Lupins slated for death the moment their baby was born healthy?
How many times did you cry, and at what parts?
How many times did you laugh, or, uh. Possibly cheer or whoop? At what parts?
How long did it take you to read?
Phineas says, "Remember the part the Slytherins played!" What part did they play? We see Slugghorn running about helping--is there a suggestion, or did I just miss it, that the Syltherins who left when McGonagall said to prepare to fight, helped muster the forces of thestrals and families and whatnot?
*
OVERALL:
I loved this book. A lot.
To say the least, there was a lot of hype leading up to it. To me almost all of that seems justified now. Not the people being dickheads parts of the hype, but the general excitement.
As for myself, I had my own set of expectations. I've always liked HP. I've always liked it quite a bit, actually. And there were certain aspects I could get fannish about, but not the 'verse as a whole. I just thought the books were good, and fun, and entertaining, but certain things sat wrong with me and I couldn't ever see myself really dying of love for any of it. That changed about eight months ago. Something clicked in my head, and since then I've been pretty much mad for them. Some of you have seen me drooling over Harry/Draco but it wasn't just that; it was all of it.
The thing that clicked was I just started seeing the books in a different light. I started, uh, interrogating them from a different perspective. And I started thinking about what it all meant, what it would mean for book 7, where JKR would go with all this. And I formed a lot of ideas and theories about not just what was going to happen but what had to happen (particularly thematically). If they didn't happen, the could still be fun nice adventure books, but pretty much the way I had started to view the books would collapse. I could still hold that view, of course, but I'd have to discount book 7. It would've been a disappointment.
I had meant to write these ideas down, several large proofs about what I thought would happen and why. I wish I had now just for the pleasure of looking at them and saying, "OMG I was so smart! So right!" But that's just me liking to gloat--not over anyone--to just gloat for the sake of gloating. But mostly, I'm just happy the things I needed to happen for this world to work for me not only happened but happened and then some. Most of the points I wanted to be made were very explicit. Stuff like:
-Snape loving Lily. Snape turning from Voldemort because Voldemort was hunting Lily. Snape being Dumbledore's because of Lily. Dumbledore trusting Snape because he knew the power of Snape's love. Snape's love being a weapon against Voldemort.
-Harry having to sacrifice himself. Harry having to willingly die in order to live. Harry's sacrifice mirroring Lily's sacrifice, Harry's sacrifice defeating Voldemort, Harry living.
-Races uniting at the end, goblins and house elves being instrumental to getting Horcruxes/fighting Voldemort.
The things that I thought would really be important that weren't there was I thought Harry would have to have some big moment of forgiving and even loving the human part of Voldemort, the part that was still Tom Riddle, in order to defeat him. But the thing about Harry having to sacrifice himself in order to live took care of a lot of the themes I wanted to be covered on that front. I also thought we'd see a little more in House cooperation (namely the admission Slytherin isn't all bad, in more than just a cursory way).
(The latter would be why I find the epilogue chilling. HP is about 4 generations: Dumbledore's, Riddle's, James Potter's, and Harry Potters, and each of those generations has parallels and repetitions that circle, and circle, and circle. What it looked like to me on Platform 9 3/4 was just more history repeating: Ron telling his kid to give Draco's kid a tough time [omg. Draco's kid. *is momentarily manaical with glee!!!*], and there's still prejudice against Slytherin. There's a bit at the end which is maybe supposed to be nice, with Harry telling young Albus any House is alright, with that really amazing and to me completely unexpected tribute payed to Severus Snape. But it's told in whispers, so easily forgotten. Everything seems so much the same as it was in that scene on the train with James, Lily, Severus, and Sirius. As it must have been with Riddle, as it must have been with Albus. I can't figure out whether JKR meant to do that or not--I was so happy just before the epilogue and then the epilogue itself SENT CHILLS DOWN MY SPINE.
Oh, and I like how much happens at King's Cross, all that, too. I wrote a paper in undergrad about the symbolism of a train station in a Pynchon book. Anyway, that bit with Albus was in dreamscape!King's Cross, the Lily,Petunia fight at the station, the end with Harry and kidlets. Which just adds SO MUCH to Voldemort at the train station in movie 5. COOL.)
I have a lot more to say, but now I'm kinda splooging everywhere so I leave you with this.
ETA: I also thought there would be more about the inter-racial cooperation than there was. Some of the stuff about goblins still made me uncomfortable, like Harry wasn't really being fair.
Also, I fucking love this so hard I don't know what to do with myself now.
ETA2: Stoney linked to this; I link as well since it was exactly what popped into my head when I read that epilogue. LMAO.
Does someone want to explain the whole, Voldemort has Harry's blood thing? Got the part about Harry being a Horcrux, and needing to sacrifice himself to live, and all the stuff about the wands, but didn't get the thing about part of Lily's sacrifice being transferred to Voldemort?
Did anyone spend a long time thinking the Malfoys were all dead?
Did anyone else find the epilogue kind of chilling?
Did anyone find the part where the trio were on the run, camping out in different spots, quite slow and a bit drag-y? Especially while Ron was off being a prat?
Who had the Lupins slated for death the moment their baby was born healthy?
How many times did you cry, and at what parts?
How many times did you laugh, or, uh. Possibly cheer or whoop? At what parts?
How long did it take you to read?
Phineas says, "Remember the part the Slytherins played!" What part did they play? We see Slugghorn running about helping--is there a suggestion, or did I just miss it, that the Syltherins who left when McGonagall said to prepare to fight, helped muster the forces of thestrals and families and whatnot?
*
OVERALL:
I loved this book. A lot.
To say the least, there was a lot of hype leading up to it. To me almost all of that seems justified now. Not the people being dickheads parts of the hype, but the general excitement.
As for myself, I had my own set of expectations. I've always liked HP. I've always liked it quite a bit, actually. And there were certain aspects I could get fannish about, but not the 'verse as a whole. I just thought the books were good, and fun, and entertaining, but certain things sat wrong with me and I couldn't ever see myself really dying of love for any of it. That changed about eight months ago. Something clicked in my head, and since then I've been pretty much mad for them. Some of you have seen me drooling over Harry/Draco but it wasn't just that; it was all of it.
The thing that clicked was I just started seeing the books in a different light. I started, uh, interrogating them from a different perspective. And I started thinking about what it all meant, what it would mean for book 7, where JKR would go with all this. And I formed a lot of ideas and theories about not just what was going to happen but what had to happen (particularly thematically). If they didn't happen, the could still be fun nice adventure books, but pretty much the way I had started to view the books would collapse. I could still hold that view, of course, but I'd have to discount book 7. It would've been a disappointment.
I had meant to write these ideas down, several large proofs about what I thought would happen and why. I wish I had now just for the pleasure of looking at them and saying, "OMG I was so smart! So right!" But that's just me liking to gloat--not over anyone--to just gloat for the sake of gloating. But mostly, I'm just happy the things I needed to happen for this world to work for me not only happened but happened and then some. Most of the points I wanted to be made were very explicit. Stuff like:
-Snape loving Lily. Snape turning from Voldemort because Voldemort was hunting Lily. Snape being Dumbledore's because of Lily. Dumbledore trusting Snape because he knew the power of Snape's love. Snape's love being a weapon against Voldemort.
-Harry having to sacrifice himself. Harry having to willingly die in order to live. Harry's sacrifice mirroring Lily's sacrifice, Harry's sacrifice defeating Voldemort, Harry living.
-Races uniting at the end, goblins and house elves being instrumental to getting Horcruxes/fighting Voldemort.
The things that I thought would really be important that weren't there was I thought Harry would have to have some big moment of forgiving and even loving the human part of Voldemort, the part that was still Tom Riddle, in order to defeat him. But the thing about Harry having to sacrifice himself in order to live took care of a lot of the themes I wanted to be covered on that front. I also thought we'd see a little more in House cooperation (namely the admission Slytherin isn't all bad, in more than just a cursory way).
(The latter would be why I find the epilogue chilling. HP is about 4 generations: Dumbledore's, Riddle's, James Potter's, and Harry Potters, and each of those generations has parallels and repetitions that circle, and circle, and circle. What it looked like to me on Platform 9 3/4 was just more history repeating: Ron telling his kid to give Draco's kid a tough time [omg. Draco's kid. *is momentarily manaical with glee!!!*], and there's still prejudice against Slytherin. There's a bit at the end which is maybe supposed to be nice, with Harry telling young Albus any House is alright, with that really amazing and to me completely unexpected tribute payed to Severus Snape. But it's told in whispers, so easily forgotten. Everything seems so much the same as it was in that scene on the train with James, Lily, Severus, and Sirius. As it must have been with Riddle, as it must have been with Albus. I can't figure out whether JKR meant to do that or not--I was so happy just before the epilogue and then the epilogue itself SENT CHILLS DOWN MY SPINE.
Oh, and I like how much happens at King's Cross, all that, too. I wrote a paper in undergrad about the symbolism of a train station in a Pynchon book. Anyway, that bit with Albus was in dreamscape!King's Cross, the Lily,Petunia fight at the station, the end with Harry and kidlets. Which just adds SO MUCH to Voldemort at the train station in movie 5. COOL.)
I have a lot more to say, but now I'm kinda splooging everywhere so I leave you with this.
ETA: I also thought there would be more about the inter-racial cooperation than there was. Some of the stuff about goblins still made me uncomfortable, like Harry wasn't really being fair.
Also, I fucking love this so hard I don't know what to do with myself now.
ETA2: Stoney linked to this; I link as well since it was exactly what popped into my head when I read that epilogue. LMAO.
no subject
Not a long time, but I thought they were dead after Harry escaped from their home.
Did anyone else find the epilogue kind of chilling?
Not at all. I got warm fuzzies. The whole "whispering" was the opposite to me. To me, whispers are better remembered because they're told in a distinctly different way: the one speaking (or whispering) is making a point and wants to stress it. So (s)he makes it so the listener has to really listen to hear it.
Who had the Lupins slated for death the moment their baby was born healthy?
Oh, never thought of it that way! But it makes total sense.
How many times did you cry, and at what parts?
I "cried" (and for me that means misty-eyed) several times. Hedwig dying, Dudley's farewell, Kreacher's change of heart, Dobby dying, several of lines that can be put on bumper stickers ("sorting too soon" - I saw that, too, differently). But I actually laughed/sobbed when Harry's son was named Albus Severus. That wrecked me.
How many times did you laugh, or, uh. Possibly cheer or whoop? At what parts?
When George made a comment about his missing ear and being "holey." The Hermione/Ron kiss. Neville cutting off the snake's head. Ron punching Draco. Mrs. Weasley calling Bellatrix a bitch and then finishing her off.
How long did it take you to read?
I don't know how many hours it took me to read. I wasn't counting. I just know I'm done, and I'm exhausted, and I'm euphoric.
no subject
My friend said if Lupin died, Tonks would die with him. I didn't think so at first, but she gradually convinced me, and then I was all uber convinced with the Harry-Lupin fight and Harry telling Lupin to stick with his kid (that fight BROKE me. Lupin is one of my favorite characters, and I thought things Harry said were CRUEL. But the intent behind them true). Then when the kid was born healthy I guessed they'd die because it would be TRAGIC, but there'd still be happiness and their memory in the form of Teddy.
"sorting too soon" - I saw that, too, differently
How did you see it? At first, I was nodding along, because children can't be judged the way you judge adults; they have to have a chance to find their true selves, and it can take a while.
And then I said, WAIT, when was SORTING ever about JUDGING? And then I got really upset. Amy, I'm upset.
I am still so happy over this book. It feels weird now it's all over.
no subject
I don't see Sorting as judging in the sense that we (humans) think of judging. I see it as the hat looking into your soul aseeing where you'd fit in best. In Snape's case, for the most part, he does belong in Slytherin because of his outlook in life (and he wanted to go into that house). Sure life has made him bitter, but Harry's life was hell before going to Hogwarts and look where the hat placed him (but only after he asked it to). People have aspects of each house within them and people get pigeon-holed into their houses' outward reputation. It's not really the Sorting that's judging, but people's perception of its results. "Sorting too soon" implied to me that people saw Snape as "bad," and he did a selfless thing that no one but Dumbledore knew about.
That's why I can see people being unsettled about what is conveyed in the epilogue - the old feelings are still there. But those (the old feelings) are the only thing we definitely see in the future. There could be many other, positive things too. Harry's comment that it doesn't matter which house his son is placed in along with his nod to Malfoy gave me that session. What about the condition of non-wizarding magical creaters, like house elves and goblins? What about wizards' relationship with muggles? Things can still be the same, but different too. I think Rowling left things vague for us for that very reason.
I don't think I really answered anything, to be honest. :-) I just didn't see it as a negative thing. I also am in the midst of reading a book comparing Harry Potter to Biblical themes, and it compared Sorting to the predestination verses free will debate, which I'm also struggling to get a grasp on. Sorting can be seen as being predestined into a certain house, but then Harry chose where he wanted to go. When you think of it, all children who expressed a distinct wish to go into certain houses were placed in them. Except Lily, who didn't seem to know where she wanted to go.