Posted on 07/21/2007 5:18:11 PM PDT by JenB
So you finally know what happens to Harry. All our questions are answered. Or not. What are your reactions? Whose death hurt the most? Do you want more, and about whom?
SPOILERS are ok on this thread! You have been warned!
Wow. It's over.
Yes, but Snape was a Slytherin while attending Hogwarts and was head for most of Harry’s time there. I took the “role of Slytherin house” to mean mostly Snape’s role in Dumbledore’s plan to get rid of Voldemort. Just my opinion.
Kudos. Good summation of the Horcruxes’ destruction.
Yes, that crying baby is definitely a key image.
I’ve reread the King’s Cross chapter twice
more just to focus on the specifics of the scene.
Rowling is surely describing Harry as waking at the
gates of Heaven. He accepts the place as another
Room of Requirement. He and that flayed baby
are alone there until he is about to touch it...
VOILA! Dumbledore appears. How indeed? IMO
Rowling is recalling Milton’s oft used quote:
“The mind is its own place, and in itself,
can make heaven of Hell, and a hell of Heaven.”
Even more, p. 709 alludes to a Christian image
with the blood being used to rebuild the body
and the mother’s blessing being carried in that
blood. And how fitting that for the whimpering baby
(Voldemort) ‘there is no help possible.’
Harry repeatedly turns to view it until the
moment HE becomes the mentor of the self-doubting Dumbledore (was I any better than V.? I too tried
to master Death) by reminding him that Dumbledore
chose HALLOWS not HORCRUXES.
So much for the critics who claim the HP series
is dangerou for kids to read: the real message is
there...Good conquers Evil; piety supercedes
self-inflicted ignorance and sacrilege.
But I still don’t buy the claim that JKR wrote
this book FIRST and the others later. I’ll give
her the EPILOGUE as the early write, of course, but
that’s the extent of it. That said, she did a
wonderful job in the series.
I've never seen that claim -- I've only seen the one where she had written and saved the last chapter (most likely the epilogue, but maybe the final duel as well).
Repeat yourself until you die, doesn’t matter, you’re still wrong. It’s not a matter of what view the author subscribes to, what matters is the content of the story, and modern tragedy has a meaningless death of the main character at the end, period, non-negotiable. While it’s true that many books aren’t named after the protagonist in modern tragedies if the book is named after a character that character WILL be the protagonist and WILL die and it WILL be a modern tragedy and you WILL stick your fingers in your ears and yell “LALALALALALALA” because you’re just unwilling to accept that you’re wrong.
Necessary to defeat Voldy != defeating Voldy. Actually it makes perfectly good dramatic sense that Harry died before the snake. JKR had quite deliberately dropped hints, and even had Dumbledore say that it was a distinct possibility up until Voldy tried to kill Harry, that Neville was the child in the prophecy. Which we now can see was all put in to create doubt that the final confrontation between Harry and Voldy would see Harry triumphant, and of course doubt in the final outcome is put into the audiences mind to create dramatic tension, which then amped to a higher level when Harry died chapters before the end of the book, then Neville kills Nagini and it really ratchets up the possibility that everybody’s interpretation of the prophecy was wrong. Anything that ramps up dramatic tension makes dramatic sense.
OK now you’re just being a jerk for the sake of being a jerk. First you said she was pandering to the demands of the editor and publisher, then you admit that maybe that actually was the ending she wanted the whole time so she’s an even bigger panderer?! Now we know, you’re a failed writer, probably because you’re so addicted to form your stories are thoroughly predictable, and you’re just mad at her success. Sour grapes make bad whine, get over it, get over yourself, we’re done.
I’d bet they probably could, but it would be different than the normal anti-apparation charm. And of course the Malfoys being elitist pureblood jerks would probably never bother to sully themselves with magic geared to deal with house elves. Ego and the blind spots it creates is a recurring minor theme of the stories.
I read Sorcerer's Stone yesterday, after I had read Deathly Hallows and Half Blood Prince last week.
The last 2 books in the series compared to the first book is like comparing Filet Mignon to hamburger steak. Not that the first book is necessarily bad, but it's certainly a children's book with a very simple story and writing style. The first book has 309 pages, the last book has 759.
I don't think JK Rowling ever expected the series to become such a cultural phenomenon. I think she originally intended to write a series of simple children's books in the model of the first book. The first book is like the Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew with magic. I think that was her original intent. As the series got more popular, she made the story vastly more complex, giving us an epic series instead of a string of magical kiddie mysteries.
I don’t recall either. I know there were a ton of references to him being bat-like. The vampire essay Lupin asked the kids to write in Azkaban leads me to believe he must have been unregistered and Lupin must have known. Instead of jumping on the Animagus(?) clue - everyone thought Snape was a vampire.
??? Am I missing something?
Snape had them write an essay about werewolves, which is how Hermione figured out Lupin. It may be my faulty memory, but I don't recall an essay about vampires.
Lupin “retaliated” with a vampire essay.
I know some people thought Snape was a vampire but I never believed it... of course I don’t think he was an animagus either, I think Rowling meant he was flying without a broom, but in human form, like Voldemort was. Not that he had turned into a bat.
Ah, okay. Well, that fits with the whole bat thing.
I’m re-reading the series. Finished Sorceror’s Stone last night.
I too was surprised to see that apparently, not one Slytherin remained... except that I think Slughorn helped in the defense of Hogwarts, didn't he? He's the only one that comes to mind... isn't there a sentence about him leading a group of the defenders? And I guess one could argue that Malfoy contributed, although unintentionally. And Crabbe or Goyle conjured the fiendfyre that destroyed the diadem. So I guess, except for Slughorn, the Slytherins helped only by accident.
Or perhaps Narcissa counts? After all, she did lie to save Harry and though it isn't mentioned, you've got to think she was in Slytherin.
Now that is expecting a lot from a 14-year-old. Granted, I don't think that the teachers understand it all very well either. I think that the only play of his that I enjoyed in class was "King Lear" and that was in college with a professor who was a little more passionate about the subject.
On the other hand, I bought my niece a Shakespeare collection for Christmas several years back at the suggestion of her mother. She enjoyed it a lot.
Yeah, it was kind of limited to Slughorn, Snape and Phineas himself. You'd have thought that someone in Slytherin would stay. Expecially after the Sorting Hat talked of uniting the houses years ago.
One comparison would be "The Hobbit" and "The Lord of the Rings". The Hobbit is much more of a fairy tale. The Lord of the Rings was an epic.
The first response was: "I hope it doesn't mean that Hermione's a bitch!"
TS
well, I thought it was funny.
I too was surprised to see that apparently, not one Slytherin remained... except that I think Slughorn helped in the defense of Hogwarts, didn't he? He's the only one that comes to mind... isn't there a sentence about him leading a group of the defenders? And I guess one could argue that Malfoy contributed, although unintentionally. And Crabbe or Goyle conjured the fiendfyre that destroyed the diadem. So I guess, except for Slughorn, the Slytherins helped only by accident.
Don't forget the guy that basically put himself through hell his entire life to work against Dumbledore: Snape
Oops, make that Voldemort, not Dumbledore
Ron's the one with the terrier patronus ... which evokes the rather unfortunate mental image of little dogs, and what they do to people's legs.
Likewise, James turned into a stag and Lily's patronus was a doe (as was Snape's).
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