Obligatory Harry Potter post

[tarigwaemir]

Sherman Fairchild, on the Feast of St. Frederick

Two days ago, I went through 700 entries of flist backlog and even attempted to leave comments. After four hours of frantic reading, I think I succeeded. May I receive my LJ Addicts Anonymous badge now?

Jet lag continues to plague me. On the other hand, it made me bright and early for work today...except that the post-doc I work with isn't here and I really have no idea what's been going on in lab for the past two weeks. Er...

In other news, I finished the new Harry Potter book just this morning. Due to the unusual frequency of speculations about Dumbledore's death before the book came out, I was not at all surprised by what happened. (I also clicked on some spoilers because I have not the strength of will to resist temptation but was not particularly surprised by them either.) I have to admit that I haven't had the highest opinion of the Harry Potter series--mostly because the boarding school genre has been accomplished with much more flair in my opinion by better authors, and as worldserpent says, none of the fantasy aspects are particularly novel--but Half-Blood Prince has converted me. Rowling's writing has improved, albeit inconsistently: she's still too prone to exposition, but there were certain passages that I found rather impressive. Also, she seems to have committed, finally, to conventions of fantasy epic, a subgenre I adore. I liked the storytelling in HBP; I think Rowling's gotten a grasp on how to do drama.

Also, am I the only person other than issen4 who doesn't particularly care if Snape is evil or not? Either way, it's the manner in which Rowling will choose to resolve the issue that interests me, not the fact itself. I've always liked reading Snape fics but I wasn't ever fond of Snape himself, as he is in canon, until this book. I always thought the idea of Snape being a genius a sort of fond fandom elaboration. Yes, he's a Potions Master blah blah blah, but isn't that rather necessary to teach the subject in the first place? (I am also happy to see that the common fandom conception of Snape being the inventor of the Wolfsbane Potion has been laid to rest. That fanfic device was beginning to grate on my nerves.) But in fact he is a genius and a creative one as well. Perhaps I ought to specify that I liked not so much the adult Snape but rather the Half-Blood Prince himself. I was a bit annoyed with Harry for not really understanding what the Prince was doing. He just used the textbook as a manual of shortcuts, instead of an example of how the best magic is accomplished by thinking outside the box. I mean, it's about being innovative, for goodness' sake. But whether the adult Snape is evil or not...I can't really decide. Some LJ posts on the subject have been extremely convincing despite their a priori bias.

Harry's now back to being my favorite character. He actually seems like a real person now. Ron on the other hand...okay, so I'm not entirely disgusted by the teenage drama because sadly enough teenagers are like that. No, really, they (I should say, "we") are that stupid. We just don't like to admit it because we are also egotistical brats. Nonetheless, he has definitely lost my approval, in much the same fashion Harry did last book. Also, Slughorn is a marvelous caricature. Rowling is rather good at that, isn't she? I don't find him irritating at all; he's very amusing. Of course that's probably because I'm not dealing with him in real life.

I was not surprised by Dumbledore's death and thus did not cry--I also don't really feel all that emotionally invested in these books as some fans do--but I was moved by Harry's emotion. Also, getting tidbits of Voldemort's past was nice, but the actual content was uninspiring. Oh boohoo, he has a family history of psychosis. Rowling has this tendency to explain away personalities with heredity. Oh sure, she's very firm on her moral stance of not being discriminatory, and having Hermione, the Muggleborn, be the most talented witch in her class is an example thereof. But Draco is (still) a cowardly, spoiled, power-hungry prat because his father is a Death Eater and scion of a rich pureblood line. The Weasleys as a family are all warm-hearted and outgoing in various ways. Voldemort is psychotic because his mother's family is inbred and his father is a callous (but handsome) bastard. I thought she was moving away from this trend with Harry's father turning out to be a bit of an egotistical prat in his childhood and Sirius coming from a Slytherin family, but clearly not. Snape at least has potential for evolving into someone interesting.

Oh, and I did guess that R.A.B. was a member of the Black family, but I had been thinking of an uncle or someone mentioned briefly like that. I completely forgot about Regulus until I read everyone else's speculations. But it makes perfect sense to me. ^_^

For the first time, I desperately want to read the next book. Now. Why, oh why, do we have to wait? In the meanwhile, I shall be amusing myself by watching the fandom explode over 'ships. Ron/Hermione...I knew it was coming. (Am not a fan of the pairing but I thought it was pretty obvious.) Harry/Ginny...well, I didn't expect Rowling to take the easy path, but apparently that's the benefit in having so many Weasleys around. Lupin/Tonks...I thought you were a crack pairing! ;_; What happened to your eternal love for Padfoot, Moony?

I want to read MWPP-era Snape/Black fics now. Any recs?

Yours &c.

Comments

[svz-insanity.livejournal.com]

You really do deserve cookies and a shiny badge for going through your f-list like that. ^^; *hugs*

And HBP has grown on me since my commentary. Snape/Black? I've never read the ship before... *is curious*

[troisroyaumes]

Heh, thanks. ::eats the cookies::

Snape/Black...well, I've only read a couple of fics for it, and most of them are AU for OotP. The author best known for the 'ship is Fabula Rasa. But I want some that's MWPP-era! Prince/Padfoot slash! (Er, not Padfoot in his, um, animal form though.)

[aetherangelette.livejournal.com]

You ruined it!!! I'm not reading your post anymore :sniffles:

[ramble-corner.livejournal.com]

YOu may want to check out mwppfqf. The fic there are mostly that era but i haven't gone through yet the ones listed there. but somewhere to start XDXD

[tryogeru.livejournal.com]

Well actually I was particularly moved by Lupin's reaction at Dumbledore's death. I mean, he *is* my favorite character and the fact that he was so ruffled ... I don't know. ::sadness::

[issen4.livejournal.com]

Oh boohoo, he has a family history of psychosis

Ehehe. Please, we saw the Tom Riddle in the Chamber of Secrets, and we know he isn't nice. What's the surprise? The stuff he spewed about his parents told us that that his insanity, so as to speak, has to come from somewhere. I'm sort of intrigued by Morfin's line when Voldemort goes to find him--"He came back". I've always wondered if this means that Tom Riddle at least tried to find out what happened to Merope, or he came to gloat, or Morfin was referring to someone else entirely.

she's very firm on her moral stance of not being discriminatory

I don't think harping on wizardly bloodlines (or not) means you're being discriminatory or un-discriminatory. It's just a fact of life. Sure, we could go the Slytherin way and say 'purebloods rule', or we could be like, say, the Weaseleys and say it doesn't matter. But it does matter, because a Muggleborn is just going to have certain disadvantages, whatever his or her innate abilities (hence we get on one hand, social-climbing Riddle--though that's for power too--and Hermione's anxiety about knowing everything--not that she isn't a bookworm by nature--on the other.)

In that sense, Snape is very interesting, because he was defined by his blood once, and later by his social popularity (including joining the Death Eaters) and its only much later that his professional abilities define him first, putting him beyond bloodline issues or social status. He's Potions Professor (and DADA professor)! Like you, I was frustrated that Harry doesn't seem to realize the work that the HBP put into improving the Potions textbook--he just 'followed' instructions. I thought Hermione might have at least considered this development, too. ^^

I do like Snape, always have, by the way, but I don't care whether he's redeemmable or not. Although I must say HBP has inspired a deep craving for Snape-is-Harry's-father fics. ^_^

Sorry, I never thought I'd say this much about HBP. Must be all the rants and reviews on lj.

Nice format, by the way.

[solidark.livejournal.com]

First I didn't really like Slughorn but over the course of the book he became one of my favourites ^o^. But I don't think he was invented as a sort of parody. My opinion is that she wrote him as the (more or less) polar opposite of Snape, to show that there are Slytherins who are not obsessed with bloodlines, Death Eaters and the Dark Arts. Sure, he does have his prejudices and he isn't always fair but Hermione and Harry are in his circle too and not just people like Blaise.

And, yeah, that Tonks/Remus would eventually become canon was to me the greatest surprise of all! But I always liked that pairing and hope she writes a little more about them in the next (final T_T) book.