who read book 7 and wants to discuss it? (SPOILERS)

alafairnadia · July 2007

yes. hp & the dh was teh awesome but for the excessive camping. snape, clearly not dead. etc. what did y'all think?

sevenoneeighty · July 2007

think that sums it up.

theoryofpractice · July 2007

^lame

yavel · July 2007

What makes you think Snape isn't dead? I thought the flash-forward at the end was a little lame, but overall I really enjoyed it.

sevenoneeighty · August 2007

theoryofpractice · August 2007

^ now THAT'S funny

I hope my life comes soon.

alafairnadia · August 2007

Yavel wrote: What makes you think Snape isn't dead? I thought the flash-forward at the end was a little lame, but overall I really enjoyed it.

oh, the epilogue is quite ignorable.

and I'm a total snape fan so ...

1. he's a potions master - I'm sure he totally knows that when voldy is feeling murderous, nagini is a potential threat. so I bet he takes some anti-venin or something.

2. didn't arthur weasley totally get bitten by that snake a gazillion times and survive? even with copious amounts of blood and everyone thinking he'd buy it?

so. why did the entire malfoy family survive? that kinda sucked.

sweet tea · August 2007

i think the malfoy's surviving was a "triumph of the good even if you hate them" kind of thing, since they ultimately decided Love was more important than Power. narrative forgiveness, what. Also, if you assume that snape did die, then leaving the malfoys alive leaves intact what snape used to be -- the good guy you don't like.

i totes think lucius should have gotten it anyway. preferably before narcissa helps harry. for teh higher stakes, etc.

i loved that mrs w got to kill bellatrix. and neville's triumph, etc. could have done with more mcgonagal, but i always could.

re: the epilogue: who's hugo? shouldn't that kid be named for fred? just sayin'.

alafairnadia · August 2007

neville and luna were teh awesome. and I still need harry to grieve a bit more. blink blink "oops, hedwig's dead."

and I still have total irrational, overwhelming love for snape. sigh. and lucius should totally have bought it - narcissa, though, was pretty f'in awesome.

and molly - we all knew there was a reason she was in the order beyond cooking skillz.

theoryofpractice · August 2007

I was ok with the Malfoys living. Living and irrelevant beats martyrdom in the symbolism game.

Rowling may not write another Harry Potter novel, but why not another Potter novel -- and you'll need a Malfoy for that universe.

alafairnadia · August 2007

and that's why god made fanfiction.

sweet tea · August 2007

alafairnadia wrote: and I still need harry to grieve a bit more. blink blink "oops, hedwig's dead."

dude, i read these books out loud (to the gf -- that way we don't get ahead of each other) so i can't skim them. and i gotta say, every time harry starts to "grieve", i throw up a little in my mouth. jkr writes good action and comedy, but i could do with out the introspection, thanks.

alafairnadia · August 2007

this kinda fucking rules.

who's coming to the harry & the potters concert in sept at the library?

alafairnadia · August 2007

sweet tea wrote: [quote=alafairnadia] and I still need harry to grieve a bit more. blink blink "oops, hedwig's dead."

dude, i read these books out loud (to the gf -- that way we don't get ahead of each other) so i can't skim them. and i gotta say, every time harry starts to "grieve", i throw up a little in my mouth. jkr writes good action and comedy, but i could do with out the introspection, thanks.

true. at least he lost the chest monster.

alafairnadia · August 2007

sprite · August 2007

I was surprised by the way many things played out - like Wormtail's death, which was I expected to be more dramatic and heroic because of the life debt. But once I read it, I felt it was more realistic than what I'd imagined.

I thought that was true of many things. Snape's death is another example. I really thought he was going to make it to the end. But I think his death allowed Harry to trust the memories and do what needed to be done. If Snape had given Harry Dumbledore's instructions any other way, Harry wouldn't have believed him, and they would have had a huge, time-wasting duel.

I think the scene where Harry walks to his death is remarkable. I get misty-eyed whenever I read it. The following chapter, where he talks to Dumbledore, is also wonderful. I loved Dumbledore's backstory - his friendship with Grindelwald had far-reaching, adult implications, but the fact that it started because he resented his responsibility for his siblings is something any kid can relate to.

And the final duel with Voldemort! I wasn't sure she could live up to my expectations, but she exceeded them. The entire scene had wonderful pacing (LOVE Molly taking out Bellatrix) and the way everything tied together with the Elder Wand so that Harry defeated Voldemort without casting the killing curse - brilliant.

livetotravel · August 2007

I think this brilliant Joel Stein column from the LA Times in 2005 still has legs...

From the Los Angeles Times Editorial Section, Sunday, July 10, 2005

Joel Stein

Next Saturday, when the sixth Harry Potter book comes out, at the very least I want you to stammer excuses when I see "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" on your nightstand. I want you to claim you're reading it to make sure it's OK for your kids, or your future kids, or even, if you have to, for kids in general.

I don't want you to tell me how well J.K. Rowling writes, or that academics are writing papers about it, or that Harry Potter can be read on many levels. "Clifford the Big Red Dog" can be read on many levels too: One, he's a big red dog; two, if you read it after you're 4, you're a moron.

I read 50 pages of the first "Harry Potter" book, and it seemed witty, imaginative and fast-paced. It also seemed like it was for children. It's about wizards and magic cats and evil stepparents, and has a reading-level that is only slightly above this column.

Judy Blume wrote well too, but you don't see adults poring over "Freckle Juice" on the train. No matter how well-crafted "Harry Potter" may be, I'm betting that with a little work you could find an adult novel from the last three centuries that is nicely written too, and possibly explores characters with a shade more complexity.

I know reading is hard. I try to avoid it whenever possible. But if I'm going to sit down and read a book, I'm going to get something out of it other than the ability to have a conversation with my second wife, who isn't even born yet.

I'm sorry you were born too late for J.K. Rowling, but you had your C.S. Lewis and E.B. White and J.R.R. Tolkien. Isn't it a clue that you should be ashamed of reading these books past puberty when the adults who write them are hiding their first names?

I'm sure the Potter books are fun. I bet a night of Fun Dip, piÃ±atas and Sit N Spin would be great too. I think I may have a film to pitch to Cinemax.

After a generation of boomers choosing to remain in a state of stunted adolescence â€” wearing jeans, smoking pot and cranking their BMW stereos to blast Eminem songs they clearly don't like â€” the next generation has opted for a stunted toddlerhood. Adults see "Finding Nemo" without bothering with the socially accepted ruse of dragging an unwilling 11-year-old nephew along. Grown men play video games and couples go to Disneyworld on their honeymoon, often for reasons other than having sex in Cinderella's castle with the dwarfs watching. You need a wad of Disney Dollars for that one, by the way, 50th anniversary or no 50th anniversary.

When we share our entertainment palette with the Wiggles set â€” watching comic book movies and teenage singing talent shows â€” we deny an attempt to understand human emotion.

I took both my grandmothers to see the Warner Bros. movie about the first "Harry Potter" book because Aaron Brown let me fulfill my ultimate media dream by having them review it live from Mama Ann's condominium.

In addition to Mama Ida claiming that one of the kids was hard to understand because she might have been English and referring to the special effects as "scenery," my grandmothers eventually made the one cogent point that other reviewers missed: The story is stupid if you're over 13.

A culture that simplifies its entertainment down to fairy tales is doomed to simplify the world down to good and evil. And a culture in which adults go see the "Harry Potter" movies still won't be enough to help the useless Time Warner options I got in the '90s, so you might as well buy something from the back of the bookstore instead. You won't have to wait in line for "Ulysses."

theoryofpractice · August 2007

^ fiddle faddle

Some people just can't handle our brave new world of highbrow mixed with lowbrow. I guess Rowling, and her success, offends status hierarchies learned at prep school or while watching Metropolitan, but what I really suspect fuels the indigination is plain ole jealousy.

What's especially tiring about the above sketch of amateur sociology is how it tells us more about the pretentions of some guy named Joel Stein than J K Rowling; a Joel Stein who presumably doesn't get a lot of chances to tell people he's finished Ulysses in LA. There's always someone of his type trying to tell you why a) your enthusiasms are naive and b) he's amassed more cultural capital than you have, so listen up!

It's preening posturing fueled by left-over debate-camp angst crossed with shooting fish in a barrel. Not hard, not learned, not entertaining. Not worth it.

who read book 7 and wants to discuss it? (SPOILERS)

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