Since the time I saw the movie at midnight with Sarah till now, I've had the chance to see it two more times. I haven't posted anything here about it because, quite honestly, I just forgot to do it. I've discussed it in other places and I've read other people's thoughts about it. What I have been doing is paging back through the book and making notes of the changes in the movie. But I'm not quite finished and probably won't post the whole thing. It's just been an interesting exercise for me.
SPOILERS ABOUND! IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE MOVIE, YOU SHOULD GO READ SOMETHING ELSE NOW.
For the most part, I really liked this movie - the first time and more each time I saw it. More than in any of the other movies, I found myself silently cheering when I recognized passages that were nearly the same as the book. Some were in the same part of the book, others were in different scenes, but they were there nonetheless.
The things that make me curious are how they are going to include all those important elements of Deathly Hallows in the next two movies, when they have left out so many things in all the first six movies. The house elves, for instance. We saw a lot of Dobby in Chamber of Secrets, and only a little of Kreacher in Order of the Phoenix. In the books we saw Dobby enough to either find him annoying or sometimes cute, but we still saw him. He was familiar and recognizable when we saw him in Deathly Hallows. We didn't need any explanation about who he was, how he was connected to Harry or why Harry would care about him so much, or why we would care so much about him at Shell Cottage. The big surprise with Kreacher in Deathly Hallows is that we DO care about him, when all we had seen before was a disgusting and irritating character who was definitely on the side of evil. Yes, he was in the Order of the Phoenix movie, but only barely, and not at all in Half-Blood Prince. Will people who haven't read the books, or haven't read them recently, remember why Kreacher is important?
But I'm jumping ahead. The opening scene in the movie took me by surprise until I realized they were showing the aftermath of the battle in the Ministry when Fudge finally has to acknowledge the return of Voldemort. Nicely done, even though that wasn't by the book. It worked well. So did the scene with the people in a meeting watching something they don't understand and then the bridge attack and collapse. In the book we are told that a bridge collapsed but it was off-screen, so this worked well in the movie. It also works to show that the Death Eaters have crossed that rule for wizards remaining out of sight of muggles. It's apparent that they aren't playing by the rules any longer, now that everyone in the wizard world knows Voldemort is back.
I really liked the scene at Spinner's End. Yes, it's in the daytime, but that doesn't really matter. Snape, brilliantly played by Alan Rickman, is perfect in every aspect of this scene. He conveys so much of what is in the book but not in the movie by a mere glance, hand gesture or tone of voice. I would like to have seen the listing by Snape of how he has remained faithful to Voldemort while seeming to be remorseful and loyal to Dumbledore. That was a nice set-up in the book that could have made the ending of the movie have more of an impact. The Unbreakable Vow was very well done, but I really wish that the questions had been asked by Narcissa rather than Bellatrix. (Mostly Helena Bonham Carter irritates me in this role, so less of her is better, IMO.) But the reason I found the scene so powerful in the book was that it was the distraught, anxious, loving mother who was pleading for help for her son. In the movie, it's clearly Bella who is trying to trap Snape by asking the questions. It still works, especially the way Snape so clearly hesitates and gives the slightest blanch at the last question. Again, that's Rickman at his best.
Another brilliant performance comes from Jim Broadbent as Horace Slughorn. He isn't at all like the Slughorn I pictured physically. In my mind, Sluggy looked like the little man on the Monopoly game. But Broadbent is marvelous in the role and adds, with just the right facial expressions, that sense that Slughorn isn't evil, just not strong enough to resist Voldemort, even though he clearly wants to. When we first meet him, it's very much like the book and I laughed when Dumbledore came back from the loo with his knitting pattern book.
Harry's arrival at the Burrow is a bit different, but it works well. Instead of finding out later at Hogwarts that some parents didn't want their children to return, it's discussed by the trio at the Burrow. And at some point we see the Death Eaters swoop into Diagon Alley and kidnap Ollivander, though his shop is trashed in the movie rather than neatly cleaned out, which, in the book, leaves people wondering about Ollivander's loyalties. But all that works in the movie. It shows the terror and the boldness of the Death Eaters without a lot of dialogue, making the sense of fear and urgency very obvious.
I loved all the scenes with Luna, but missed Neville. He wasn't in the book that much either, so I guess that's OK. The scenes with the Weasleys were great throughout the movie - just not always enough.
There were little details about the Potions book and the Half-Blood Prince that were in the movie, but not really enough of the mystery was explored as to who the Half-Blood Prince was. I was intrigued to see something about alchemy on one of the pages when Harry is reading the notes written in by the HBP. But I think they cut the ending way too short. Parts of it were OK. The Potions class scenes were a treat, but I really missed the scene in DADA with Snape. That would have been such a nice bookend to the first movie in his Potions class. I hope that is one of the deleted scenes that will be on the DVD.
The Cave scene was good, as far as it went, but the third time through the movie I counted the number of shells (not crystal goblets) that Dumbledore drank and came up with 5 to 7. It was hard to tell, as the last time that Harry dips in shows liquid left and then it is empty the next time we see it when he sees the locket. But it definitely wasn't twelve. And Dumbledore's distress is good, but doesn't include the line about it's his fault that they were hurt. Overall, Michael Gambon was much better in this movie than in the previous ones. His scenes with the young Tom Riddle were outstanding and the ones with Harry were better. I would have liked his hand to look more withered than it did, though.
Harry's not under the invisibility cloak when he and Dumbledore get back to the Tower after the Cave, and Dumbledore doesn't freeze him, but tells him to remain hidden and still. That works well with Harry's earlier promise,thankfully included in the movie, before they leave for the Cave. And as I thought about it later, it is a way to show that Harry, at that point, completely trusts Dumbledore and has faith in him. The silent caution from Snape is well done and I do like it. Most of what happens on the Tower, except that some of the DEs are different, is like the book. But it stops short of Dumbledore telling Draco that he can hide him from Voldemort. And the light when Dumbledore is hit by Avada Kedavra should have been defintely green rather than sort of green - same with the skull in the clouds.
Now, there is that moment when Harry arrives at the still body of Dumbledore with Ginny near him. Very well done. While I missed the funeral, and the mournful phoenix song and Harry pointing out how disloyal Snape was, I did like the wands raised in tribute to Dumbledore. What made it work for me was that when the light is directed upwards, the skull in the cloud dissapates. Light overcomes darkness. Good overcomes evil. Love overcomes hate. That theme is played out in a very visual way without someone having to explain it.
And what I really liked about the ending was that they were on the same Tower discussing Harry's plans and his need to have Ron and Hermione go with him. And then there was Fawkes, flying against the almost golden sky. Definitely not like the book, but it really worked well, as far as I was concerned.
The teen romance scenes were great. I thought it was all cast and played extremely well. Parts were funny and parts were poignant, just as all of us remember those years being. My favorite moments were the ones with Ron and Lavender. Jessie Cave doesn't look like the way I imagined Lavender, but she played the part so well. And the scene in Slughorn's office after Ron eats the love potion-laced candy was great. Just goes to show that Rupert Grint has a great sense of comedica talent and timing.
I loved all the regulars, especially Maggie Smith. She is like Rickman; she does so much with so little screen time. I loved her in the scene where she sends Harry and Ron off to their first potions class when she sees them loitering in the corridor. And the scene with the opal necklace is great with McGonagall and Snape and their reaction to Harry's wild thoughts about Draco. Back to Lupin and Tonks and the Weasley parents - I love all those characters in the book and love the way the actors portray them. It's too bad we don't see more of them, and I hope that with Deathly Hallows split into two movies, we will.
Then there is Tom Felton as Draco who had a much bigger role in the book and in the movie. They show it quite differently than the book. It was nice that they showed what was on his arm, so those of us who were convinced he'd become a werewolf had that mystery solved once and for all. And instead of Harry doing all the speculating about where Malfoy was going and what he was doing, we got to see it. If we'd had to just listen to Harry going on about Malfoy as he did in the book, I think it would have been irritating in the movie.
Just about the only scene I really didn't like was the burning of the Burrow. I loved the Christmas scene with Harry and Ginny and Ron. I loved Lupin and Tonks obviously being together and talking to Harry about Snape. I was even OK with the Death Eater attack and all of them being outside to fight them off. But what was the point of burning down the Burrow, a place that they're going to need in the next book. And then it was never mentioned again in the movie, so it really seemed like something added just for more action. What a waste when they could have made any of the other important scenes more complete.
I'm not sure I liked the kiss between Ginny and Harry. It was sweet, but I liked the suddeness of it in the book, and that it was a very public show that they were now a couple. And I suppose they can have Ginny show or tell Harry where she hid the Potions book, but the whole point of the scene in the book was to show the diadem, which we didn't see or hear of in the movie.
That is one thing the movie didn't do. It reminded us of the book and the ring and the locket as Horcruxes, and did a really good job of the memory with Slughorn, but we didn't get any hints about what the other Horcruxes might be. Something they did however, is to give a very visual hint that Harry is a Horcrux. That tic that he did throughout Order of the Phoenix and in Half-Blood Prince should prove useful in Deathly Hallows. Especially since he did it in this one and then Dumbledore makes some comment about magic leaving traces - or however he said it.
The scene at the end with Snape and Harry was good as far as it went. It just didn't go far enough. We saw Snape react to Bellatrix calling him a coward by saying he would make the Unbreakable Vow, but we don't see him react much to Harry when Harry calls him a coward. I really wanted to see Snape unhinged or at least the very controlled kind of reaction that Rickman gave in OP, but we didn't get it. We also didn't get his (Snape's) outrage over James's use of Snape's spells against Snape before Snape tells Harry that he is the Half-Blood Prince. Maybe they will include something about that in the next movie? I hope so.
In Prisoner of Azkaban, one of my favorite movie moments was the added scene on the bridge when Lupin is talking to Harry. And I have a favorite not-in-the-book moment in this movie as well. It's when Slughorn is telling Harry about the gift of a fish that he received from Lily and how it disappeared when she was killed. It made that whole scene of Harry telling Slughorn to be brave even better. I wonder if it is something that Kloves came up with or if it is something that Rowling had written and not included.
And just one more thing. I love the soundtrack for this movie. I listened to it when it was on-line the week before the movie opened and bought it the day it was released. I've listened a number of times and like all of it. I am sorry that Nicholas Hooper will not be back to score the final two movies, and unlike many, I hope that John Williams is not back to finish up. I like some of what he has done, but his soundtracks all sound so much alike that I'm often not sure which movie it is. I had to look the other day to see that it was E.T. on the radio and not one of the other movies he has done. Maybe with Yates the editing will be better if Williams returns. I like it much better when the music is a subtle part of a scene and doesn't overpower the action or the dialogue, which Williams's scores tend to do.
So, I look forward to seeing Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince at least one more time in the theater and then to buying it when it's released on DVD in the fall. And that will put us even closer to the first part of Deathly Hallows, which I hope will be the best of the Harry Potter movies yet.
Pat
Showing posts with label Half-Blood Prince. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Half-Blood Prince. Show all posts
Thursday, August 6, 2009
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Have I forgotten Harry?
Hardly. I've finished reading Deathly Hallows again, and find that I like it better each time through. I've rewatched "Order of the Phoenix" several times as it was on HBO a lot in August. I liked that as a movie, but I kept waiting for Fawkes to swoop in and swallow up the snake attacking in the Ministry battle. Of course, Hollywood can't seem to bring themselves to include the very Christian elements of any of the books, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised that it was left out.
I was unhappy, like many fans, that Warner Brothers pushed the release of "Half-Blood Prince: movie to next summer. But having recently read some of the reviews of the early screenings, maybe that's not such a disappointment after all. It seems that it would allow them to fix the things that are wrong or decide to include the things omitted, such as Dumbledore's funeral. But since they are starting to shoot the next installment in February, I'm not holding my breath for that to happen.
And I've been reading. I started reading John Granger's book, How Harry Cast His Spell, which is great. But then I got his other book (that apparently is being redone for release later), The Deathly Hallows Lectures. Also great. I've decided to finish that first. One of the books that John has mentioned more than once is Dante's Divine Comedy, which I might have read a portion of in high school, but certainly not the whole thing. I was in Barnes and Noble and saw one of their copies of it and decided it was time to add that to my library. The one that I have is a translation by Longfellow with the illustrations by Gustave Dore. It's a slow read, but I don't think it's the sort of book to race through, so I'm reading it in smaller sections, one canto per read at the most.
I'm looking forward to, and have already reserved, the 10 Anniversary edition of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone in September and The Tales of Beedle the Bard in December. Sometimes this fall, Travis Prinzi's book will be out, and I'll probably buy the one by Melissa Anelli from The Leaky Cauldron, a look at how the fandom of Harry Potter happened.
And in the meantime, we are preparing for a trip to the east coast this fall to Virginia. I'll finally get to see many of those historical sites that used to consume all my interest. So in addition to reading all about Harry, I'm trying to brush up on American history, which I've ignored for a number of years.
And we have choir starting again - really starting with a rehearsal every week and singing at least three Sundays a month. I'm quite happy about that but it does fill up my schedule. The adult Bible study classes begin this evening. I'll be continuing the one that I've been in for the last several years. It's a precepts study that started with Genesis and we've been working out way through the Old Testament. Having finished 2 Samuel last spring, we are ready for Kings and Chronicles.
Fall has turned out to be very busy at our house, so I haven't been blogging here much, though I've added some things to my other one, Eeyore's Ramblings, about the fan reactions to the HBP movie delay and about church. I have some photo work to do, a short "movie" from our church's last Guatemala trip, actually printing the photos from our April trip to Walt Disney World, the photos we will take in Virginia, Thanksgiving at our house. . .
Can we just skip to December? Things might be a little calmer by then. Oh, wait, no they won't. What am I thinking?
My point is, that it isn't likely that I will update here any more frequently than I have been. But I do check other Harry Potter blogs, and other friend's blogs every day, sometimes with a comment, but sometimes not.
Pat
I was unhappy, like many fans, that Warner Brothers pushed the release of "Half-Blood Prince: movie to next summer. But having recently read some of the reviews of the early screenings, maybe that's not such a disappointment after all. It seems that it would allow them to fix the things that are wrong or decide to include the things omitted, such as Dumbledore's funeral. But since they are starting to shoot the next installment in February, I'm not holding my breath for that to happen.
And I've been reading. I started reading John Granger's book, How Harry Cast His Spell, which is great. But then I got his other book (that apparently is being redone for release later), The Deathly Hallows Lectures. Also great. I've decided to finish that first. One of the books that John has mentioned more than once is Dante's Divine Comedy, which I might have read a portion of in high school, but certainly not the whole thing. I was in Barnes and Noble and saw one of their copies of it and decided it was time to add that to my library. The one that I have is a translation by Longfellow with the illustrations by Gustave Dore. It's a slow read, but I don't think it's the sort of book to race through, so I'm reading it in smaller sections, one canto per read at the most.
I'm looking forward to, and have already reserved, the 10 Anniversary edition of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone in September and The Tales of Beedle the Bard in December. Sometimes this fall, Travis Prinzi's book will be out, and I'll probably buy the one by Melissa Anelli from The Leaky Cauldron, a look at how the fandom of Harry Potter happened.
And in the meantime, we are preparing for a trip to the east coast this fall to Virginia. I'll finally get to see many of those historical sites that used to consume all my interest. So in addition to reading all about Harry, I'm trying to brush up on American history, which I've ignored for a number of years.
And we have choir starting again - really starting with a rehearsal every week and singing at least three Sundays a month. I'm quite happy about that but it does fill up my schedule. The adult Bible study classes begin this evening. I'll be continuing the one that I've been in for the last several years. It's a precepts study that started with Genesis and we've been working out way through the Old Testament. Having finished 2 Samuel last spring, we are ready for Kings and Chronicles.
Fall has turned out to be very busy at our house, so I haven't been blogging here much, though I've added some things to my other one, Eeyore's Ramblings, about the fan reactions to the HBP movie delay and about church. I have some photo work to do, a short "movie" from our church's last Guatemala trip, actually printing the photos from our April trip to Walt Disney World, the photos we will take in Virginia, Thanksgiving at our house. . .
Can we just skip to December? Things might be a little calmer by then. Oh, wait, no they won't. What am I thinking?
My point is, that it isn't likely that I will update here any more frequently than I have been. But I do check other Harry Potter blogs, and other friend's blogs every day, sometimes with a comment, but sometimes not.
Pat
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Happy Birthday, Neville, Harry and Jo
I'm a day late for wishing Neville a Happy Birthday and almost too late to wish one for Harry and Jo, but here it is, better late than never.
I saw the Happy Birthday posted yesterday on Rowling's official site for Neville and was reminded that he is one of my favorite Harry Potter characters. He was the one who was bumbling in the first book and seemed to be only there for comic relief, perhaps to make the real heroes look even better. Much to Harry's credit, he didn't belittle Neville, even when others laughed at his misfortunes; Neville was constantly losing his toad, Trevor, falling from his broomstick, receiving a remembrall from his formidable Gran because of his unfortunate tendency to forget just about everything, and was more intimidated by Severus Snape than any other student even when Snape wasn't singling him out for ineptitude.
But even when Neville seemed to be slowing down the trio of Harry, Ron and Hermione, he was a true and faithful friend, always supportive and always trying to do the right thing. We had no idea just how much of a friend he would be until the last book when Neville, as many of us had hoped, finally showed, in the strongest way, that he was indeed a true Gryffindor, properly placed in the house for those who are brave and courageous. To stand up to your friends takes a special kind of courage, as we saw in the first book, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. Over time we saw Neville continue to stand up to his friends, but more often, he was standing up for them, especially for Harry. We began to see that Neville was willing to stand up against the evil that threatened Harry in Order of the Phoenix, encouraging Harry to resist giving in to Lucius Malfoy at the Department of Mysteries. That was a courage that none would have suspected from the meek Neville we first met when he was frantically searching the Hogwarts Express for Trevor, with Hermione's help. By the end of Half-Blood Prince, we could see that Neville was loyal, not only willing to help, but also willing to fight, when he and Luna joined in the battle at the end.
The best, however, was learning what Neville had been doing all during their seventh year at Hogwarts, while Harry, Ron and Hermione were on the run and Horcrux hunting, and it was a fantastic surprise. There was Neville, fighting against the evil that pervaded Hogwarts and the wizarding world, spilling over into the Muggle one, in Deathly Hallows, with a courage beyond what any of us might have imagined for him. And at last, he faced the greatest evil of all, Lord Voldemort, and proved once and for all that he had what was needed to survive and to win the battle.
So, in many ways, Neville is my favorite character. He went far beyond what I expected. After all, I had no doubt that Harry, the hero, would survive--well, at least until he defeated Voldemort. And I suspected that if Harry made it through, that Ron and Hermione would as well. At least, that was what I hoped. So in making a list of who might not live, the trio wasn't really on the list, but Neville was. And I was so happy that he not only lived but lived well and heroically. Best surprise of the final book, actually. (There were certainly some sad ones, but this isn't the place for them.)
And then, of course, Happy Birthday to Harry Potter and his creator, Jo Rowling. I'm so glad that we can still wish Harry a Happy Birthday, and that he finally found a happy family life, something that he so clearly wanted and needed for most of his young life.
I remember reading this post last year after my first reading of Deathly Hallows, and I was pleased to see that Beth has posted it in honor of Harry's and Jo's birthdays. So go here, read and enjoy her insightful reflections. Having recently finished reading all seven books in a row, with only a few sidetracks for other books, I really did appreciate remembering how I felt last summer about this time after devouring and then re-reading the last Harry Potter book.
This kind of answers the question that many were discussing earlier--how did I celebrate the one year anniversary of the last book of my favorite book series. I celebrated by doing what I've been doing for the last nine years, by reading and listening to Harry Potter. Again and again, and probably something that I will continue to do, even as I read and listen to all kinds of other books. The Harry Potter books, and especially the last one, will always hold a special place on my book shelf--and a special place in my heart.
So, thanks, Jo Rowling, and Happy Birthday to you and to Harry.
Pat
I saw the Happy Birthday posted yesterday on Rowling's official site for Neville and was reminded that he is one of my favorite Harry Potter characters. He was the one who was bumbling in the first book and seemed to be only there for comic relief, perhaps to make the real heroes look even better. Much to Harry's credit, he didn't belittle Neville, even when others laughed at his misfortunes; Neville was constantly losing his toad, Trevor, falling from his broomstick, receiving a remembrall from his formidable Gran because of his unfortunate tendency to forget just about everything, and was more intimidated by Severus Snape than any other student even when Snape wasn't singling him out for ineptitude.
But even when Neville seemed to be slowing down the trio of Harry, Ron and Hermione, he was a true and faithful friend, always supportive and always trying to do the right thing. We had no idea just how much of a friend he would be until the last book when Neville, as many of us had hoped, finally showed, in the strongest way, that he was indeed a true Gryffindor, properly placed in the house for those who are brave and courageous. To stand up to your friends takes a special kind of courage, as we saw in the first book, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. Over time we saw Neville continue to stand up to his friends, but more often, he was standing up for them, especially for Harry. We began to see that Neville was willing to stand up against the evil that threatened Harry in Order of the Phoenix, encouraging Harry to resist giving in to Lucius Malfoy at the Department of Mysteries. That was a courage that none would have suspected from the meek Neville we first met when he was frantically searching the Hogwarts Express for Trevor, with Hermione's help. By the end of Half-Blood Prince, we could see that Neville was loyal, not only willing to help, but also willing to fight, when he and Luna joined in the battle at the end.
The best, however, was learning what Neville had been doing all during their seventh year at Hogwarts, while Harry, Ron and Hermione were on the run and Horcrux hunting, and it was a fantastic surprise. There was Neville, fighting against the evil that pervaded Hogwarts and the wizarding world, spilling over into the Muggle one, in Deathly Hallows, with a courage beyond what any of us might have imagined for him. And at last, he faced the greatest evil of all, Lord Voldemort, and proved once and for all that he had what was needed to survive and to win the battle.
So, in many ways, Neville is my favorite character. He went far beyond what I expected. After all, I had no doubt that Harry, the hero, would survive--well, at least until he defeated Voldemort. And I suspected that if Harry made it through, that Ron and Hermione would as well. At least, that was what I hoped. So in making a list of who might not live, the trio wasn't really on the list, but Neville was. And I was so happy that he not only lived but lived well and heroically. Best surprise of the final book, actually. (There were certainly some sad ones, but this isn't the place for them.)
And then, of course, Happy Birthday to Harry Potter and his creator, Jo Rowling. I'm so glad that we can still wish Harry a Happy Birthday, and that he finally found a happy family life, something that he so clearly wanted and needed for most of his young life.
I remember reading this post last year after my first reading of Deathly Hallows, and I was pleased to see that Beth has posted it in honor of Harry's and Jo's birthdays. So go here, read and enjoy her insightful reflections. Having recently finished reading all seven books in a row, with only a few sidetracks for other books, I really did appreciate remembering how I felt last summer about this time after devouring and then re-reading the last Harry Potter book.
This kind of answers the question that many were discussing earlier--how did I celebrate the one year anniversary of the last book of my favorite book series. I celebrated by doing what I've been doing for the last nine years, by reading and listening to Harry Potter. Again and again, and probably something that I will continue to do, even as I read and listen to all kinds of other books. The Harry Potter books, and especially the last one, will always hold a special place on my book shelf--and a special place in my heart.
So, thanks, Jo Rowling, and Happy Birthday to you and to Harry.
Pat
Thursday, July 3, 2008
Seven Books, One Story
I have been re-reading all the Harry Potter books in order and had hoped to post some of my thoughts as I read through them. My books all look like the Half-Blood Princes's copy of Advanced Potions, with notes in the margins and in the end pages of each book. However, just as I did when I first read each book, I was too engrossed in the story (and too undisciplined) to take the time to write it all out.
I'm now about half-way through the seventh book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I'm still jotting more notes to add to the ones I made the first two or three times I read the book. And I have yet to post anything about my observations.
The thing that I have noticed the most is that the planning for all the important (and even some of the not terribly important) details was all in the books from the first all the way through. Deathly Hallows is filled, as was Half-Blood Prince, with echos of all the preceding books and foreshadowing of the end of the tale.
Sometimes a story loses its impact on re-reading. But, for me, Harry Potter just takes on more richness and meaning each time I read it. Even though I know how everything turns out, I still find that I'm drawn into the story and can't wait to find out how they will solve the next problem or get out of their current sticky mess. And with each reading, I find little details that I didn't see before.
For example, when Harry, Ron and Hermione finally are able to listen to Potterwatch and hear the twins' friend Lee Jordan talking, his code name is River, as in the Jordan River? Nice touch, that one, as it lets those who see it make that analogy of the ones doing Potterwatch (Lee, Remus, Kingsley, Fred) wandering in the wilderness and waiting for the right time to cross the river--to return to the place where they should be, while the trio also wanders in the wilderness. Yes, it's a stretch, but it's that sort of subtlety that I enjoy so much when I read the Harry Potter books.
I'll add more later, but not for a few days. I'll have to wait till the trio escapes from Malfoy Manner, and I know what comes after that one.
Pat
I'm now about half-way through the seventh book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I'm still jotting more notes to add to the ones I made the first two or three times I read the book. And I have yet to post anything about my observations.
The thing that I have noticed the most is that the planning for all the important (and even some of the not terribly important) details was all in the books from the first all the way through. Deathly Hallows is filled, as was Half-Blood Prince, with echos of all the preceding books and foreshadowing of the end of the tale.
Sometimes a story loses its impact on re-reading. But, for me, Harry Potter just takes on more richness and meaning each time I read it. Even though I know how everything turns out, I still find that I'm drawn into the story and can't wait to find out how they will solve the next problem or get out of their current sticky mess. And with each reading, I find little details that I didn't see before.
For example, when Harry, Ron and Hermione finally are able to listen to Potterwatch and hear the twins' friend Lee Jordan talking, his code name is River, as in the Jordan River? Nice touch, that one, as it lets those who see it make that analogy of the ones doing Potterwatch (Lee, Remus, Kingsley, Fred) wandering in the wilderness and waiting for the right time to cross the river--to return to the place where they should be, while the trio also wanders in the wilderness. Yes, it's a stretch, but it's that sort of subtlety that I enjoy so much when I read the Harry Potter books.
I'll add more later, but not for a few days. I'll have to wait till the trio escapes from Malfoy Manner, and I know what comes after that one.
Pat
Thursday, July 12, 2007
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Even though it says this was posted on July 12, I didn't write this until August 15, which is the reason I talk about having already read Deathly Hallows. I was not one of those people who read what was posted before the book was released--far from it. That last week I didn't go near the internet, except for a few trusted sites that were not posting any spoilers, whether they were real or not; I barely checked my email, and didn't listen to the news or read the newspapers. The date here just shows that my intention was to post something before the last book--something that obviously didn't happen.
I had hoped to finish or at least post some thoughts on Half-Blood Prince before I read Deathly Hallows, but that didn't happen. Since I've now read DH twice, I feel the need to revisit HBP. My reading of it now, however, will always be different than my original feelings about HBP. Maybe that's not such a bad thing, though. It was a book that I found, at once, fascinating and frustrating, making it ultimately one of my least favorites of the series. Now, however, I find that Rowling was very right in saying that HBP was really the first part of the last book, and viewing it in that way changes a lot. I've also found that listening to Stephen Fry reading HBP is even better than reading it--his interpretation of what the characters were feeling is excellent, and gave me new insight into the depth of Dumbledore's pain in the Cave as well as the grief of all the Order after Dumbledore's death.
In Half-Blood Prince, not only do we see a very different Dumbledore, but we see a different Harry. Dumbledore is suddenly talking to Harry, all the time, and on a much more collaborative level than we have ever seen. First it's Dumbledore who comes to collect/rescue Harry from the Dursleys, and Dumbledore who gives the Dursleys a needed lesson in manners as well as child rearing. It's then Dumbledore who takes Harry along on a mission to secure a new Hogwarts teacher, when it seems the most unnecessary thing for him to do. It's Dumbledore, then, who says that Harry will be having private lessons with him throughout the year, and no, it won't be to repair the failed attempt at Harry learning Occlumency. And it's Dumbledore, who leads Harry through the Pensieve memories in an attempt to learn more about what Voldemort has done and might be planning to do, as well as Dumbledore who further reiterates that he completely trusts Severus Snape, even after Harry learns that it was on Snape's word that Voldemort sought out Harry's parents and himself to kill.
(One side note, here, though, about Occlumency--and a spoiler if you haven't read DH, which I assume people now have. Even though Harry was abysmal at it with Snape, and could never keep Snape from probing his own thoughts, I always thought that Harry had had enough Occlumency lessons to understand how it was supposed to work and what he needed to do. I was glad to see that all that time spent with Snape wasn't wasted when Harry was able to use Occlumency, but more important, Legilimency in DH. Occlumency always seemed to be the negative of the two old forms of magic--one, closing your mind, while the other opened the mind and gave one the ability to move forward, using information and intuition.)
So much of HBP is Harry's time with Dumbledore, distracted by Harry's time with the Prince--who, it turns out, is the very person he has decided he hates the most--Snape. He spends a lot of time with the Prince, when he pours over the Advanced Potions book, with Snape's notes written everywhere. (Hermione occasionally points out that he could have got that information from Snape in their Potions classes if he had paid better attention.) Harry is convinced that the Prince was the most brilliant student ever, to come up with all these wonderful hints at potion brewing, which work better than the book's intstructions, not to mention all the useful spells, which Harry often tries without having a clue about the consequences. Some are funny--Ron being lifted upside down as a wake up call one morning, and the idea of Filch not being able to talk, or Crabbe (or was it Goyle) having toenails too long, making it hard for him to walk.
It's funny, until Hermione points out that hanging someone upside down for sport is not that different than what they saw the Death Eaters doing at the World Cup. And then it's not funny at all. Nor is the memory that Harry saw his dad doing the same thing to Snape in Snape's Pensieve memory. Or Snape's constant taunting of Harry that his dad and Sirius were known for hexing people in the halls just because they could.
Suddenly we see a side of Harry that made me--and others, some of whom still haven't got past it--very uncomfortable. I'm not sure that I'm really 'past it' either, but I have come to see it differently than when I first read the book. I found it much easier to be sympathetic to a yelling, angry, depressed Harry in Order of the Phoenix than to embrace this new adventurous Harry, who had become somewhat of a bully. And truth be told, I still don't like it that Harry "went there". In one way, it seems so inconsistent with Dumbledore always saying that Harry was so pure of heart. None of that seemed very pure of heart to me, and still doesn't.
Perhaps, though, that's where the definition of pure of heart becomes more important. I read it, especially after Harry was so distraught over seeing James and Sirius being bullies, and Harry clearly understanding Snape's point of view, that it meant Harry was above any of the sort of things that teens often try out--and then come to realize they were wrong, and they grow up and wouldn't think of doing those kinds of things once they are adults.
It doesn't excuse James and Sirius (who apparently were bullies for most of the time they were at Hogwarts, starting apparently with Snape on their first train ride to Hogwarts), but it does show that Harry was not perfect. He was not above temptation--the temptation to reap the public praise from Slughorn of being a brilliant Potions student--especially after all the humiliation he suffered at Snape's hands in the class. He found a way to "pay back" some of those who had bullied him for the previous five years, by using some of the Prince's spells on them. Right behavior? Good choices, on Harry's part? Absolutely not. Understandable, maybe.
The most disturbing use Harry makes of the unexpected windfall of spells from the Prince is when he uses Sectumsempra on Malfoy. It was one of those moments that happens to people, a moment when our common sense is driven to the back of our minds and we make the mistake of lashing out at someone because of fear and anger, without considering the consequences; Harry experienced a moment of sudden fear and anger (Malfoy was trying to Crucio Harry, and he knew what that felt like already), and having the Sectumsempra spell lurking in the back of his mind, having wished he could try it out to see what it did, it's not surprising that Harry used it on Draco, who had taunted Harry and his friends from their first year. It does not excuse Harry in any way. But what happens afterwards is more important, I think.
Harry is horrified to see what the spell does, he immediately regrets his use of it, and only wants to help Draco (which, lost in the moment, was Harry's instinct in the first place when he saw Draco crying), though of course, there is nothing that he could have done. As Snape tells him, that was powerful Dark Magic, and Harry would have no way of knowing the counter-curse. Snape arrives, and is able to partially heal Draco, then turns on Harry. Harry offers no excuses for his exceedingly poor choice; he obeys Snape's order to stay there. He does hide the Prince's Potions book, and tries to get Snape to give him some other punishment, other than missing the last Quidditch game. But mostly what we see is that, even though Harry resents Snape and the detention Snape came up with, Harry does know and accept that what he did was so very wrong, and he regrets his foolishness in trying out that spell on anyone, even on Draco.
When Dumbledore talked about the purity of Harry's heart, then, he didn't mean that Harry was always going to be a perfect little boy, always doing the right and proper things, leading a goody-two-shoes kind of life. What he meant was that Harry, who is human (an everyman), will make mistakes, but that he will make the right moral choices in the end because he is filled with love. Dumbledore understood, that even when Harry was angry with him in his fifth year, there were reasons for Harry's anger; we all have to deal with all of our emotions, not just the positve ones. To deny that we have a full range of emotions, is to deny that we are human, and as human beings, none of us are perfect. Not even Harry. Just as Harry has a pure heart that leads him to accept people and other creatures for who they are and not for their status in the wizarding world, he also had to work through his own faults and short-comings. In Half-Blood Prince, we see Harry coming to terms with who he is, his strengths as well as his weaknesses. That's a step on his journey that is crucial to his fight against the evil of Voldemort.
Dumbledore, early in his adult life, we learn in Deathly Hallows had to understand his own weakness, his desire for power. Harry doesn't have that same desire for power, but he has to learn in HBP that he must stay focused on his true quest and that wanting and seeking revenge will not help him. When he cast the Sectumsempra against Draco, there must have been a moment as he cast that spell, very brief, when Harry felt that he was paying back Draco for the ways Draco had mistreated and humiliated him. But even though he doesn't like Draco later, nor forgive Draco his fascination with the Dark Arts, Harry does see Draco in a new light after that, a light that has the glimmer of forgiveness, and at least of compassion for what became of Draco, who was trapped more by the choices of his family before being trapped by his own choices.
Half-Blood Prince is very much the first half of the end of the story. When viewed in that way, it's much easier to see that Harry had to work through his own imperfections, just as Dumbledore did. One of the tragedies of not coming to terms with our own faults is that we live a life of regret, bitterness and hopelessness, which is what we later learn happened to Severus Snape, the "Prince" to whom Harry owed so much. Just how much, and why, Harry doesn't learn until much later.
Pat
Note: I may come back to edit this later, but I wanted to get some of this down before I completely move away from the sixth book.
I had hoped to finish or at least post some thoughts on Half-Blood Prince before I read Deathly Hallows, but that didn't happen. Since I've now read DH twice, I feel the need to revisit HBP. My reading of it now, however, will always be different than my original feelings about HBP. Maybe that's not such a bad thing, though. It was a book that I found, at once, fascinating and frustrating, making it ultimately one of my least favorites of the series. Now, however, I find that Rowling was very right in saying that HBP was really the first part of the last book, and viewing it in that way changes a lot. I've also found that listening to Stephen Fry reading HBP is even better than reading it--his interpretation of what the characters were feeling is excellent, and gave me new insight into the depth of Dumbledore's pain in the Cave as well as the grief of all the Order after Dumbledore's death.
In Half-Blood Prince, not only do we see a very different Dumbledore, but we see a different Harry. Dumbledore is suddenly talking to Harry, all the time, and on a much more collaborative level than we have ever seen. First it's Dumbledore who comes to collect/rescue Harry from the Dursleys, and Dumbledore who gives the Dursleys a needed lesson in manners as well as child rearing. It's then Dumbledore who takes Harry along on a mission to secure a new Hogwarts teacher, when it seems the most unnecessary thing for him to do. It's Dumbledore, then, who says that Harry will be having private lessons with him throughout the year, and no, it won't be to repair the failed attempt at Harry learning Occlumency. And it's Dumbledore, who leads Harry through the Pensieve memories in an attempt to learn more about what Voldemort has done and might be planning to do, as well as Dumbledore who further reiterates that he completely trusts Severus Snape, even after Harry learns that it was on Snape's word that Voldemort sought out Harry's parents and himself to kill.
(One side note, here, though, about Occlumency--and a spoiler if you haven't read DH, which I assume people now have. Even though Harry was abysmal at it with Snape, and could never keep Snape from probing his own thoughts, I always thought that Harry had had enough Occlumency lessons to understand how it was supposed to work and what he needed to do. I was glad to see that all that time spent with Snape wasn't wasted when Harry was able to use Occlumency, but more important, Legilimency in DH. Occlumency always seemed to be the negative of the two old forms of magic--one, closing your mind, while the other opened the mind and gave one the ability to move forward, using information and intuition.)
So much of HBP is Harry's time with Dumbledore, distracted by Harry's time with the Prince--who, it turns out, is the very person he has decided he hates the most--Snape. He spends a lot of time with the Prince, when he pours over the Advanced Potions book, with Snape's notes written everywhere. (Hermione occasionally points out that he could have got that information from Snape in their Potions classes if he had paid better attention.) Harry is convinced that the Prince was the most brilliant student ever, to come up with all these wonderful hints at potion brewing, which work better than the book's intstructions, not to mention all the useful spells, which Harry often tries without having a clue about the consequences. Some are funny--Ron being lifted upside down as a wake up call one morning, and the idea of Filch not being able to talk, or Crabbe (or was it Goyle) having toenails too long, making it hard for him to walk.
It's funny, until Hermione points out that hanging someone upside down for sport is not that different than what they saw the Death Eaters doing at the World Cup. And then it's not funny at all. Nor is the memory that Harry saw his dad doing the same thing to Snape in Snape's Pensieve memory. Or Snape's constant taunting of Harry that his dad and Sirius were known for hexing people in the halls just because they could.
Suddenly we see a side of Harry that made me--and others, some of whom still haven't got past it--very uncomfortable. I'm not sure that I'm really 'past it' either, but I have come to see it differently than when I first read the book. I found it much easier to be sympathetic to a yelling, angry, depressed Harry in Order of the Phoenix than to embrace this new adventurous Harry, who had become somewhat of a bully. And truth be told, I still don't like it that Harry "went there". In one way, it seems so inconsistent with Dumbledore always saying that Harry was so pure of heart. None of that seemed very pure of heart to me, and still doesn't.
Perhaps, though, that's where the definition of pure of heart becomes more important. I read it, especially after Harry was so distraught over seeing James and Sirius being bullies, and Harry clearly understanding Snape's point of view, that it meant Harry was above any of the sort of things that teens often try out--and then come to realize they were wrong, and they grow up and wouldn't think of doing those kinds of things once they are adults.
It doesn't excuse James and Sirius (who apparently were bullies for most of the time they were at Hogwarts, starting apparently with Snape on their first train ride to Hogwarts), but it does show that Harry was not perfect. He was not above temptation--the temptation to reap the public praise from Slughorn of being a brilliant Potions student--especially after all the humiliation he suffered at Snape's hands in the class. He found a way to "pay back" some of those who had bullied him for the previous five years, by using some of the Prince's spells on them. Right behavior? Good choices, on Harry's part? Absolutely not. Understandable, maybe.
The most disturbing use Harry makes of the unexpected windfall of spells from the Prince is when he uses Sectumsempra on Malfoy. It was one of those moments that happens to people, a moment when our common sense is driven to the back of our minds and we make the mistake of lashing out at someone because of fear and anger, without considering the consequences; Harry experienced a moment of sudden fear and anger (Malfoy was trying to Crucio Harry, and he knew what that felt like already), and having the Sectumsempra spell lurking in the back of his mind, having wished he could try it out to see what it did, it's not surprising that Harry used it on Draco, who had taunted Harry and his friends from their first year. It does not excuse Harry in any way. But what happens afterwards is more important, I think.
Harry is horrified to see what the spell does, he immediately regrets his use of it, and only wants to help Draco (which, lost in the moment, was Harry's instinct in the first place when he saw Draco crying), though of course, there is nothing that he could have done. As Snape tells him, that was powerful Dark Magic, and Harry would have no way of knowing the counter-curse. Snape arrives, and is able to partially heal Draco, then turns on Harry. Harry offers no excuses for his exceedingly poor choice; he obeys Snape's order to stay there. He does hide the Prince's Potions book, and tries to get Snape to give him some other punishment, other than missing the last Quidditch game. But mostly what we see is that, even though Harry resents Snape and the detention Snape came up with, Harry does know and accept that what he did was so very wrong, and he regrets his foolishness in trying out that spell on anyone, even on Draco.
When Dumbledore talked about the purity of Harry's heart, then, he didn't mean that Harry was always going to be a perfect little boy, always doing the right and proper things, leading a goody-two-shoes kind of life. What he meant was that Harry, who is human (an everyman), will make mistakes, but that he will make the right moral choices in the end because he is filled with love. Dumbledore understood, that even when Harry was angry with him in his fifth year, there were reasons for Harry's anger; we all have to deal with all of our emotions, not just the positve ones. To deny that we have a full range of emotions, is to deny that we are human, and as human beings, none of us are perfect. Not even Harry. Just as Harry has a pure heart that leads him to accept people and other creatures for who they are and not for their status in the wizarding world, he also had to work through his own faults and short-comings. In Half-Blood Prince, we see Harry coming to terms with who he is, his strengths as well as his weaknesses. That's a step on his journey that is crucial to his fight against the evil of Voldemort.
Dumbledore, early in his adult life, we learn in Deathly Hallows had to understand his own weakness, his desire for power. Harry doesn't have that same desire for power, but he has to learn in HBP that he must stay focused on his true quest and that wanting and seeking revenge will not help him. When he cast the Sectumsempra against Draco, there must have been a moment as he cast that spell, very brief, when Harry felt that he was paying back Draco for the ways Draco had mistreated and humiliated him. But even though he doesn't like Draco later, nor forgive Draco his fascination with the Dark Arts, Harry does see Draco in a new light after that, a light that has the glimmer of forgiveness, and at least of compassion for what became of Draco, who was trapped more by the choices of his family before being trapped by his own choices.
Half-Blood Prince is very much the first half of the end of the story. When viewed in that way, it's much easier to see that Harry had to work through his own imperfections, just as Dumbledore did. One of the tragedies of not coming to terms with our own faults is that we live a life of regret, bitterness and hopelessness, which is what we later learn happened to Severus Snape, the "Prince" to whom Harry owed so much. Just how much, and why, Harry doesn't learn until much later.
Pat
Note: I may come back to edit this later, but I wanted to get some of this down before I completely move away from the sixth book.
Sunday, May 20, 2007
Random thoughts with 61 days till Deathly Hallows
I'm in a reading group for Order of the Phoenix at the Leaky Lounge. I really have enjoyed that process of re-reading all the books slowly and discussing them. The guided discussion has brought up things in all the books that I've not thought of, even though I have read each book so many times I really have lost count. For a while, I was re-reading them because I enjoyed them so much, then I read all of them again in preparation for whichever book was coming out. And that's where I am now.
Even though we haven't finished OotP--and won't till just before DH--I've decided to start re-reading Half-Blood Prince. It was kind of a shock when I realized that we've had that one now for almost two years. During the last two years, I've kept reading Harry Potter but I've also rediscovered English literature and have read quite a lot of Austen, Trollope, Hardy and some Dickens. I've managed to also read a lot of C.S. Lewis and three books by Charles Williams. His were the hardest to read, but the imagery was sometimes so strikingly similar to things that Rowling has used in Harry Potter.
I won't do it tonight, but I want to put down my thoughts on Half-Blood Prince as I do this last re-reading before July 21. I've taken to reading with a pencil in hand so I can make notes in the margins. The second chapter, "Spinner's End", looks like Harry's Advanced Potions book with all the notes from the Prince. Mine however, are just notes, and nothing sinister like Sectumsempra. The other thing that I have started doing is highlighting in green all the things that Severus Snape says or the times that he is mentioned--which I underline instead. Clearly, if I want a nice looking book, I will have to buy another one. Whether Snape turns out to be on the good side, which I think he is, or on the bad side, it seems clear that his character is important to the culmination of the Harry Potter series. The underlining that I'm doing is my effort to not miss something crucial. We'll see whether that works or whether it's going to just result in my having a book that would send Madam Pince into a tirade about defacing books.
It will probably be Monday before I post anything again. It's almost 2 am now, and I have church later this morning. We usually spend Sunday afternoons with our kids, and I'm just not on the computer as much. So------till Monday, then.
TTFN
Pat
Even though we haven't finished OotP--and won't till just before DH--I've decided to start re-reading Half-Blood Prince. It was kind of a shock when I realized that we've had that one now for almost two years. During the last two years, I've kept reading Harry Potter but I've also rediscovered English literature and have read quite a lot of Austen, Trollope, Hardy and some Dickens. I've managed to also read a lot of C.S. Lewis and three books by Charles Williams. His were the hardest to read, but the imagery was sometimes so strikingly similar to things that Rowling has used in Harry Potter.
I won't do it tonight, but I want to put down my thoughts on Half-Blood Prince as I do this last re-reading before July 21. I've taken to reading with a pencil in hand so I can make notes in the margins. The second chapter, "Spinner's End", looks like Harry's Advanced Potions book with all the notes from the Prince. Mine however, are just notes, and nothing sinister like Sectumsempra. The other thing that I have started doing is highlighting in green all the things that Severus Snape says or the times that he is mentioned--which I underline instead. Clearly, if I want a nice looking book, I will have to buy another one. Whether Snape turns out to be on the good side, which I think he is, or on the bad side, it seems clear that his character is important to the culmination of the Harry Potter series. The underlining that I'm doing is my effort to not miss something crucial. We'll see whether that works or whether it's going to just result in my having a book that would send Madam Pince into a tirade about defacing books.
It will probably be Monday before I post anything again. It's almost 2 am now, and I have church later this morning. We usually spend Sunday afternoons with our kids, and I'm just not on the computer as much. So------till Monday, then.
TTFN
Pat
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