Still Here

 My time of actively writing about Harry Potter books and movies has come to a paused state. Not because I like the books or movies less, but because I don't really have anything more to add. I still enjoy listening to Stephen Fry reading the books and watch the movies once in a while. I always preferred the books to the movies. I do find it interesting that, even after the many times I've read the books, I still sometimes find little details that I had missed or perhaps just forgotten. The period of time - and the amount of time - I spent reading, discussing, rereading, watching movies and discussing was something I thoroughly enjoyed. I talked with my daughters, with friends, with strangers I met online who have become friends, and with complete strangers I met in stores. It was all fun; it was part of finding that we do have so much more in common than we ever realize. So, from my point of view, it's all been worth it. It has been a gift to all of us that far exceeds what any one author could do.

Pat

Catching up with Harry, with Stephen Fry's help

I hadn't realized it has been so long since I've updated this blog. In with getting ready for Christmas, I spent time listening to Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.


Goblet of Fire, while it is the middle book, is just not my favorite. There are some important things that we learn and clues that are the set-up for the rest of the books. But I'm just not that fond of all the action stuff. And that's a good portion of the book.

The parts that did interest me, especially in the way that Rowling presents it, have to do with all the information about Tom Riddle as Lord Voldemort. I remember when we waited at the midnight release to get Goblet of Fire - it's hard to believe it was really over nine years ago. Laura started reading it on the way home. But we couldn't remember who Tom Riddle was. We had to start back through all the books to refresh our memories to make that crucial connection.

The Yule Ball was a nice distraction from all the action. (And I love the dance lessons added into the movie - some of my favorite scenes.) Moaning Myrtle is priceless as well.

The part that I did like about the three tasks was that Harry showed that he cared more about others than about winning. He was competitive, but not when it came to the safety of others, even those he didn't know. And while being fair to Cedric didn't work the way he thought it would, Harry still made the right choice by recognizing that he couldn't have gotten to the goal without help. It was his sense of fairness that I admired.

This was the only book that gave me nightmares after I read it. I remember dreaming once aobut the scene with Voldemort's rebirth in the graveyard, and was sure that I'd been reading way too much Potter. But more than that, it was that scene that showed that Rowling was really telling a story that was more on young adult or adult level than the children's story that was being marketed.

It was a powerful book, and it still is whether I'm reading it or listening to Stephen Fry read it. The images are intense and lasting. It's this book that tells the reader to prepare for anything to happen. And that might mean the ending of the series won't be as happy as we all thought when we read the first couple of books.


It was nice to be able to go right from book 4 to book 5. Three years was a long time to wait when the books were new. I think that was part of the problem with the reception of Order of the Phoenix when it was released. Readers had waited so long and they had found plenty of forums to discuss any and all theories, not to mention that three years was plenty of time for all the would-be writers to try their hand at adding to the story or writing their own version.

By the time the book came out, readers had a pretty clear idea of where they thought the story was going. And Rowling didn't go there. One aspect of Order of the Phoenix that I particularly like is all the time we spent in Harry's mind. What did he think about Voldemort's return? Why hadn't anyone (Dumbledore) told him what was going on? Why could he see and feel the things that were in Voldemort's mind? Why wouldn't Dumbledore look at him?

Did I like a yelling Harry? No, not really. But I kept feeling that it was the right time for him to finally ask all those questions about his parents and his past. Not getting answers after so many years would make anyone angry - especially a fifteen year old. Stephen Fry's reading of this book brings out all the emotion that is in it - the anger, frustation, infatuation with Cho, tenuous trust with Harry's friends, his grief over Sirius.

And then there is Snape. There is always Snape. But it is this book that gives us more than a two-dimensional look at the man who will be so much a part of Harry at the end. It was rereading and discussing all the bits about Snape that gave so many their first clue that he wasn't the rotten git we were told he was. I wonder if we could have gone from this book to the next, without a break, if we would have figured any of it out. Maybe it was the time lag that allowed us to see through Rowling's clever portrayal of Snape, to see that there was some truth in what he told Harry about his father, and that Dumbledore did have a reason to trust him with his own life and Harry's life.

This book was the longest, and the criticism is always that it needed tighter editing. But what would I want left out? Perhaps the details of "Grawp's Tale", but nothing more. I love all the rest of it.

Now, time to start listening to Half-Blood Prince, if I can get my mp3 player to work. It's been a frustrating day, with one of them dying completely, and the other one just being weird. It shows that there are files taking up space but says everythign is empty. Last time I checked, it would show the files on the external card. I hope that still works, or I'm going to be very unhappy.

Pat

Chamber of Secrets

(Cover art by Mary GrandPre)

We were ready to travel to Tennessee, and I updated the music and the audio books on my two mp3 players - two because one isn't enough when I want to take more than one Harry Potter book with me. So I had the end of Half-Blood Prince and all of Chamber of Secrets, which I haven't listened to for quite some time.

For one thing, I love listening to Stephen Fry reading it. One of the most interesting things about the first four Harry Potter books is that he recorded them before the first movie came out, and before any of the characters were cast. Fry's Hagrid sounds just like Robbie Coltrane; Dumbledore sounds different than Richard Harris but somehow has the same lightness to his voice that came through in Harris's performances. Book Dobby and movie Dobby are very similar. Fry's McGonagall, of course, doesn't sound like Maggie Smith's voice, except in tone and the crispness of diction, if that makes sense.

Stephen Fry doesn't try to sound like a woman, except his voice is a little higher, but not too exagerated. It's very hard for a man to sound like a twelve year old girl, but he portrays Hermione in a very believable voice, getting the impatience and prissiness. Well, Hermione's not prissy, but it's that know-it-all tone of voice. (It was actually hearing Jim Dale read Hermione and Molly in Goblet of Fire that decided me against wanting to hear any more from him - too high pitched to the point that it was grating and so over-done.)

Stephen Fry nails the haughtiness of Lucius Malfoy and of Draco. And the oiliness of Borgin. But the one that amazes me is his reading of Gilderoy Lockhart. It sounds just like Kenneth Brannagh. I sometimes have to remind myself that it isn't. The accent, the inflection, the pacing. It's perfect. So I was thinking that all of that is due to the writing. Rowling apparently wrote all of those characters (including all the Weasleys, parents as well as the children) in such a way that whoever is reading will have such a vivid image of the characters that the voice will just be natural. Oh, and I didn't mention Tom Riddle, but that's perfect as well. Especially the high pitched laugh that Rowling describes - which I've always had trouble hearing, until I heard Stephen Fry do it.

The only one that isn't the same is Severus Snape. Fry does read him with a thin, waspish sounding voice, which is what is described. But it sounds nothing like Alan Rickman. By the time he read Order of the Phoenix, Fry had changed the voice of Snape so it is very like Rickman's. And so much the better. Snape is much more sinister and threatening and terrifying when he sounds like Rickman. (I'll add that is one of the few changes from book to movie that I really thought worked well. While Rickman doesn't look the way I saw or heard Snape when I read the first four books, his version works better on screen. Rather than Snape screaming at Harry, Snape speaking in a lower more deliberate manner better conveys that he is barely controlling his anger and hatred for Harry.)

And so now that I'm almost to the end, I think I'll continue on through and listen to Prisoner of Azkaban next. Thankfully now, I have all of my music and four audio books on one mp3 player. Terry gave me a new one with 6 times as much memory. Nice.

Pat