Harry Potter Fiends

mood swung · Post by **mood swung** » Fri Jul 15, 2005 7:16 pm

are you planning a vigil tonight?

I'm anxious, well, not exactly anxious but looking forward to reading the new one, but I'm not about to camp out for it.

What say you?

lawngnome · Post by **lawngnome** » Fri Jul 15, 2005 7:54 pm

I am, but I'm not getting there till 11 and I'm telling everyone its for my mom.

SoLikeCandy · Post by **SoLikeCandy** » Fri Jul 15, 2005 10:09 pm

There's a superstore in the Midwest called Meijer--as my dad says, you can get apples on one side of it and underwear on the other. Anyway, I'm going there at 11:30, doing my grocery shopping, then picking up the new Harry Potter book. No one (and NO screaming kids!) will be there, so I won't have to stand in line. Whee!

Post by **spooky girlfriend** » Fri Jul 15, 2005 11:01 pm

Jess and I were going to go to one of those, but we decided against it at the last minute. We'll just get the book tomorrow.

Not that I'll be reading it - I'll just wait for Jess to tell me about it.

The kids all dressed up at the last two movies anyhow. That's enough for a while.

lawngnome · Post by **lawngnome** » Sat Jul 16, 2005 7:32 am

I just finished it, all I can say is holy fucking hell...wow

selfmademug · Post by **selfmademug** » Sat Jul 16, 2005 7:56 am

lawngnome wrote:I just finished it

You got it at midnight and you're finished? Dang. You made way better use of a sleepless night than I did... all I did was buy two bathing suits online and finish a Sudoku or two.

The book got a good review in the Times yesterday:

Harry Potter Works His Magic Again in a Far Darker Tale
By MICHIKO KAKUTANI
July 16, 2005

In an earlier Harry Potter novel, Sibyll Trelawney, divination teacher, looks at Harry and declares that her inner eye sees past his "brave face to the troubled soul within."

"I regret to say that your worries are not baseless," she adds. "I see difficult times ahead for you, alas ... most difficult ... I fear the thing you dread will indeed come to pass ... and perhaps sooner than you think."

In "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince," that frightening prophecy does in fact come true - in a thoroughly harrowing denouement that sees the death of yet another important person in Harry's life, and that renders this, the sixth volume of the series, the darkest and most unsettling installment yet.

It is a novel that pulls together dozens of plot strands from previous volumes, underscoring how cleverly and carefully J. K. Rowling has assembled this giant jigsaw puzzle of an epic. It is also a novel that depicts Harry Potter, now 16, as more alone than ever - all too well aware of loss and death, and increasingly isolated by his growing reputation as "the Chosen One," picked from among all others to do battle with the Dark Lord, Voldemort.

As the novel opens, the wizarding world is at war: Lord Voldemort and his Death Eaters have grown so powerful that their evil deeds have spilled over into the Muggle world of nonmagic folks. The Muggles' prime minister has been alerted by the Ministry of Magic about the rise of Voldemort. And the terrible things that Ms. Rowling describes as being abroad in the green and pleasant land of England read like a grim echo of events in our own post-9/11, post-7/7 world and an uncanny reminder that the Hogwarts Express, which Harry and his friends all take to school, leaves from King's Cross station - the very station where the suspected London bombers gathered minutes before the explosions that rocked the city nine days ago.

Harry, who as an infant miraculously survived a Voldemort attack that killed his mother and father, is regarded as "a symbol of hope" by many in the wizarding world, and as he learns more about the Dark Lord's obsession with his family, he realizes that he has a destiny he cannot escape. Like Luke Skywalker, he is eager to play the role of hero. But like Spider-Man, he is also aware of the burden that that role imposes: although he has developed romantic yearnings for a certain girl, he is wary of involvement, given his recognition of the dangers he will have to face.

"It's been like ... like something out of someone else's life, these last few weeks with you," he tells her. "But I can't ... we can't ... I've got things to do alone now."

Indeed, the perilous task Professor Dumbledore sets Harry in this volume will leave him with less and less time for Quidditch and hanging out with his pals Ron and Hermione: he is to help his beloved teacher find four missing Horcruxes - super-secret, magical objects in which Voldemort has secreted parts of his soul as a means of ensuring his immortality. Only when all of these items have been found and destroyed, Harry is told, can the Dark Lord finally be vanquished.

There are a host of other unsettling developments in this novel, too: the Dementors, those fearsome creatures in charge of guarding Azkaban Prison, have joined forces with Voldemort; Draco Malfoy, Harry's sneering classmate who boasts of moving on to "bigger and better things," appears to vanish regularly from the school grounds; the sinister Severus Snape has been named the new teacher of defense against the dark arts; two Hogwarts students are nearly killed in mysterious attacks; and Dumbledore suddenly turns up with a badly injured hand, which he declines to explain. One of the few bright spots in Harry's school life appears to be an old textbook annotated by its enigmatic former owner, who goes by the name the Half-Blood Prince - a book that initially supplies Harry with some helpful tips for making potions.

The early and middle sections of this novel meld the ordinary and the fantastic in the playful fashion Ms. Rowling has patented in her previous books, capturing adolescent angst about boy-girl and student-teacher relations with perfect pitch. Ron and Hermione, as well as Harry, all become involved in romantic flirtations with other students, even as they begin to realize that their O.W.L. (Ordinary Wizarding Level) grades may well determine the course of their post-Hogwarts future. As the story proceeds, however, it grows progressively more somber, eventually becoming positively Miltonian in its darkness. In fact, two of the novel's final scenes - like the violent showdown between Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker in the last "Star Wars" movie, "Revenge of the Sith" - may well be too alarming for the youngest readers.

Harry still has his wry sense of humor and a plucky boyish heart, but as in the last volume ("Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix"), he is more Henry V than Prince Hal, more King Arthur than the young Wart. He has emerged, at school and on the Quidditch field, as an unquestioned leader: someone who must learn to make unpopular decisions and control his impetuous temper, someone who must keep certain secrets from his schoolmates and teachers.

He has become more aware than ever of what he and Voldemort have in common - from orphaned childhoods to an ability to talk Parseltongue (i.e., snake speech) to the possession of matching wands - and in one chilling scene, he is forced to choose between duty to his mission and his most heartfelt emotions. In discovering the true identity of the Half-Blood Prince, Harry will learn to re-evaluate the value of first impressions and the possibility that his elders' convictions can blind them to parlous truths. And in embracing his own identity, he will discover his place in history.

As in earlier volumes, Ms. Rowling moves Harry's story forward by chronicling his adventures at Hogwarts, while simultaneously moving backward in time through the use of flashbacks (via Dumbledore's remarkable Pensieve, a receptacle for people's memories). As a result, this is a coming-of-age story that chronicles the hero's evolution not only by showing his maturation through a series of grueling tests, but also by detailing the growing emotional wisdom he gains from understanding more and more about the past.

In addition to being a bildungsroman, of course, the Harry Potter books are also detective stories, quest narratives, moral fables, boarding school tales and action-adventure thrill rides, and Ms. Rowling uses her tireless gift for invention to thread these genres together, while at the same time taking myriad references and tropes (borrowed from such disparate sources as Shakespeare, Dickens, fairy tales, Greek myths and more recent works like "Star Wars") and making them her own.

Perhaps because of its position as the penultimate installment of a seven-book series, "The Half-Blood Prince" suffers, at moments, from an excess of exposition. Some of Dumbledore's speeches to Harry have a forced, summing-up quality, and the reader can occasionally feel Ms. Rowling methodically setting the stage for developments to come or fleshing out scenarios put in play by earlier volumes (most notably, "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets," with its revelations about the young Voldemort, a k a Tom Riddle).

Such passages, however, are easily forgotten, as the plot hurtles along, gaining a terrible momentum in this volume's closing pages. At the same time, the suspense generated by these books does not stem solely from the tension of wondering who will die next or how one or another mystery will be solved. It stems, as well, from Ms. Rowling's dexterity in creating a character-driven tale, a story in which a person's choices determine the map of his or her life - a story that creates a hunger to know more about these people who have become so palpably real.

We want to know more about Harry's parents - how they met and married and died - because that may tell us more about Harry's own yearnings and decisions. We want to know more about Dumbledore's desire to believe the best of everyone because that may shed light on whom he chooses to trust. We want to know more about the circumstances of Tom Riddle's birth because that may shed light on his decision to reinvent himself as Lord Voldemort.

Indeed, the achievement of the Potter books is the same as that of the great classics of children's literature, from the Oz novels to "The Lord of the Rings": the creation of a richly imagined and utterly singular world, as detailed, as improbable and as mortal as our own.

Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company

lawngnome · Post by **lawngnome** » Sat Jul 16, 2005 8:47 am

lol, I'm actually a regional speed-reading champ. Anyways, I think that review hits it pretty well. One thing they dont stress enough, though, is that, while this is probably the best-written one since the first, this is not what I would call a childrens book. It could certainly be slightly edited to be more apropriate for the 12 &under area. As it is, its very violent and scary, and there is some slightly inappropriate content of the sexual manner. Nothing like what a real 16 yr old goes through (not that I would know) but still not really kid-friendly. And it does use the word 'slut,' for whatever thats worth. But, it is a really good book. A lot of what happened was totally unexpected. I had to take a walk to clear my head, it got me that badly. So enjoy...

PlaythingOrPet · Post by **PlaythingOrPet** » Mon Jul 18, 2005 4:48 am

I thought it was excellent, if a tad slow at the beginning (though I loved Ch.2, Spinner's End), with enough plot twists, surprises and info to keep me happily theorising until the next book.

C'mon, Crow! What do you say?

*major spoiler!*

Talk about being a double agent! Obviously Snape did what he had to to save Draco from being killed (thus himself meeting the same end by way of the Vow) by Dumbledore's orders. What the hell, Dumbledore had be cursed and poisoned, he was about to croak it anyway.

Poppet · Post by **Poppet** » Wed Jul 20, 2005 8:51 pm

okay, it showed up at my house at around 1pm on saturday, and i had it finished shortly after midnight.

i thought it dragged a hell of a lot, the school year was totally messed up, it felt like she was ticking off items in a list: "okay, hogsmeade, got it. potions class, got it. quidditch cup... oh shit, i almost forgot that!"

i do admit i need to read it again, and i can't because i've already loaned it out.

i still LOVE the entire story.

miss buenos aires · Post by **miss buenos aires** » Mon Aug 01, 2005 2:52 pm

Okay! Read it. I like the epic part so much more than the boarding school part. The romances are a bit like, "You! You! Fall in love!"

Who Shot Sam? · Post by **Who Shot Sam?** » Mon Aug 01, 2005 2:56 pm

I saw a guy who was eerily similar to Comic Book Guy from The Simpsons reading the new Harry Potter book on a Melbourne street corner, totally oblivious to that little crosswalk ticking noise.

Otis Westinghouse · Post by **Otis Westinghouse** » Mon Aug 01, 2005 6:25 pm

My son (12) has read more in the last week than in the last 6 months. Fortunately he hasn't emulated his friend and Lawngnome by reading it in a 12 hour period between midnight and midday. Sadly Philip Pullman doesn't hold him in the same way, not yet at least. I suspect I will go through life never having read a word by JK. she was 40 yesterday, though she looks older! I lost any respect for her when a book I was editing with a photo of her had to have a change of photo at the behest of her wanker agents. they changed it from a nice friendly one of her early on in the books' success to one of her looking like an evil reptile in a business suit taken after her annual salary had exceeded Canada's GNP. You wouldn't catch Philip Pullman doing that.

SoLikeCandy · Post by **SoLikeCandy** » Mon Aug 01, 2005 7:10 pm

Ahh! Another Pullman fan. The His Dark Materials books are mindblowing. Have you heard any news about the movie they're planning to make...?

lawngnome · Post by **lawngnome** » Mon Aug 01, 2005 7:15 pm

A movie!?! His Dark Materials?!? cool...

and its not that I like HP, (I dont really) its just so fucking addictive. You cant stop reading once you start.

Otis Westinghouse · Post by **Otis Westinghouse** » Mon Aug 01, 2005 7:35 pm

Fair enough, nothing wrong with a bit of literary addiction every once in a while. Better for teens than smack and crack.

Yes, I love PP. HDM is a masterpiece of imagination and detail. I loved every last word.

http://www.hisdarkmaterials.org/ covers details of the latest rumours.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0385752/ indiactes 2007 and Tom Stoppard as screenplay writer. We shall see.

I would have loved to have seen the London stage productions, which were raved about by one and all (daemons as puppets, etc.).

invisible Pole · Post by **invisible Pole** » Mon Aug 01, 2005 7:40 pm

I've read that Tom Stoppard (as screenwriter) and Chris Weitz (as director) had been involved in the project for a while but both have been dropped.
Pullman's favourites for two of the leading roles are said to be Nicole Kidman and Samuel L. Jackson.

Otis Westinghouse · Post by **Otis Westinghouse** » Mon Aug 01, 2005 7:43 pm

invisible Pole wrote:I've read that Tom Stoppard (as screenwriter) and Chris Weitz (as director) had been involved in the project for a while but both have been dropped.
Pullman's favourites for two of the leading roles are said to be Nicole Kidman and Samuel L. Jackson.

Are you an insomniac, IP? At least I have an hour's advantage over you! Nicole as Mrs Coulter? Hmm, OK, I guess. My wife hates her, but I think she can come up with the goods, and has the necessary mix of cruelty and beauty in her face. SLJ as Asriel? Nice one! The casting of Lyra wil be interesting.

lawngnome · Post by **lawngnome** » Tue Aug 02, 2005 12:29 am

Otis Westinghouse wrote:Fair enough, nothing wrong with a bit of literary addiction every once in a while. Better for teens than smack and crack.

Yes, I love PP. HDM is a masterpiece of imagination and detail. I loved every last word.

http://www.hisdarkmaterials.org/ covers details of the latest rumours.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0385752/ indiactes 2007 and Tom Stoppard as screenplay writer. We shall see.

I would have loved to have seen the London stage productions, which were raved about by one and all (daemons as puppets, etc.).

well thank you!

seriously, I had no idea about this... I work for a pop culture magazine... how?

millen · Post by **millen** » Thu Aug 04, 2005 10:14 am

I fail to understand to see how there can only be one more book. No way can there be one more book. What's more, the seventh obviously can't take place at Hogwarths. So so much for a book every year at Hogwarths.

And I could believe... like Dumbledore... Snape... TF?! You people are so lucky to be able to discuss it with others... I'm still waiting for my best friend to read it, and my girlfriend still has to touch the first book. And here I am still in amazement over what happened, incapable of believing she still hasn't started working on the next book!!

Otis Westinghouse · Post by **Otis Westinghouse** » Thu Aug 04, 2005 2:08 pm

She needed to take 6 months out to check all the details on her Jan-Jun royalty statement...

Tim(e) · Post by **Tim(e)** » Mon Aug 08, 2005 8:51 pm

Otis Westinghouse wrote:My son (12) has read more in the last week than in the last 6 months. Fortunately he hasn't emulated his friend and Lawngnome by reading it in a 12 hour period between midnight and midday. Sadly Philip Pullman doesn't hold him in the same way, not yet at least.

I have (on the recommendations here) just purchased and started reading the "His Dark Materials" trilogy. I am only 50 pages in so far (and loving it), but I really cannot understand why it is being raised almost as a comparison to the Harry Potter books. Entirely different in my (albeit) still formulating opinion... at this stage if I were to draw any comparisons at all, I would be leaning more in the direction of Mervin Peake's superb Gormenghast Trilogy. I can definitely understand why a 12 year old might having trouble sustaining interest and have to admit that I was rather surprised at the online book stores I visited recommending this for ages 11+ - and on a slightly related note, why are they only making the third book in the trilogy into a film?

I suspect I will go through life never having read a word by JK. she was 40 yesterday, though she looks older! I lost any respect for her when a book I was editing with a photo of her had to have a change of photo at the behest of her wanker agents. they changed it from a nice friendly one of her early on in the books' success to one of her looking like an evil reptile in a business suit taken after her annual salary had exceeded Canada's GNP. You wouldn't catch Philip Pullman doing that.

JK is hardly responsible for the choices her agents make with regards to marketing... what kind of book was it for by the way... something aimed at children, schools, business people? That would have a big influence on what was deemed the correct image to present, surely. It strikes me, based on comments such as those regarding her looking older than her 40 years, reptillian etc etc, that perhaps you are begrudging her, her fame and fortune (ie. a case of tall poppy syndrome) and letting that influence your judgement?

As far as The Half Blood Prince goes, I really did like it a lot, but thought that the constant romantic and associated jealousy references did become a little tedious after a while... in a similar way in which Harry's rage in the previous book started to become rather tiresome. I also found it rather odd that where previously Ron and Hermoine had always had faith in Harry's judgement, they suddenly became extremely sceptical of his theories in this particular book.

Otis Westinghouse · Post by **Otis Westinghouse** » Tue Aug 09, 2005 5:15 pm

HDM and Potter are not comparable in age group, of course, and maybe 12 is a bit young for Pullman, though of course that depends a lot on the kid. What is more significant is that all age groups are glued to Potter, when although also hugely successful in their own right, HDM is more a marginal text for teens and older, when by rights it should be hugely celebrated as a modern classic. Any book that prompts Peter Hitchens, the most evil man in Britain, to say Pullman is the most evil man in Britain has to have a lot going for it. Didn't know that about the film only being book 3. Shame, really, if it's only the awesome Amber Spyglass. Glad you're enjoying it.

The book I wad referring to was an English language textbook for secondary school kids all over the world. The original photo was so much nicer in every respect, to me it's highly symbolic. It's become such an insane money-spinning venture that this is ultimately more significant than anything she writes. I've not read them, am not keen to, but it's clear that she had a good idea for a character and context, and can spin a goood yarn, and that's about it. Also symbolic is that she, an ex-English language teacher who was a fairly impoverished single mum in Portugal (who apparently lived in the flat of a friend of a friend after splitting from her hubby), however indirectly through the medium of 'her people', generally refuses any usage of her texts in books such as those I edit. I bet that isn't the case with Pullman. I don't begrudge her personally, long may she enjoy her wads, but although it's great that 'she's got kids reading again' and all that, it depresses me that this success is the most prominent literary event of our recent times.

selfmademug · Post by **selfmademug** » Wed Aug 17, 2005 2:20 pm

Bumper sticker I saw today:

REPUBLICANS FOR VOLDEMORT

Just thought you'd want to know...

Made me laugh almost as the one reading JESUS WAS A LIBERAL JEW, which I saw a week or so ago.

selfmademug · Post by **selfmademug** » Mon Dec 19, 2005 9:07 am

Here's a last minute gift idea for those Potter fans on your list:

You can get it here:

http://www.cafepress.com/flippin_sweet/539241

Goody2Shoes · Post by **Goody2Shoes** » Mon Dec 19, 2005 8:52 pm

http://www.potterpuppetpals.com