Wednesday, August 1, 2007
Spoil Away
For all of you who have read Harry Potter 7 and want to talk about it, this space is for you today. Does the book satisfactorily wrap up the series? How well is everything handled? The word I keep hearing is, "intense," and that the story never lets up. It is dark and keeps getting darker. How did you like it?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
16 comments:
I think JK did an admirable job and I'm satisfied. It's hard to say goodbye to a beloved series. I ran into a woman yesterday who was starting the first book again because she didn't want it to end. It was intense. It moved from one stressful incident to another, and the death count was much higher than I expected. I couldn't believe it when Ron left and Harry's wand broke! I had a lot of theories going into #7. Here's the three I was wrong about: Dumbledore's really dead! Snape did not die saving Harry, and Harry did not end up the professor of dark arts at Hogwarts. I'd had high hopes for Snape. My favorite part? The battle at Hogwarts!
Did anyone hate the ending as much as I did? Truthfully, after all she's done with the first six books, I was terribly disappointed. It felt like she didn't know how to end the series. I would probably feel a lot differnt if the "19 Years Later" was more around the lines of "a couple months later."
So you thought the epilogue was a cop out?
I loved the book - everything from the battle in the beginning during Harry's escape to Mrs. Weasley kicking some B--- with Bellatrix. No huge problems with the ending - I suppose I feel that the characters themselves can't end, just the story of Harry's years at Hogwarts and the demise of Voldemort. Harry's story can still go on...just maybe there won't be any more books? But about the epilogue...it was incredibly feel-good and kinda gooey (although I liked it)- how would we feel if she had omitted it?
Oh, oh, oh where to start.
First, I was glad Snape was working for the good side and now we know the reason. However, his motives were hardly pure: he wanted revenge on Voldemort because V had killed his beloved Lily, regardless of Snape's pleas. It is interesting to me that V helped shape his own downfall by being totally devoid of any compassion.
I'd figured on Harry being the final horcrux but I couldn't figure out how he could survive if V was destroyed. I thought the self-sacrificial offering of himself was an interesting way to have Harry live. Also the purgatory-like debate with Dumbledore gave him the ultimate choice of whether to fight on or not.
The whole twist on the wand theme and the way Harry could use Draco's wand to disarm V of the Elder wand I thought was very well done. V thought he had control of the ultimate wand. HA!
Oh and "Way to go Mrs. Weasley!" Killing Bellatrix must have been way more satisfying than using magic to cook the dinner and wash the dishes.
Allie, I thought the ending was just about as good as it could be. I felt that (almost) all the lose ends had been tied up and the final showdown was satisfying. I have to disagree about the epilogue - "a few months later" would have given us very little more information. At least the look 19 years into the future sees life continuing and gives us a glimpse into what some of the main characters went on to be. I would have liked more information but I've since read an interview with JKR that answers most of my questions.
Anyway, I could go on and on and on. I'll force myself to shut up for now and check in later to see what other comments there are.
Insomniac, is that Rowling interview accesible on the Internet? Could you tell us where?
Here are a couple of links Christine:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20035573/
http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org/2007/7/30/j-k-rowling-web-chat-transcript
www.theleakycauldron.com has a ton of info too
The link didn't look complete in my last post so here it is again
http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org/
2007/7/30/j-k-rowling-web-chat-
transcript
Thank you!
Any other takes on HP7?
Well there is an interesting commentary from Orson Scott Card (author)with which I am at odds. I don't believe JKR meant this as a piece of religious allegory. Here's the link, what do you think?
http://blog.beliefnet.com/
blogalogue/2007/07/what-
civilization-does-harry-p.html#more
Seeing the fallibility and weakness in the early Dumbledore made him seem much more of a real person. Until then, he had always had an aloofness to the point that it sometimes seemed that he was toying with Harry. His flaws are another reason that Card's claims are hard for me to swallow.
I've been thinking more about the epilogue too: when I finished the book and closed the back cover, I was surprised that I didn't feel any sense of loss. I thought I'd experience feelings similar to those when someone you've known for years, moves away. But I didn't. I think the reason is that the epilogue time-traveled us to the future and it feels like the beloved characters are still out there, living their lives. This is another reason the 19 year gap worked well for me. Ultimately the end brought me peace and satisfaction.
I'm looking forward to hearing all the kids thoughts and views on the 15th
My problem with the epilogue is I feel that it focuses on Harry's children - children who I care nothing about. I guess my expectations for the ending were based on the hope of Rowling showing us what Harry did with his life after the fight - besides terms of family, because face it, by the end of these last two book we knew he was going to end up with Ginny (Who I loathe and don't know why). I just wanted to know what job he got, where he lived, if he ever saw the Dudley's again and so forth. Also, after all the books getting darker and darker maybe the ending was just a little too "gooey" for me. All in All I would be a little more pleased if the epilogue was dropped from the book entirely.
Allie, I agree that more details were needed in the epilogue. That was my one complaint about it. Since the release of the book JKR has answered most of my questions in interviews, so why she didn't include them in the book I don't know.(I gave a couple of links in one of my other posts)
I suppose focusing on the children shows that life settles into normalcy for them, after facing such difficult teen years. It also leaves you to speculate about what sort of mischief the new Hogwarts students will get into - after all they are mostly Weasley descendants!
Looks like Insomniac wrote under "I" just there.
Ending the book with the next generation of Weasleys and Potters. Smacks of sequels to me. How long do you give JK before putting out another Potter-related book? I know, she probably welcomes a good, long break. But she'll do more eventually, right?
From what I've heard she says "absolutely not". Famous last words? We'll see!
Here is the link to the msn interview with even more info about what happens to everyone.
http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/19959323/
Am I missing something or is this the same link? Don't want to miss anything!!
Post a Comment