The Harry Potter Show: At the Half - 問女何所思，問女何所憶

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The Harry Potter Show: At the Half

Jun. 26th, 2003 at 11:26 AM

weather	:		sunnyish
outside	:		22°C
mood	:		poker faced

I'm not impressed.

It feels draggy and annoying. It wasn't exciting, electric or profound. Yes, I know it was supposed to be much darker in tone, it's not supposed to be all happyhappyjoyjoy like the others.

I want to shitbeat Hermione. Self-righteous, arrogant little fuck. Who the hell is she to force her own way of life onto others? Through deception, no less. It's obvious that the House Elves don't want freedom and don't want her help. She's NOT doing a good thing for them, Dobby was the only one.

I'm sure JKR's message was that "heroes are not perfect", very often, they're human, just like you and me, not without their flaws and errors. I'm sure that was done on purpose. I'm just not sure it was supposed to be done in a way that makes me hate the book. Am I not supposed to want to read past the half-way point? Am I supposed to seriously questioning if I want to read Book 6 and 7? Am I supposed to feel like I should just go re-read The Chronicles of Narnia or pick up The Time Quartet?

I want to read OotP from the adults point of view, Dumbledore, Molly and Arthur Weasley, Tonks, et al. I want to know more about them, their backgrounds and how they fit in in the Order.

Comments

( 24 comments — Leave a comment )

Jun. 26th, 2003 11:40 am (UTC)

Something that irritated me was the way Harry is always angry and angsty. I know that JKR wanted to illustrate that Harry is growing up and going through his teens when things are like that, but MAN! And Hermione's constant knitting was irritating to me too, what with how the house elves just don't want her freakin' "help". Aside from that though, I enjoyed the book.

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bride

Jun. 26th, 2003 12:54 pm (UTC)

Re:

Harry is always angry and angsty.

Yeah, really! I wish he'd keep his freaking trap shut about the Voldemort thing. I'm up to the part where he just gave Rita the interview for the Quibbler. I was like, "oh that's fucking smart, getting yourself published in a fucking TABLOID is REALLY great for your and Dumbledore's already shaky credibility". I honestly thought it made no sense why JKR is making that kind of stupidity work out so nicely.

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Jun. 26th, 2003 01:05 pm (UTC)

Keep reading..it makes sense later...

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bride

Jun. 26th, 2003 01:06 pm (UTC)

Thanks =) It is starting to pick up a little, now that I'm past where I was yesterday. =)

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Jun. 26th, 2003 06:13 pm (UTC)

Yeah, realistically you wouldn't think something like that would ever work out, but things do tend to go well for Harry. :P

The book does have its moments, though. A fave of mine is a Fred and George thing that comes up later.

I just want JKR to release all the freaking books already. Honestly, I go through books like you wouldn't believe and I just want to read the rest and get to the end!! :P

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bride

Jun. 26th, 2003 06:15 pm (UTC)

Re:

Heehee, my current favorite is "Firelegs"... "If you read my report, you'd know it's firearms" BWAHAHA!! =D =D =D

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Jun. 26th, 2003 06:17 pm (UTC)

*grins* I enjoyed that too.

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faeriewings23

Jun. 26th, 2003 12:03 pm (UTC)

Funny - I just took a break from reading to check what was going on online - I am at page 500 or so in HP. It is dragging a bit, and I cannot imagine my students (4th graders) reading this book (and understanding it). I feel this book is most certainly geared toward more adult readers. I am disappointed in that I don't feel the urgency to read and finish, as I did with the first 4 books.

I am hoping it will pick up soon... :)

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bride

Jun. 26th, 2003 12:59 pm (UTC)

Re:

I feel this book is most certainly geared toward more adult readers.

I second that.

For some reason, Umbridge's "detention" where they write lines and it cuts their hands really disturbed me. Punishing children really shouldn't go past harmless, non-lasting physical pain from someone who is not a parent/legal guardian. Something that leaves an open wound that leaves a physical scar is way too much even for me.

I'm getting more and more disenchanted with JKR.

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adaina

Jun. 26th, 2003 12:17 pm (UTC)

Yeah I thought that it was kind of long and drawn out but I did enjoy the book. I, personally, couldn't put it down and sacrificed two nights sleep to finish the book. Hermione did piss me off. I just wanted to slap her several times. I can understand why Dobby wanted to be free (As my husband and I said...if we were servants of the Malfoys we probably would have killed ourselves). But I wish she would quit it with that S.P.E.W. CRAP! And I wanted that Umbridge toad to choke on something too! AHH! Cho was another person who ticked me off a lot too through out the book "I want Harry. No Cedric. I want Harry." It would have been interesting to know more of the story from the adults point of view but alas we cannot change what has been written. I hope that the next two books are better. Sorry for the long winded crap I just wrote. :)

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bride

Jun. 26th, 2003 01:02 pm (UTC)

Re:

Cho is really annoying me too! I liked her better when she was just a background character. At first, I was like, Cool! A Chinese girl!. And I was very excited when JKR said she would have a bigger role in Book 5. I fantasized about Harry visiting her family and how the HP world would incorporate Chinese culture.

I'm not at the end of the book yet, although I'm not holding my breath for it. ={

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Jun. 26th, 2003 06:08 pm (UTC)

OMG! Cho annoyed me too!!! She was EXACTLY the whiny, tear-y, super-sensitive kind of girl that I DIDN'T want her to be! I didn't expect JKR to incorporate Chinese culture but it would've been interesting.

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Jun. 26th, 2003 01:34 pm (UTC)

I'm glad I'm not the only person who thinks that another perspective on the same events would be fascinating to read. =)Personally, I want to read about the original Order of the Phoenix!

I suppose that Ms. Rowling gets a point for realism, however. Thinking about typical overwrought fifteen-year-olds (just click to random journals for horrid examples), the characters are rather representative, being overwrought, know-it-all, self-righteous, tactless, and alternately overconfident and on the verge of (yet another) nervous breakdown.

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bride

Jun. 26th, 2003 02:26 pm (UTC)

Re:

I want to read about the original Order of the Phoenix!

Y'know, I totally agree. And even though I usually think The Prequel Phenomenon is getting a bit out of hand, I'd be interested in an HP prequel series. I'd like to read about The Old Crowd™ when they were at Hogwarts =)

typical overwrought fifteen-year-olds (just click to random journals for horrid examples)

I was thinking that too while I was reading =D "Y'know, if I want angsty teeny-bopper trash, I'd go to the LJ Random link, jeez..."

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ducks

Jun. 26th, 2003 07:18 pm (UTC)

I totally agree! (About the prequal). I would love to read about Lily and James Potter, and all the antics James, Sirius, Snape and Peter P got into!!! I'm all for a prequel!

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bride

Jun. 26th, 2003 07:54 pm (UTC)

I want to get to know Frank and Alice Longbottom. I feel so awful for them ={

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ducks

Jun. 26th, 2003 08:08 pm (UTC)

Re:

Yeah me too. I want to know the whole story behing what happened to them.

I just want to find out what it was like the first time around.

I also want to find out more about Hagrid's past.

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ducks

Jun. 26th, 2003 08:09 pm (UTC)

Re:

You know what, I have to agree with you that I'm finding the adults in the novel much more interesting.

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faeriewings23

Jun. 26th, 2003 05:36 pm (UTC)

Ok - I am at 588 now. I am glad Cho came around (and quite frankly, I would never have known she was Chinese-except for her name-poor description on JKR's part), she needs to stop stringing Harry along...
Anyway, is it just me, or is there a lot of vomiting in this book? It's starting to gross me out. >:P

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ducks

Jun. 26th, 2003 07:23 pm (UTC)

I'm about halfway through as well (although not as far as you I think b/c I haven't gotten to Rita Skeeter's return yet) and so far it's okay. I actually don't mind Hermione that much, because she reminds me of me when I was in high school! And like another poster said, they are just behaving like normal, angstsy teenagers. Admittedly though, I'm not liking this book as much as Book 4, but I've still got like 400 pages so who knows, it could get better.

I think everyone had really high expectations of the book. We've been waiting more than 2 years for this installment. There was a lot of hype about it. The first four books were a big hit. There's a lot of pressure on JKR and on this book to be very good.

I think if we just step back and forget the hype, we'll like Book 5 a little more. But who knows, I haven't finished it yet... so I could end up thinking this book's better than Book 4!

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bride

Jun. 26th, 2003 07:37 pm (UTC)

Re:

I've never been the activist type and even when I was in school, I didn't like obstruction, vandalism or any other extreme form of action to get a message across. It's just attention seeking and it's the wrong kind of attention. Especially when, like Hermione, the protester doesn't have all the facts.

It's still dangerous to start letting tigers and elephants out of their cages at the local zoo, even though you think animals belong in the wild.

You get all the facts and do things through the right channels.

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ducks

Jun. 27th, 2003 12:55 pm (UTC)

Oh I totally agree with you. I don't agree with what Hermione's doing either, but that's just her character. She is attention seeking and she will jump in with both feet. But just because I don't agree with what she's doing doesn't mean I don't enjoy the character. I'm probably in the minority though as I know a lot of people are annoyed by Hermione.

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faeriewings23

Jun. 27th, 2003 05:55 am (UTC)

I am at 637 now and hoping to finish by the time the weekend is over - I start grad classes Monday and won't have time to devote to HP. I am glad I found this post though, I enjoy discussing this with adults. (I am a teacher, and discussing it with 9 year olds just isn't the same).

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jenny_rambles

Jul. 6th, 2003 01:10 am (UTC)

Sigh - I kind of felt that J.K. Rowling tried to aim darker - and it just didn't work. I don't know how I felt about the book - I think I'm going to re-read it before I come up with a final thought.
I don't think it lived up to the wait though. At all.

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( 24 comments — Leave a comment )