18 January 2013

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, Part Deux: Readalong!


Again, I am not at all sure why I had dismissed this book in my memory as so "eh."  Sure, there's a LOT of setting up for the series, but I raced through the book this time almost as quickly as I raced through the audio on my first experience with the story. It makes me full of feels. I didn't have quite as many dogeared pages in the second half as the first half--again, probably because I was feverishly turning the pages to get to the end. Here's what I noted:

Chapter Ten, p. 164: Harry gets his broom. As long as we (and by "we" I mean "JK Rowling") are talking about the lack of Slytherin's fairness, let's address something.  First years aren't allowed to have brooms. Unless you're a Gryffindor named Harry Potter. And since Harry didn't buy it for himself and since he doesn't have a proxy guardian in the wizarding world, somebody would have needed Harry's permission to use his money to buy his broom. Which means that a professor, either Dumbledore or McGonagall, bought Harry's broom for them. As in either the headmaster or the deputy headmistress/head of house. How is that *not* blatant favoritism? Cf: This moment with CoS when Draco gets on the team and his father buys the team new brooms and everybody gets ALL up in arms about it. The school showing favoritism to one boy over all others and flouting the rules to do it vs. a parent buying equipment for his son's entire team.

Moving on.

Chapter Ten, p. 178. McGonagall only takes five points away from Hermione for trying to go after a troll. Cf: later, catching the golden trio out of bed past curfew, she takes away 50 points each. WTF? I mean, I get that Gryffindor had to be in last place for the House Cup for JK to play her final card, but for realz? I don't think so.

Chapter Eleven, p. 183. Harry decides that it's Professor Snape who's after the stone and for the first time (but not the last) in the series, it's Hermione who is the Voice of Reason: "I know he's not very nice but he wouldn't try and steal something Dumbledore was keeping safe." That's right, Harry and Ron.  Not Nice doesn't equal Evil. Don't they know that he is the very model of the anti-hero archetype?  Everybody sing along!  (Edited to add: btw, that's a whole song filk done to the tune of "I Am the Very Model of a Modern Major General" from The Pirates of Penzance. Why aren't you people commenting on its brilliance? It is g-d funny. Pure comic genius.)

God, don't I wish there were a gif of that? I guess this will do:



Chapter Eleven, p. 186. Okay, quidditch is awesome.  But having Lee Jordan commentate on this match is about as fair and balanced as Fox News is when discussing Obama. Enough with the blatant anti-Slytherin bias, people JKR! Later, on p. 188, McGonagall finally gets angry enough to do something about it.  She's supposed to be the fair one and it took her long enough.

Moving on.

Chapter Twelve, p. 194: This just makes me happy.  Little do the Weasley twins know that in going after Quirrell, they're actually pelting Voldie with snowballs.  Well done, boys.

Chapter Twelve, p. 201. I just love this description of the invisibility cloak: "It was strange to the touch, like water woven into the material." I'm not sure that could be bettered. And let's pause for a second to acknowledge how difficult it must have been to give this back to Harry. After all, he had two out of the three deathly hallows in his position. He must have known that it would only be a matter of time before getting the third. Just goes to show how far the man has grown.

Chapter Twelve, p. 209. Oh, I think I cried here when Harry's seeing his family in the Mirror of Erised for the first time: "He had a powerful kind of ache inside him, half joy half terrible sadness."

Chapter Twelve, p. 214. Dumbledore wants socks for Christmas but people insist on giving him books.  Oddly enough, I want books for Christmas but people insist on giving me socks.

Chapter 16, p. 271. Here we have foreshadowing of the end of HBP. Hermione and Ron insist on helping Harry go after Snape in order to protect the stone, Harry acts surprised about their being willing to go with him. I freely admit that I choked up at this point, too.

Chapter 16, p. 283. Ahh, the great chess match.  I'm sure this will figure heavily in today's readalong.  This is Ron at his best and it's the Ron that we see less and less of as the story goes on.  It shows bravery, strategy, and knowing the importance of the endgame, both literally and figuratively.  This is the Ron who might be worthy of Hermione one day.  It makes me sad that this Ron rarely makes appearances in later books. Something I'd like to mention, that I don't think I've ever seen anybody note before, is that takes another kind of bravery for Harry and Hermione to move on after Ron falls. It goes against almost every instinct they have to remain on the board and play the game to the end, and then move on again to the next obstacle before being able to go back and fetch help.

Chapter 16, pp. 285-287. God, where to even start?  That's our girl, cool and calm, solving the logic problem. She's smart, loyal, brave, and cunning in almost equal measure, truly embodying all four Houses. And then JKR gives her one of the worst, anti-feminist lines in the entire series: "Books! And Cleverness! There are more important things -- friendship, and bravery." Um, yeah, Hermione. You've just brilliantly demonstrated your own friendship and bravery ALONG WITH your bookish cleverness.  What the problem here, girlfriend?

Chapter 17, pp. 288-297. OMG, it's Quirrell!  Yes, I admit I totally bought into the whole "Snape-is-Evil" the first time around. I was as surprised as Harry was when it turned out to be poor, stuttering Professor Quirrell. And it was *totally* brilliant for Dumbledore to enchant the Mirror here to thwart Voldie.


Chapter 17, pp. 298-300.  Harry's conversation with Dumbledore, in which Dumbledore conveniently forgets to tell Harry that Snape never would have been in danger in the first place if it weren't for James & his friends. Dumbledore has just told Harry that he might not answer his questions, but he wouldn't lie to Harry, but I think he just did: "I believe he worked so hard this year to protect you because he felt that would make him and your father even."

But later, p. 304, when Hagrid gives Harry the photo album?  Again, I have all the feels. "Harry couldn't speak, but Hagrid understood."

But, oh, this is the worse part. Page 305. The hall is decorated with Slytherin colors because they've won the House Cup (aside: why does Hufflepuff have so few points?  That doesn't make sense. I get that they're in third place, but that seems extreme.) If Dumbledore didn't want to foment the Gryffindor/Slytherin rivalry, AND if he wanted to keep what happened with the stone somewhat secret, he shouldn't have whipped the rug out from under the Slytherins.  That's just sick, you bastard. He could have easily given Gryffindor those points the day before.

Moving On.

Okay, I love this part: the first time Neville gets his moment of glory. Because actually I think it's harder to stand up to your friends than to stand up to your enemies, and Neville actually deserved more than 10 points. I mean, come on--look at that planking! I adore Neville.


God, I loved this book.  There are many things I took issue with (obvs), but I loved it.  I love this world, I love these characters.

If you want to read more bloggers' thoughts about these books, please check out Alice's blog at Reading Rambo, because it was her brilliance that brought us all together.

19 comments:

  1. I was thinking that about Harry's broom, especially cos he gets this super top-of-the-line thing. You'd think the other students would hate him just a bit for that.

    That dancing gif? AMAZING

    Maybe Dumbledore did want to keep up the Slytherin/Gryffindor rivalry. Keep the houses all worried about the house cup and internal rivalries. Maybe not focus so much on the fact that detention = going on a hunt in the Forbidden Forest.

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    1. "maybe not focus so much on the fact that detention = going on a hunt in the Forbidden Forest." Yes! and create a diversion so that readers don't constantly harp on the fact that it's a miracle that Cedric Diggory is the first student to die under Dumbledore's nose, and that's not for another three books.

      But the main thing is that by continuing to push the house rivalry b/w Gryff and Slyth is that it sets both Snape and Harry up for failure for occlumency lessons in book five. and prevents harry from realizing that a member of the Order IS still at hogwarts at the end of book 5, etc.

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  2. Hahahahaha Omg that last pic. Fantastic.

    Yeah, I have some issues with the points system early on. Because Snape is all "One point from Gryffindor" and for the rest of the series it's like "50 points!" But...maybe they only get small amounts taken when they first start? Then it gets upped a lot as more is expected of them? Especially since it's their first time away at school.

    "He must have known that it would only be a matter of time before getting the third." Again, retrospective stuff is great. I have a hard time thinking about Dumbledore being tempted, because I want to think of him like I did when I was 14. But you're totally right. Sigh. He's so great.

    HUFFLEPUFF IS A HOUSE OF HARD WORKERS. We would totally have more points than that. Oh. BUT since we don't show off like Gryffindor/Slytherin, teachers might not notice our steadfast awesomeness.

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    1. Hmmm...maybe they're not show-offs. But if they're the busiest bees in the Hogwarts hive, then they're probably not getting many points *taken away*, either. Right? I love the Hufflepuffs but they get such short shrift in the books--almost as much as the Slyths do, but JKR doesn't think the Huff-Ps are rolled in chopped evil.

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    2. I think Rowling started to feel bad with how forgotten HPuffs were, hence having Cedric be a badger. Of course that didn't really work out so well for him.

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  3. Ok, look, I GENUINELY don't think that by telling Harry that he's a good friend and that he's brave, she's not saying that she isn't those things! I feel like it's more like 'You and Ron have taught me that things other than books are important'. And obvs Harry has to go on because... HE'S HARRY!

    Your pointing out of Slytherin prejudice does make me lol! And I mean, you're totally right BUT they're *Slytherin*! To hate them is the WHOLE POINT. Except for Snape, OBVS

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    1. Laura, your interpretation is a lot nicer than mine. I'm going to pretend that's what Hermione really means, and not that she's brave and clever and a good friend who likes books and cleverness, with harry being the great wizard 'cause he can fly well and he's brave and a good friend.

      Tell me: how is it you can admire Snape but hate the Slytherins? No, truly, I'm curious and I didn't mean that in a snarky way.

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    2. To answer for Laura (and since I have the same bias - although don't agree with the crazy Slytherin hate) the slytherins don't have a face - you are just "hating" en masse. You learn about Snape as a man, and you see why he did certain things and you can understand him.

      I'd also argue that when you actually get to see a Slytherin outside of the generic Slytherin banner they are shown to be more complex than simply evil. I.E. Malfoy - especially in the last 2 books or RAB, brief as our intro to him is.

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  4. Man, blatant favoritism for Gryffindor: you give a troublemaker who clearly disregards rules the Ferrari of all brooms AND reward him with a starting lineup position on the quidditch team. Then later, to add insult onto injury for the slytherins, they give Gryffindor just enough points to tip the scale and crush slytherin's year of 'hard work'. Right on, Dumbledore. Right on.

    Don't you love how inconsistent and bogus the disciplinary rules are?

    Also, I think that it's crazy giving the invisibility cloak, a crazy valuable relic, to a KID, and expect him to not get himself killed (or worse, expelled) with its misuse.

    There is a little truth to what Dursley said about Dumbledore being a crock pot old fool...

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    1. I don't disgree that he's a crackpot old fool, actually, but he's so much more. So freakin' complicated and interesting and human. I love Dumbledore, all except for two moments in the series which almost make me disgusted with him. You shall hear me rant about them when the time comes.

      TOTALLY bogus disciplinary rules.

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  5. That dancing gif omg. You are winning the gifs.

    Also, right? Way to be a jerk to the Slytherins. I mean, they aren't ALL Malfoys and Crabbs and Goyles. You guys thought you won but PSYCHE YOU ACTUALLY LOSE. Have a nice summer.

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    1. Not that we ever hear about the Morags or the Blaise Zabinis much. But come on: 25% of the wizarding population cannot be evil, not at the age of 11. But treating them that way MIGHT MAKE THEM EVIL. Or at least clannish in an "it's us against the world" mentality. Ahem. I can get a little carried away.

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    2. Agreed. Often when people are constantly told that they are one thing, they turn out to be that thing. And then just to make sure, Dumbledore treats them like CRAP at the end of this book. Not exactly winning them over to his side.

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  6. Oh my god, I never thought about that with the snowballs! I just read the thing, and now I feel like I have to go back through it all with a focus on all of the degrading things that happen to Voldy while he's hiding. Like the fact that he smells. I agree that Ron is good here - it's too bad he's so crappy later on. And what is WITH Hermione being downplayed? The girl is awesome!

    I find it hilarious that we both drool over grown-up Neville in our posts. Who would have thought that he'd grow up to be the hot one?!

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    1. I know! In book one AND in movie one, he was not at all promising as a character or physical specimen.

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  7. I think McGonagall took SO many points away from them because they just made her feel REALLY stupid for not believing Malfoy, and because she was SO disappointed in them. I think that's almost a parent-like quality; you expect other kids to crew up, but not YOUR kids.

    As for the anti-feminist line... ehh. I kind of agree with Laura, she was saying that she's finally learned that maybe things like friendship matter more than books. Also, they TOTALLY give thanks for Hermione and praise her genius-ness a lot later in the series, so it makes up for that a bit.

    And OUCH, the poor Slytherins. Seriously, he didn't have to wait until the feast with all the decorations up already to blantantly favor the Gryffindors.

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    1. You and Laura may be right about that; it certainly is the kinder interpretation, but sometimes I go off the deep end.

      Though honestly I think it's the readership who appreciates Hermione most of all, not so much the boys, though they do give lip service every now and again.

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  8. If Harry has to be an exception to the rule, I don't understand why he can't just use a school broom since they clearly have a few of them. And the Weasley twins only have Cleansweep 7s so it's not like it NEEDS to be top of the line.

    The mirror of erised chapter is so much more painful for me to read now that I'm older. He just sits there. Night after night. Looking at the family he never knew (how are ALL of them dead btw - why are the Dursleys the only ones left) SO SAD.

    That first gif...Omg!

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  9. I can kind of see why I didn't read on after this first one in the past, but I also see why it is so magical, and it reminded me of why I liked the book. Planking Neville gif also = AWESOME

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Please, sir, may I have some more? (Comments, that is!)