17 May 2013

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part the First, In Which I Go Crazy With Wand Innuendos

Ho, boy.  It's harder than I thought it would be to coalesce my thoughts this week.  I think Deathly Hallows is a pretty good book but a pretty poor wrap-up to the series, but I'm not sure that anything could have wrapped up the series brilliantly for me--my expectations were always going to be too high. The whole time I was reading this week, I kept thinking, oh, not much longer.  Or, wow, we won't see ______ again.  I'm feeling pretty melancholy and the worst hasn't even happened yet.  But onwards and upwards.  Thanks once again to Alice for hosting the readalong, without which I'm sure I'd have got lots more reading done but had much less fun.

I think this is the first book where JKR used any epitaphs.  I am not a fan of that.  I do love the dedication, though. And it's curious to me that it looks so serpentine. Is it a subtle nod to Slytherin? Or an even subtler nod to the Mouse's Tale/Tail from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland? I'd really like to know.

Chapter One: Snape is literally and figuratively Voldemort's right-hand man. Love that. But then we hear about Pius Thicknesse and methinks that JKR has grown a tad heavy-handed with her Name Symbolism once more.

She makes up for it when Voldemort and Malfoy compare the length of their wands, though.  Makes Lucius's "involuntary movement" all the more intriguing, no? And then "some of the throng sniggered." They certainly did, Jo.

Not my original idea here, but I remember reading a pretty in-depth review of DH after it came out, saying that in the first chapter, Rowling really ratchets up the fear and tension by killing off a character so beloved that...we never knew her name before now. When I first read the scene of Charity Burbage, I was pretty subdued, but every subsequent time I've read it, I can only think of what that critic said and it makes me giggle.

Chapter Two: In Memoriam.  Maybe this chapter would have been better named In FoDump.

Chapter Three: I got nothin'. I really had wanted a better reconciliation of Harry and Dudley, and there were glimmers of it, but I think there's an enormous story there just waiting for JKR to tell it.

Chapter Four: I like the action-y bits in this chapter, but it all kind of leaves me wondering why they couldn't just, oh, I dunno,  drive Harry out of harm's way instead of creating this ridiculously complicated diversion. They could have put lots of Shield Charms on the car. Dumbledore wanted Snape to still be useful to Voldemort? Dude, Snape just killed you to be useful to Voldemort. No need to get Moody killed in the process. Besides that, why not Disillusion themselves when leaving Privet Drive?  They did that when arriving there and it seemed to work just fine.
Wait, you want to use polyjuice and risk everybody's life instead of just driving away in a muggle car? Riiight.

Also, the same critic who wrote that about Charity Burbage brought it to my attention that at one point there are six naked Harry Potters in the room, waiting for clothing. Just sayin'.

I was upset when Hedwig died.  She dies a better death in the movie than in the book, though.

Chapter Five: I love the twins here. Getting an ear cursed off and still making bad jokes about it. The twins are really at their best in this book, I think.
Hole-ier than thou. 
I'm sorry, but an editor should have caught this one: "The suddenness and completeness of death was with them like a presence." In other words, it was with them like something that was with them. Yup.

Chapter Six: Anybody else surprised by the way Secret Keeping changes with the death of the Secret Keeper? I would have assumed that charm/spell/whatever would end with the death of the Keeper.

Also, Ron is at his best in this section of the book.  His humor is quick and the tone is just right and he seems to have gotten a grasp on the different ways he can be a friend to Harry vs Hermione.  I chuckle every time I re-read his "always the tone of surprise" line. And his response to Hermione's saying that if she were to drive a sword through him it wouldn't damage his soul: "Which would be a real comfort to me, I'm sure." Oftentimes in previous books Ron's humor has a bitter edge or is at someone else's expense--usually Luna's or Neville's.  But I really like Ron in these first ten chapters, and he's not a character I generally am partial to.

Chapter Seven: Twelve Fail-Safe Way to Charm Witches...about which Ron adds,"It's not all about wandwork." No, indeed, Ron.  No, indeed.  Tee hee.

Chapter Eight: Krum hadn't realized that he'd ever discussed his wand with fans before.  You cheeky Seeker, Krum!

Chapter Nine: In which Hermione is essentially the most awesome character ever but then claims never to have done any memory charms. One chapter after telling us that she's performed complex ones on her parents. Editors should have caught that, too, but like Helen of Troy's face, it's a line that has launched a thousand "ships."  (Most adult Hermione/Snape stories incorporate that line and have Snape perform the memory charm on the Grangers.)

And then Ron struggles with his wand and tells Hermione that it's no wonder he can't get it out.  With Harry standing right there and everything!

Chapter Ten: Oh, thank GOD they finally figure out who the heck RAB was. Now we know was Narcissa didn't get a star name like the other Blacks--it's because her cousin Regulus got two.  Oh, and yeah, they finally remember that locket from OotP that they mysteriously couldn't open.

Oy, my goodness, Kreacher's tale.  So heartbreaking.  One of the most poignant part of the entire series, I think. My eyes are actually welling up right now, just thinking about what I read yesterday. So emotional, so right on the money in terms of Hermione's analysis of house elf motivation and loyalties and what bastards wizards are for treating house elves the way they do.

Heckuva chapter to end on, I say. 

23 comments:

  1. The dedication is Harry's lightening scar isn't it? Or at least that's what I always thought it was. *shrugs*

    You know what I want to know? Why doesn't every family just use the fidelius charm? Like, clearly it isn't the ideal solution since that'd mean never leaving the house, but surely you'd have one so you could sleep in ease right?

    This book makes me feel so sorry for Ron. I mean, there is so much potential in that character (I'll die defending him) but I feel like JK never really knew what to do with him. She set him up as the strategist in PS/SS but then never follows up on it, and then he's supposed to be the funny one, but there's also a lot of examples of his humour being quite nasty. I just feel like JK really dropped the ball as opposed to Harry and Hermione who are much less schizophrenic (if you get where I'm going with that).

    THE TWINS :(

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    1. Lightning bolt scar? Wow. Of course you're right about that. And the fact that it never occurred to me that it was lightning makes me question my fan status.

      Re: Ron. If Ron from book I had grown into Ron from book VII and not veered off that course, how wonderful would he be? I could better forgive him his upcoming desertion because then at least it would provide a stark contrast from his character. Does that make sense?

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    2. Exactly! Which makes it weird when JKR says she loves Ron because What?! You love the character who was given the jealousy and rudeness and insecurity? But those flashes of awesome are enough for me to fill in the not so awesome bits with wicked subtext.

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  2. So many wand jokes. Oh JK, thank you.

    I agree that Ron is so much better in these first chapters than he has been in the earlier books, especially pointing out that, for once, his humor isn't at the expense of someone else. Hermione makes him a better person. (It all comes back to Hermione being awesome.)

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    1. If the Ron from our reading this week were like this all the time, then we could agree that we could see Hermione with him.

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    2. I totally missed both the Krum wand joke AND the Ron not being able to get it out joke. I'M SO ASHAMED.

      Oh Ron-That-Never-Was, how I've loved you. I sort of blur Book 1 Ron with Early Book 7 Ron and edit out the Meanish Ron of the middle 5 books. Is that bad?

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    3. Raych, that's the only way that it should be done. And end-of-book-7 Ron is good, too. We just have to put up with his jerkiness for the middle to get there.

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  3. You didn't like the Dudley thing? I mean, I DEFINITELY agree that there's a much bigger story there just waiting to be told, but I feel like... well, firstly there wasn't TIME to give them a much, you know, longer send off, and anyway, making them have a long conversation about their feelings or something wouldn't have felt at all honest. I thought it was a pretty good goodbye!

    Totally agree about Ron though. I mean, I don't hate Ron or anything, but he has definitely been at his best in DH so far. You're totally right.

    "And then Ron struggles with his wand and tells Hermione that it's no wonder he can't get it out. With Harry standing right there and everything!" BAHAHAHAHAHA! Yes. All the wand jokes are The Best!

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    1. No, I did like the dudley thing. It was just so little of it, and it came so light, and I wanted REDEMPTION. I am all about the R-word.

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    2. I think I agree with Laura that more would have been too much. Because how're you gonna go 17 years being an utter tool to someone in your family and then all of sudden wanna hug it out just because you're leaving and you don't even know why you're leaving? It just wouldn't seem natural. But maybe after the battle and stuff, Harry and Dudley meet for tea and discuss their feelings.

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    3. I would love this to happen please okay thanks.

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    4. Dudley and Harry will *totally* meet for tea after the war. It shall be so and no other way.

      (There's a fic for that.)

      [So much more fun than saying there's an app for that.]

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  4. The epigraphs bother me, too - all or none, I say. And I never noticed the dedication before, but yes, very serpentine, especially how it's bold at the top. And also split into seven parts! Very clever. I am overly excited about this.

    I kind of like how the Secret Keeping changes, I just wished that there was consistency in the perseverance of spells after the caster dies. Harry's full-body bind lifted when Dumbledore died but Moody's anti-Snape spells continue after his death. Me no understand.

    Why would Snape cast the memory charms? What's the fanfic logic? Not challenging it, just curious.

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    1. Ooh, yes, good point about Moody--i hadn't picked up on his anti-Snape jinxes working after he died.

      Snape casts the memory charms for Hermione's parents because in fanfic, Hermione is inevitably the only (or one of the only) people who knows which side Snape is really on. they are often romantically paired in these fics but not always. And because he's a powerful wizard wanting to help Hermione, he casts them on her parents.

      I guess fanfic justification is that if the text is accurate, Hermione wouldn't have forgotten that she performed a memory charm (ironic), nor would have lied to the boys and said she'd never done them before, THEREFORE somebody else must have done them. Clearly it was Snape. Or some such.

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    2. This makes sense to me! I understand a fanfic thing!

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  5. Thank you a THOUSAND times for focusing on the wand jokes. I will tell my husband that you are a grown-up and very intelligent lady, and you are fully accepting of the penis symbolism and we do not have uncommonly dirty minds. (Dirty, yes...but perhaps not uncommonly so.)

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    1. Yes. Uncommon minds. And dirty minds. But not uncommonly dirty. That's just silly.

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  6. Yeah, Ron was pretty great in these earlier chapters. But from what I remember, he turns into an ass again later, soooooo... yeah. A lovable ass, but still.

    THE TWINS. I cried a lot at George losing his ear. A LOT. I think it's cause I know what's coming and I'm already depressed about it.

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    1. It's sad that Ron has only a few heydays: end of Book I, and the very beginning and very end of Book VII.

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  7. I missed *all* of the penis jokes in this section. What the what? I will need to pay extra attention in this next bit. CONSTANT VIGILANCE.

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  8. I was upset by the epitaphs. I like epitaphs as a rule but I got anxious how they were ALL ABOUT DEATH.

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  9. I really loved the first four books, I think -- read and reread them almost yearly -- but after that, I just wasn't feelin' it. I read each book once, quick, right when they came out so I could be in the know, but wasn't very moved. (and for a while, I found Harry just insufferable!)

    Perhaps I need to do another reread.

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