Thank goodness, Deatheaters are no better shots than Imperial Storm Troopers.
Take me, sir. Take me hard.
Zoe ,'War Stories'
The Buffista Book Club: the Harry Potter iteration
This thread is a focused discussion group. Please see the first post below for the current topic and upcoming book discussions. While natter will inevitably happen, we encourage you to treat this like a virtual book club and try to keep your posts in that spirit.
By consensus, this thread is reopened specifically to discuss Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. It will be closed again once that discussion has run its course.
***SPOILER ALERT***
Theodosia - Jul 23, 2007 11:45:02 am PDT #1538 of 3301
'we all walk this earth feeling we are frauds. The trick is to be grateful and hope the caper doesn't end any time soon"
sumi - Jul 23, 2007 11:47:18 am PDT #1539 of 3301
Art Crawl!!!
ffawkes?
I bet Dumbledore's death freed him. . . or something.
Polter-Cow - Jul 23, 2007 12:30:23 pm PDT #1540 of 3301
What else besides ramen can you scoop? YOU CAN SCOOP THIS WORLD FROM DARKNESS!
The Mundane Spoiler Challenge. Very amusing. Some are quite clever: "Ron impresses Hermione with his tongue in chapter 31."
To get a taste, check out the mundane spoilers for HBP. Some are hilarious.
The first six books in 100 words or less:
BOOK ONE:
Harry: :D
BOOK TWO:
Harry: :)
BOOK THREE:
Harry: :|
BOOK FOUR:
Harry: :/
BOOK FIVE:
Harry: :(
BOOK SIX:
Harry: :'
Polter-Cow - Jul 23, 2007 1:20:24 pm PDT #1541 of 3301
What else besides ramen can you scoop? YOU CAN SCOOP THIS WORLD FROM DARKNESS!
For those who hated the epilogue, I suggest reading this post, which is slightly ficcish in that it's written from Harry's perspective, but I consider it more of an analysis of what else is going on in that scene that Rowling didn't touch on.
Ginger - Jul 23, 2007 1:55:03 pm PDT #1542 of 3301
"It didn't taste good. It tasted soooo horrible. It tasted like....a vodka martini." - Matilda
My back had been going out anyway, but the hours of reading Harry Potter were the final blow. I just went to my chiropractor, who said I was the fifth person today attributing back pain to long hours with the Deathly Hallows. She's calling it the curse of Harry Potter. She's a friend, and the first thing she said was, "Don't tell me anything! I just got it yesterday."
Polter-Cow - Jul 23, 2007 2:05:02 pm PDT #1543 of 3301
What else besides ramen can you scoop? YOU CAN SCOOP THIS WORLD FROM DARKNESS!
Ha! I had neck pain yesterday.
Steph L. - Jul 23, 2007 2:45:03 pm PDT #1544 of 3301
I look more rad than Lutheranism
I have a migraine today, and had to leave work because looking at manuscripts was making me ill. Possibly brought on by eyestrain?
billytea - Jul 23, 2007 2:52:17 pm PDT #1545 of 3301
You were a wrong baby who grew up wrong. The wrong kind of wrong. It's better you hear it from a friend.
One Slate author's comment on the book:
Nyuk:
...a long and only slightly ridiculous chapter set (maybe?) in the afterlife—which looks exactly like King's Cross railway station, except that the only bearded transient Harry meets is Dumbledore, and unlike the bums in King's Cross Dumbledore only exposes himself to Harry emotionally.
Connie Neil - Jul 23, 2007 4:13:13 pm PDT #1546 of 3301
brillig
I liked the epilogue. I thought people liked endings that were ambiguous and anything could happen. All we know is that on that day, these families made an effort to be happy so their kids would get on the train in peaceful circumstances. We don't know what will happen at home when most of the kids are gone. Ron may secretly be a bastard to Hermione, he may be famous for hunting down every former Death Eater and making sure they're executed--except the ones who are useful. We don't know what Malfoy is acknowledging--a tryst, a conspiracy, whatever. Ginny may secrety hate Harry but won't give up the position of being Mrs. Harry Potter.
Harry is happy. Harry may be blinding himself so he can think he really did win and he did get his happy ever after.
And maybe it is happy ever after. Not everything is angst and suffering and sometimes people do get to be happy. So it wasn't a smart, hip, sophisticated, ambiguous, "life is full of pain and our actions will haunt us, woe, woe" ending. Maybe they are haunted. Maybe it isn't our business anymore, they keep their nightmares to themselves and have gotten on with being alive.
JZ - Jul 23, 2007 4:47:28 pm PDT #1547 of 3301
See? I gave everybody here an opportunity to tell me what a bad person I am and nobody did, because I fuckin' rule.
I just finished reading the Salon review -- it's nice enough, but I really cannot recommend the letters in response highly enough. Comedy gold!
The whining and wailing and proclamations that Salon Is Now A Rag and I Have Lost Respect For You FOREVAR!!1! for posting so many horrible and highly specific spoilers before the book even came out!!1!!1 (despite the fact that the review was posted on the morning of the official release date and the only spoiler, that Harry survives and has kids, is safely hidden on page 2 behind a giant red WARNING! SPOILERS! tag)!
The indignant How Can You Waste Time On This Pap When We're In The Middle Of An Unjust War, You Bastards!
The smug Enjoy Your Kiddie Books And Your Action Figures, You Retards! More Proust For Me!
Gold, I tell you. Sheer gold.
And as to the actual book... I can barely think about it or I start crying. Hedwig! Mad-Eye! Umbridge's desecration of his eye, and Ron's crisis of conscience over the wife of the man he was impersonating! And Dobby. And the small matter-of-fact almost sidelong mention of Lupin and Tonks, which wrecked me more than an onstage death scene would have. And the echoes of Tolkien and Narnia and the perfect folktale rhythm of the tale of the three brothers who cheated Death and were cheated in return. And brilliant Hermione and lionhearted Neville and the Dumbledore family and Harry and the Stone and his family and... wah. I gobbled it all down between Saturday and Sunday night, and I may need to wait a few days and then reread, and then maybe I'll have something coherent to say.