That marvelous Chamber (long)

[Amy Z]

No: HPFGUIDX 27399

Barb wrote:  <various important things we learn during CoS>

>the list goes on. 

Also:  Harry learns what phoenix song sounds like, and the racism 
behind Voldemort's movement becomes apparent for the first time.  
Both have already come into play in GoF, and the pureblood/mixed-
blood/Muggle hierarchy will no doubt continue to be a big deal.

Barb asked:

>How did Ron make it through his second year with a malfunctioning 
wand? It seems >unlikely that he wouldn't flunk with sub-par 
equipment like this; clearly the whole >purpose of the wand being 
broken to begin with was to have Lockhart's spell backfire >at the 
end, but in the meantime, it paints a rather implausible picture of 
Ron's second >year. 

I figure it's like car trouble:  you can have a problem last for 
months and only kick up now and then, often enough to make the car 
unreliable but not often enough to be a constant problem.  It's 
dodgy, though, because if Ron's wand doesn't malfunction pretty 
frequently, then its backfiring on Lockhart is too much of a 
coincidence.  I think Jo could have sharpened this by making the 
problem get steadily worse, or having it improve for awhile because 
Ron Spellotapes it but note that the night Ginny is kidnapped he was 
about to re-tape it because it was getting bad again.  Why don't her 
editors think of this?  Can it be because they don't read the books 
10 times over a period of a year before handing them back to her?  <g>

Prefectmarcus wrote:

>We are to believe that four people are attacked but not one died. 
Nobody met its gaze. >How lucky can you get! Penelope and Hermione 
were sharing the same little mirror,

Well, there's your answer.  Penelope and Hermione didn't get lucky; 
they knew how to deal with a basilisk.  Justin, Colin, and Mrs. 
Norris are the only ones who need explaining.  Okay, it's pushing it, 
but it's only 3 people (including Mrs. N.), not 4.

>Then there is the question as to how Ginny controlled the Basilisk 
without getting >stoned herself. How did she go down the pipe to the 
chamber and get back up without >getting all slimey? 

Ginny didn't control the basilisk; only a Parselmouth could do that.  
She was important to Tom because she did things like write on the 
walls, kill roosters, and, of course, write in the diary, which not 
only "brought him back to Hogwarts" and gave his diary-self strength, 
but told him all sorts of things about his future self and Harry, who 
became his new focus.

It seems it is time after all for me to write about why I love CoS.  
I will grant some of the plot problems, and I will grant that (thus 
far) the plot is the most dispensable installment in this "novel in 
seven parts."  Also, although I find Lockhart funny, he's not nearly 
as funny as lots of things JKR writes; I find him overly broad.  In 
fact, one of my chief complaints about bad comedy is that it doesn't 
arise from realistic characterization.  JKR's comedy is often 
character-based and it works—e.g. Hermione breathlessly giving the 
original name of SPEW, which is so funny because it fits her 
character.  Lockhart is an example of comedy overtaking character 
instead; it doesn't emerge from a realistic person, but instead 
forces a character to take shape around a joke.  In short, he's a 
caricature, and I never find them as funny.

All of that being said, there are a few reasons I love CoS.

-Harry's self-doubt.  Harry isn't sure where he belongs; he has 
relied on things outside him to tell him who he is—Hagrid, 
Dumbledore, the whole confusing and incomplete story of his parents--
and now the uncertainty of that is getting to him. If other people 
start to think ill of him, he isn't sure what to think of himself.  
We see it from the very start when he begins to doubt his friendship 
with Ron and Hermione because they haven't sent him cards.  Then when 
the whole school starts to look at him funny, his anchor really comes 
loose. 

He keeps getting hit with surprises in this new world; he went along 
for over a year thinking that conversation with snakes was just like 
shrinking a sweater or turning his teacher's wig blue, one of those 
things about "odd Harry Potter" that turned out to be a perfectly 
normal part of being a wizard, and now he learns it's yet another 
thing that sets him apart instead.  

Harry's insecurity about whether he belongs in Slytherin or 
Gryffindor (and all that that symbolizes) also showcases other 
characters and relationships in very interesting ways.  It plays up 
both the tremendous support he gets from friends (Ron, Hermione, Fred 
& George, Hagrid) and the alienation he sometimes feels from the 
people who can support him (he doesn't tell anyone all of his doubts, 
not even Ron and Hermione).  He hasn't yet learned to trust 
Dumbledore—it's as if he knows Dumbledore likes him but feels that 
this is somehow conditional, and that it will crumble if Harry really 
lets him know who he is: a Parselmouth, someone who's hearing voices, 
someone who "would have done well in Slytherin."  I find the drama of 
his learning that he can be loved and admired and supported no matter 
who he is very moving.

-Thanks to Lockhart, we get the first strong sense of what becomes a 
major theme in GoF: Harry's discomfort with his fame.  Colin also 
accentuates the downside of being "famous Harry Potter."

-The parallels between Harry and young Voldemort, and the 
accompanying theme of moral choice that is dear to JKR's heart and 
mine.  Harry and TR started life out much the same—Riddle is what 
Harry could have become if he had been inclined to bitterness and 
hatred.  Without CoS, the speech at the end of GoF would just be a 
nice speech—it matters not how we are born, but what we choose to 
become, yeah yeah.  With CoS we *see* it: two orphans, both 
extraordinarily talented, both exiled from the wizarding world, and 
look what one has made of himself and look what the other is making 
of himself.  One is the curse of the wizarding world, one has been 
the saving of it (and no doubt will be again). 

I could list all the small things I love about the book too (like the 
line below, which is the story of my life <g>), but this is the big 
stuff.

Amy Z

--------------------------------------------------------------- 
 "And some old witch in Bath had a book that you could =never 
 stop reading=! You just had to wander around with your nose 
 in it, trying to do everything one-handed." 
                    --Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets 
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