OOP: Disappointing AND Excellent

[elfundeb]

No: HPFGUIDX 66348

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Cindy C." <cindysphynx at c...> wrote:
> 
> > In my case, I'm actually feeling a bit intimidated about saying 
> >what I *really* think about OoP lest those who liked the book take 
>  offense.  
> 

Your disappointment and Phyllis's were finally enough to make me drag out my first impressions, which I mostly wrote nearly a week ago but didn't want to throw into the deluge.  My apologies, as a lot of this has undoubtedly already been said.

I found myself initially disappointed with OOP.  Oddly, one of my sources of dissatisfaction was the number of things I'd predicted correctly, which took away any sense of excitement at the unfolding of events.  The things that really touched me about OOP were things I hadn't foreseen -- Neville, for example.  I felt cheated by the lack of any significant plot twists, and I was also completely unaffected by Sirius' demise, which I thought likely to happen very early in the book, and who was never a favorite character of mine.

I was also really disappointed with the Dept of Mysteries episode; I felt like I was watching a run-of-the-mill action movie -- a genre I despise -- though to JKR's credit, I think the scenes were very vividly rendered.  I feel comfortable, though, that this ending will not be repeated; the parallels between the ending of each book and the correspondingly numbered obstacle to the philosopher's stone seemed more apparent than ever this time around.  (The fifth, the dead troll, was the only obstacle that Harry did not overcome himself.)  This means I'm looking forward very much to book 6, as its numerical correspondence to potion puzzle implies that its ending will be very different and will emphasize the theme of choices.

I didn't find the darkness of OOP disturbing.  In fact, I thought GoF was a darker book in many ways.  It definitely affected me more.

I thought some of the clues she tucked in were very intriguing -- such as the fact that Petunia is familiar with Azkaban -- and I was not at all bothered by the fact that she did not follow up on it; after all, we need some fodder for backstory speculation. ;-)  On the other hand, I thought a number of things that were irrelevant to the plot were slipped in primarily for the purpose of answering fans' questions -- like why isn't Hermione in 
Ravenclaw, which is the only one I can think of at the moment.  I also thought there were more than the usual number of plot contrivances -- Hermione's apparent avoidance of her seemingly loving and exemplary parents because it's important that she be on hand at appropriate moments; the need for the Weasleys to spend the summer at Grimmauld Place for no apparent purpose other than to get Harry there and to do some overdue housecleaning and then to leave at the end of the summer so Sirius could go stir-crazy and do something rash, just to name two.

I was still annoyed with the gender characterization in OOP.  JKR did demonstrate that there are women in significant Ministry positions, but the only one that gets developed is unrelentingly evil.  In fact, she's given us two Evil Women.  Molly, OTOH, is shown as the OOP member in charge of the headquarters housecleaning team.  And Tonks was rather pointless.  Only the male OOP members we met turned out to have a role.  The adult women are just too static for my taste.  And while we saw both Hermione and Ginny take active roles, they were there to support the hero.  At times, I felt that they were primarily out there establishing their shipping credentials to Harry. 
  
My sense, on first read, was that OOP was more about character, responsibility and mentorship, and less about plot, than the other books.  Even though I had predicted where JKR was going with many of the characters, I think her character development was one of the strengths of OOP overall and something that connected OOP thematically to the prior books.  In particular, I think she does an excellent job of balancing one character's actions against contrasting actions of other characters.  Some observations:

Harry -- IMO, it was critical to the story arc for Harry to fail in a significant way.  It reminds us that Harry does not march forward inexorably toward his final defeat of Voldemort.  He must actively *choose* that course.  The vagueness in the wording of the prophecy bears this out.  I didn't think Harry's anger came as a surprise; there have been hints of his anger throughout the series that foreshadowed what happened here.  As a longtime PACMAN (Perfectly Angelic Characters Make Awful Novels) member, I found that I like Harry a lot better for his human weaknesses than for his superheroism.

Hermione -- Hermione was *way* too successful in OOP.  She made all the right choices, it seemed, giving her a new Super-Hermione flavor.  On the other hand, she was snappish, strident and impatient with others.  The only suggestion of failure here is in her campaign to free the house-elves.  It failed, but she's still unaware of that fact.   I believe she must be being set up to fail spectacularly in the next book.  We've seen all the other main student characters fail now, and I think her turn is coming.  I hope so, because I found her characterization in OOP bordering on Mary Sue-ism (including the not-so-subtle revelation that her Patronus was JKR's favorite animal) and it was hard to take.

Ron -- I think JKR was quite effective here by awarding him responsibilities but letting us readers know that he had not earned either one.  Another good bit of juxtaposition to show Ron finally pulling it together once he was completely left to his own devices at the same time Harry was experiencing failure for the first time.  And I was constantly reminded of Elkins' observation that Ron is not designed to be a hurt comfort object.  The curse of the giggles?  What an embarrassment; it made the slug-belching look cute. 

Lupin --  I was a bit disappointed that Lupin did not have a greater role, but JKR has done a great job with his character.  The fact that he was made a prefect and failed to do anything about squelching James and Sirius' extracurricular activities fits perfectly with what we know about him to date.  

Snape (and Sirius) --  I agree that Snape didn't get a lot of development here, and nothing I learned about him was a surprise.  Again, I think JKR did a masterful job of contrasting Sirius and Snape as flawed mentors, and highlighting through them the lesson Harry has yet to learn about how to discern the strengths and weaknesses of those who would help him.  (I keep going back to Padfoot Returns from GoF, where JKR did such a great job of revealing Sirius' prejudices while at the same time making him appear as a sage counselor.)

Neville -- I was totally wrong about Neville; I didn't want to see him kicking DE butt, but JKR pulled it off in a truly wonderful way.  I don't know if he will continue in this vein, though.  Voldemort's choice of Harry as the subject of the prophecy, the snapping of his dad's wand and his smashing of the prophecy indicates to me that his will be a different course.  I agree with the many others who found the most poignant scene in the book to be the one with the wrapper.  For me, though, what made the scene was the juxtaposition of Gran's rather babyish treatment of her daughter-in-law and Neville's natural "Thanks, mum."   

> Cindy -- who hasn't even been able to bring herself to start reading 
> the book over yet

I believe OOP will improve tremendously on rereading.  Each time I go back to look something up, I notice something very revealing that she's tucked in quietly in a way that may easily go unnoticed.  I wish I could find another uninterrupted weekend to do it, but I don't think the family would stand for it.

Debbie
who will need to provide grief counseling when hubby finishes the book and discovers that his favorite character is dead


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