OOP: General impressions (spoilers)

[rlharalson]

No: HPFGUIDX 62908

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "ncdavis1" <ninacdavis at j...> 
wrote:
> Hello all,
> 
> I'm new, so I should "do the proper" first.  I'm Nina, a librarian 
> from OH, and nothing like Madame Pince. :)  <snip> 
> Staying with Sirius for a moment, I too figured out he was The One 
> (sorry, Neo) early on in the book, and was prepared for a good cry 
> over the emotional scene.  I cry at the drop of hat.  I got 
nothing. <snip> Nor do we get to feel shock, sadness ... I didn't 
> expect a grusome scene, but some emotional tug.  Some indication of 
> why Sirius and Sirius alone was the only character whose death 
would do.
> 
<snip>
> Enough rambling from me.
> 
> Regards,
> Nina, who really will have to reread that death scene....

I felt the same way at Sirius' death scene, no tears, just "what?!" 
Of course I must be dense because I never guessed it would be Sirius. 
I fooled my self with the title "The only one he feared" (or 
something like that) I thought from the begining that was going to be 
Dumbledore's death scene. What got me emotionally was Harry's 
reaction to the death back in Dumbledore's office. If you are looking 
for an emotional response try re-reading that scene. It  had me 
bawling, of course that was after 10+ hours of reading with no 
sleep. :)

I also agree that we don't move too far foward with the whole "second 
war" storyline, but then I think that's because JKR wanted to spend 
some time on the impotency of the Ministry of Magic and how dangerous 
that can be. It made me think of the isolationist policies prior to 
both World Wars. I'm from the US so I tended to think of the first 
rise of Voldemort in connection with the Vietnam war, mainly from the 
timeline ( check out the Harry Potter Lexicon- he has a canon 
timeline that will blow your mind) but with the chapter title of the 
last chapter I realized that the parallel is closer to the World 
Wars. The whole additude of the Ministry and especially Umbridge was 
repulsive to me. We may have felt like we were standing still and I 
think that helped push our emotions against what the ministry was 
doing. We, like Harry, thought book 5 would have brought the war on, 
but the delay played with our emotions. 

Just my thoughts,
Renee