book covers

[m.bockermann at t-online.de]

No: HPFGUIDX 54146

Hi all!


>>>>jastrangfeld wrote:
I also wanted to say, that I see possibilities for Harry using the
left hand:
1. he's looking back into a mirror.  (would also explain why it looks
like something is in the glasses (him + candles?)
2. He's using his left hand because it is in some odd way connected to
the injuries he's received to his left arm, and the blood being taken
from his left arm (isn't this the arm that regrew the bones?)
3. If he is looking into a mirror, could it be that the mirror would
show some truth about what he is looking at, rather than a confusing
image shrouded by deep magic?  I'm reminded of Dumbledore's talking
about the chamber pot room.  If this is in Dumbledore's tower, perhaps
it's connected to this previous bit of information from GOF?


Another reasons why Harry would have the wand in the left hand would be:

5. Because his right hand is severly hurt.
6. He carries something in his right that needs some skill to manipulate. It seems as if he is only holding up the wand to illuminate the room, so he holds the wand in the left freeing his right to carry something else. Like a righthander taking a torch into the left when manipulating something.

In short: there are lots of reasons why a right-handed person takes something into the left. And the illustrator might not bother that maybe wands work better in the "wand hand" and follow aestetic principles. Placing the wand into the left gives us an unobstructed view on it. 


>>>>aesob wrote:
My take: the blue has something to do with ghosts. 
JKR has said we will learn more about why people become ghosts, and 
though I don't think Harry is a ghost here (as one other poster suggested), the 
bluish light certainly lends a ghostly quality, so ghosts might very well figure 
largely in the storyline. Also, look at the way "and the Order of the Phoenix" is 
written: it has a ghostly, ethereal, almost translucent look, and the dotted part 
of the 'i' trails just like the candles.


I like your idea, that the "Order of the Phoenix" might be linked to ghosts. The Phoenix dies and rises again - that might relate to ghosts. Might there be some ghost rising up again?

At least one ghost already *has* risen: Voldemort. Yes, you are right, he was not all dead so technically he did not rise from the dead. But still, he got a new body and from the end of GOF we can gather, that he will make plans to come back. 

We kind of always assumed that this Order of the Phoenix would be good or helpful for Harry. But if you think about the earlier titles they always refered to something that came as a challenge to him: the Philosopher's stone, the Chamber of Secrets and the Goblets of Fire all caused him some kind of trouble. Yes, the Prisoner of Azkaban kind off sticks out there. But for the longest time Harry thought in that book that Sirius was the villain, so it mentions a challenge as well.

Wouldn't it be strange if all of a sudden, the title mentions something that's beneficial to Harry? 

Remember: Voldemort has another link to the Phoenix. His own wand contains a feather, too. The Phoenix is the symbol for eternal life, and that's something Voldemort seeks. I would absolutely *not* surprized, if the Order of the Phoenix is the name for Voldemort's followers who also rise again - like a Phoenix from the ashes. I have to look it up, but... do the deatheaters really refer to *themselves* as deatheaters? It sounds to me derogative to me and I can't really see Voldemort calling his faithful by this term. But The Order of the Phoenix certainly has some ring to it. Note that the scene of defeating death and eternal life shimmers through "deatheaters": those who eat death. Maybe that means they figuratively devour (meaning defeat) death, putting them in a camp with candidates for an Order of the Phoenix.

The feather in Harry's and Voldemort's wand might be connected to the quest for eternal life. That would give Ollivander an extra incentive to go to Dumbledore and tell him about Harry's wand (as if having something in common with the murderer of one's parents wouldn't be bad enough).

While playing havoc with conceptions...

When my boyfriend glimpsed at the US cover, he said: "Oh, he is in a library". I said: "What makes you think *that*?" Him: "Well there are books behind those glass doors, those must be cabinets.

You know, he is right, they indeed look like book cabinets. Cabinetdoors with windowglass that reflect the candles on the glass. But when you look right and left besides Harry's head, where we have an unobstructed view because those doors stand ajar, you see light vertical lines. So, those can't be reflections from the candles. Unless there are candles behind the "doors" (in which case we should see more of those rooms) there is something there. They have the right size to be books. Note that they extend up to differnt heights - because they have different sizes, but down they end at the same height - because they stand on a shelf. Directly next to his fringe the background is darker, indicating the wood of the shelf.
Also: for doors to another room, they have strange proportions: not broad enough and they reach up too high. But they fit for book cabinets.

And last but not least:

I don't think that Harry is alone in the room. I doubt that he is looking into a mirror: why crane your neck for that an lift your hand? And his expression: somehow grim and urged, but still eerily calm and determined. For me it seems to say: "Shall we?" I would speculate he addresses one or both of his usual conspirators in havoc - Ron or Hermione.

Well, what do you think?

Greetings,
Ethanol