OOP: First-read Reactions (way too long)

[elfundeb]

I see that perhaps it's still not too late to post my first-read reactions, even though I finished the book last Sunday.  Like Neil, I'm still puzzling over the flying brains while everyone else is far ahead into their second and third reads.  However, I wanted to post my thoughts (most of which I wrote nearly a week ago) before I begin to reread.  (For those who read the main list, this is a longer version of the post I just put up there.)

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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. ;-)  Like Monika, I enjoyed reading this particular Dursley episode more than any of the others.  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.

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 this was one of the strengths of OOP overall and something that connected OOP thematically to the prior books.  And this is one reason why 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.

Some character 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.   She is so successful and displayed such confidence in herself that 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 -- It looks like I correctly predicted his dilemma as a lack of confidence.  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.  Obviously, the best thing that ever happened to him was for Fred and George to leave school, since he was clearly too afraid of incurring their wrath.  I think he's on the right path now, but it will take a bit longer for him to catch up.  However, I have to ask, why does JKR go so far out of her way to make him look unappealing?  The curse of the giggles he was hit with at the MOM was just one more episode in which he's made to look comical, going back at least to the slug-belching in CoS.  And I still don't know what to make of the brain attack either.

Percy and the Twins -- Like a lot of Percy fans, I was very disappointed that JKR seems to find pomposity to be a big joke and to lampoon him in the way she does, while she lavishes affection on the Twins.  I still think they're bullies, and I didn't care for the way they preyed on the unsuspecting first-years.  I think the Twins had the same effect on Ron and Percy, and while her development of Ron reflects the negative affect of their antics and charisma on the family dynamic, she's reduced Percy to a cardboard martinet.  I'm not convinced JKR laid the groundwork for his alienation adequately, particularly from Molly and Bill, who seemed to be very supportive of him in GoF.  

Fudge and Umbridge -- I have to consider them together, because my final OOP prediction was for Fudge to turn out to be evil in almost exactly the way that Umbridge turned out to be.  I want to reread to get a better sense of the degree of Fudge's awareness and/or involvement in Umbridge's actions, because I sensed that he was very flustered at realizing the failure of his scheme of denial at the end of GoF.  I think he was fully aware all along that Voldemort was back, and I think that perhaps the Fudge vs. Dumbledore plot is not over.   This would also allow a continuation of the exploration of Percy's alienation and the Weasley family dynamic.

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.

Luna -- I rather liked her, despite (or perhaps because of) her oddities.  In spite of her connection to the WW equivalent of the National Enquirer, her honesty and matter-of-fact attitude about oddities of all kinds is very healthy.  I also think JKR used Luna and the Quibbler to make a criticism of the mainstream press -- the Quibbler's reporting was, in fact, more accurate than the Daily Prophet's.  I think she has the potential to have a large role in the last 2 books, and her oddities make her well suited to become a junior OOP member.

Ginny -- She finally got the development she needed.  I think she's been set up as the twins' heir apparent, if not more.

Sirius -- I guess I was right about him, too.  I said the sage counselor of GoF didn't seem to square with the rest of his character, and it turns out he was just being reckless.  I implied that he and James were arrogant and had bullied Snape.  I think Sirius' narrative function as a flawed mentor works very well.

Snape --  I agree that he 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.  

Neville -- I've left him for last.  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."   

Other Issues

Gender -- Penny seemed to think that the gender critics would be happier with this book.  Perhaps I'm too exacting, but I wasn't really satisfied.  She 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.  At some point, I'm going to have to write an essay on this, I think.
  
I guess I'll mention shipping, since it seems to be a popular topic.  I thought the H/H shippers would be happy with this one; I *never* expected to see R/H  or H/H in OOP.  But overall any H/H hints were balanced by Ginny's emergence.  Instead of a linear FITD, we have a host of possibilities now, and the possibility of an evenly matched sextet where no combination (except Ron/Ginny, of course!) seems too farfetched.  This particularly pleases me, because I have always found shipping Trio members to one another dissatisfying unless the third member was dead.  There are all sorts of clues (direct and indirect) now pointing in every direction.  For example, what does everyone think of Ginny's snatching the Snitch from Cho?  Or is that just my inclination to read metaphor and symbolism into every Quidditch sequence?

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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