OOP: First-read Reactions (way too long-er!)

[Kimberly]

I'm doing a lot of hurry-up-and-wait at work today, so I'm enjoying 
everybody's thoughts, and Deb, your reactions have got me thinking 
about a bunch of things.
Bear with me, this is probably at least as long as your initial post.

--- In the_old_crowd at yahoogroups.com, "elfundeb" <elfundeb at c...> 
wrote:
> I see that perhaps it's still not too late to post my first-read 
reactions, even though I finished the book last Sunday> 
> S
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>	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.  

There were definitely elements of this, in my mind, but it was a 
uniquely JKR bunch of action.  The bits in the time room, especially, 
injected a slightly twisted absurdity into the proceedings.  I can't 
think of another author who's ever managed to make me laugh and 
cringe simultaneously right in the middle of a sequence that had me 
so tense and emotional that I was white-knuckling the book.  I give 
her props for that, even if the graveyard scene in GoF was far darker 
and more heart thumping.

>	
>	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.

That is a very cool theory you've got going, and I really hope you're 
right, because it's that theme that has me so enthralled.  I don't 
supposed I can say that the struggle of Good vs Evil gets old, 
really, but it's her spin on it that makes these books so precious to 
me - the importance of personal choices as well as the rejection of 
the idea of futility.  There's something so existentially quixotic in 
her heroes that draws me to them.  That's why the prophecy bothered 
me - the way it seemed to negate Harry's choices, especially in his 
own mind, where now he's either murderer or victim.  I always cringed 
when I would read posts in the past talking about Harry killing 
Voldemort.  I certainly wanted him to defeat him, but Voldy's just 
the current enemy, just one battle.  The ultimate enemy is Evil, and 
turning Harry into a killer defeats Harry, not Evil.  So I'm putting 
my trust in JKR and crossing my fingers that there is another way 
that just needs finding, and your prediction for the next book 
definitely makes me feel better.

>	My sense, on first read, was that OOP was more about 
>character, responsibility and mentorship, and less about plot, than 
>the other books.  <snip>
> 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.

I definitely agree with you.  I think this was a transitional book, 
and it was time for Harry to be making transitions as well.  This is 
the book where Harry has to give up being a child (who never got to 
have a proper childhood - *sniff*) who relies on grownups to know the 
answers, and start looking at things clearly for himself.  I don't 
think the disillusionment charm shows up at this point and with that 
name by accident.  He's growing up, and he has to look more 
objectively at his mentors and himself.  He has to see that 
Dumbeldore fails and that his father wasn't perfect.  And if he's to 
make good decisions himself in the future he has to see that Sirius, 
while he was one of the good guys and he did love him, had his own 
problems that ended up hurting both himself and the cause.  No wonder 
he's angry and frustrated throughout the book.  It sucks enough to go 
through adolescence for your average kid, and unfortunately Harry's 
never had the luxury of being average.  I think in retrospect that 
this is why we saw the jealous and angry side of Ron in GoF, as a 
sort of mirror of Harry's struggles here.  We've all been through the 
kinds of struggles that Ron has, but Harry's struggles are unique 
because of who he is and what he's been through.  If Ron can doubt 
his best friend and act like an ass through much of GoF, it's not 
hard to accept that Harry, who has had such a tendency to suppress 
his emotions, would find himself destroying Dumbledore's office when 
the the dam finally burst.  Harry may still be in the midst of these 
struggles at this point, but just as we saw Ron slowly work his way 
toward self-acceptance in this book, we'll see Harry come to terms 
with his biggest problems (communication and self-expression, his 
issues with Snape come to mind as examples) and come into his own in 
the next.  I expected it to be Dumbledore's death that set this off, 
and for this book to be less about adolescent angst, but I credit JKR 
for doing something so realistic, even if it's difficult to read at 
times.
 
> 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.

I don't know that this book was all that different for Hermione.  
I've always found it difficult to relate well to her simply because 
she's so... good at everything.  I'm sure, though, that there's 
humanization in store for our girl, and the house elf thing will 
probably fit in well there.  On another note, I was a little 
nonplussed by her otter patronus on first reading, as personality-
wise she doesn't seem very otterlike.  But when I considered Harry's 
stag, I guess the form your patronus takes isn't really about your 
own personality.  I would be interested to learn if Hermione's 
father's got a playful streak or an affinity for water or something.

>	Ron --  <snip>  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 guess this is more aboug Fred and George than about Ron, but... 
wrath?  Fred and George?  If you mean incurring their ribbing, I can 
see that, but I've never seen any signs of wrath in these two.  I 
know many see them as bullies, and even if I try to look at them from 
that perspective, they're more thoughtless than wrathful.  They like 
to tease, but even Harry, in thinking about Snape's memory of his 
father, reflects that Fred and George would never do something like 
that unless it was well earned.  And we've seen them provoked, quite 
recently.  When Malfoy went after them at the end of the quidditch 
match, they reacted in the same way Harry did – nothing more.  I 
don't think Ron fears their wrath.  I think he fears not living up to 
their image, and I think he looks up to them and thus fears them 
being disappointed in him and/or thinking him uncool.  I think he 
simply psyched himself out in their presence because they're the 
reminder of all he has to live up to.
	
>	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.

That bugs me, too, since I love Ron so much.  He (and previously 
sweet Neville, who seems to be escaping it some now) does seem to get 
the brunt of the absurd and degrading in these books.  Maybe JKR 
picks on him to keep him humble, or maybe she's just teasing her 
friend on whom Ron is based.  As for the brain attack, it left me 
scratching my head as well.  Surely it must have some significance.  
I liked Pomfrey's line about them – something about those being the 
hardest scars to heal - thought that was cute, but surely they can't 
have been just a set up for that little joke.  I wonder whose brains 
they were?  Maybe it was Einstein's brain that got him (he had to 
have been a wizard, right?), and Ron will have gotten some knowledge 
or power from it.  
 
>	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.  

Unfortunately, it looks like that's just what Percy is at this point 
in the story (on a side note - who doesn't consider pomposity to be a 
joke?).  I was disappointed too, that Percy didn't come around on his 
own, but I'm of two minds on the subject.  On the one hand, I want it 
to be explainable - Imperius Curse, perhaps.  On the other hand, I 
think maybe Percy is meant to be an example to us.  Fudge is one 
thing, but Percy's someone we've seen up close and fairly personal.  
JKR clearly considers it important to keep in mind that in the real 
world, it doesn't just come down to good guys and bad guys, and I 
think Percy's story is an important one.  Some people, when it comes 
down to it, fail to look beyond authority to find the truth of right 
and wrong for themselves.  
There are shades of grey on all sides now, from Wormtail's feeble 
loyalty to Voldemort and possible link to Harry, to Phineas Nigellus, 
who does Dumbledore's bidding in spite of his own attitiudes (whether 
by choice or magical contract), to Mundungus Fletcher to Bellatrix 
Lestrange to Fudge to Umbridge to Percy to Snape... JKR's world is 
rich enough that I think I've just now convinced myself that Imperius 
was not involved, and that Percy is just one of the many facets of 
light and dark that she's showing us.  
 
>	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.  

See, I thought that's what made it so tragic and beautiful.  In spite 
of having all the love of his family – particularly his mother, who 
has doted on and defended him all along – Percy doesn't believe in 
them.  It's pride that's made him ridiculous in the past, and it's 
pride that makes him choose as he does here (if, of course, it's not 
magical coercion).  I didn't have any problem believing it.
 
> 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.

I was more on the side of seriously peeved that there wasn't more 
Lupin in OoP, which might be why I can't warm up to Tonks, who 
usurped unearned page time from my Remus.  But I agree that that 
characterization was pretty spot on.  I also noticed the similarity 
of this to Ron's behavior as a prefect so far.  Hopefully, as Harry 
has to grow above and beyond what the previous generation managed, 
Ron will do the same.  I was disappointed in Lupin, but I can't help 
but cut him more slack than his buddies, and understand why he would 
be reluctant to step in under his particular circumstances.  

> 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.

I quite liked her after the initial shock of her showing up out of 
the blue.  I think she serves an important purpose for Harry, at 
least.  Her matter-of-factness about feelings, even more than about 
the unexplainable, is something Harry hasn't fully experienced 
before.  Luna takes things and people as they are.  Her comments 
about the disappearance of her belongings and her complete comfort 
with discussing it are a complete departure from what Harry has seen 
before.  Her understanding about the thestrals allows him to feel 
less alone in his misery, and her unhesitating acceptance of him and 
his story helps give him the courage both to give the interview and 
to start up with the DA thing.  I almost see her as a bridge between 
Harry and Neville, with whom Harry has never really discussed any of 
the things they share in common, since both have been too busy 
bravely suffering in silence.  Hopefully now that Harry's begun 
(spectacularly) to express his feelings, Luna will be able to help 
them explore their link to each other, if only by her example of 
being so open about things.  I can't wait to see more of Neville and 
what's to become of him.  Seeing him at St. Mungo's was so touching, 
and when he stood up to Bellatrix Lestrange... sniff!  - that was 
beautiful.  His gran doesn't deserve him.