Disjointed thoughts about the new book

[Mike & Susan Gray]

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- 6/10? Gee whiz, Kneasy. It's a book, not a gymnastics competition. (Just
kidding. But I've always wanted to say that to someone and the occasion has
finally presented itself. And I think you're too negative. But difference of
opinion makes a horse.) (Not that HP's a horse race either, of course.)

- Stretches of this book were depressing and threatened - though they didn't
deliver - boredom. Particularly the camping part. I like camping, actually,
but not with Hermione's magic purse.

- Latest development: View the Potterverse in Moral 3D!! It's been coming
for a while, but Rowling has really nailed it down this time. I like it. I
like Ron, who leaves but comes back. I like Draco, who isn't exactly
redeemed but isn't exactly isn't, either. I like Dudley - Draco's very
this-worldly alter-ego - who's about as bad at being good as he was good at
being bad. I like Luna's harmless, eccentric father who spends years
suffering for the truth and goes to weddings with a swastika on his shirt
and tries to betray the people his daughter loves - out of love for his
daughter. I like Peter Pettigrew, whose long-awaited great act of redemptive
heroism boils down to hesitating about strangling Harry for just long enough
to let his bionic hand strangle him instead - conclusively proving that
Gryffindor is perfectly capable of turning out a moral failure.

- And Snape, of course. In a panel at Accio 2005 I declared that Snape
conclusively proved that he's a good guy by killing Dumbledore. Toward the
end of the book, I honestly started to think I was wrong. Whew. Lucked out.

- All of that more than made up for - or rather *balanced out* - Percy doing
the hero thing. That was cool. If everybody and their dog had been pulling
hero stunts (Pete and Draco, that's you I'm thinking about), Percy would
have laced the whole thing with just a little too much moral saccharine. As
it was, hey - *somebody* should get to do a big turn around and Percy was
the perfect guy for the job. 

- One thing I'm not quite 100% happy about is the revelation of the true Big
D. First in Aberforth's, then - with great clarity - in Snape's memories, he
really does seem to show a disturbing devotion to the "greater good." It
seems, clearly, a *greater* good for an innocent boy to die than for an evil
wizard to live. I found this D believable - troubling but true to life and
forgivable too, if you take his whole life in the balance. 

However, when we finally meet D in King's Cross, while the beatific D does
admit to various moral failings, a tendency to be a cold-hearted,
manipulative greater-good-apath is NOT one of them. It turns out that he
knew since "the look" in GoF that Harry would survive another killing. He
wasn't sending Harry to the butcher after all. Darn. I'd have preferred it
if his flaws had gone a little deeper and his contrition a little farther.
Still - it's not bad stuff.

- Hey, did any else notice the look Dumbledore gave Harry at the end of
GoF?? Was anyone else deeply satisfied to finally know what was going on?

- Drum roll ... The Wand Thing. Every book so far, Rowling comes up with
this monster magical plot device that sort of takes over and grows like
bunny rabbits, and it's always cool and it's always annoying to the degree
that it doesn't really tally with a lot of the stuff going on before. This
time, it was wands. Being a wand must be nearly as complicated as running an
office for sports statistics. Never mind. I thought it was kind of cool
anyway. (Even if all Harry did to get Malfoys wand was grab it from his hand
- there wasn't even any magic involved.) 

- I think humor is important. In fact, I've always thought it is one of the
things that mark the HP series out for true greatness. I missed it this
time. In fact, I almost had the feeling that JKR was quite hitting 'em like
she used to. Maybe that just because I was reading like a maniac.

- But finally: the ending. That, was really, really, really good. Harry has
become a hero. The final chapters show us a young man who truly has the
heart, the head and the cojónes to stand next to Dumbledore and up to
Voldemort. I love it.

Enough babbling. Great book. Great series. Grand finale. 

Baaaaaa!

Aberforth's Goat (a.k.a. Mike Gray) 
_______________________

"Of course, I'm not entirely sure he can read, 
so that may not have been bravery...."