On my second reading of OotP...

[thistlechaser]

Since Chia is still not done with her first reading of it, I'm putting this behind a cut. Once she's finished, I'll probably stop cutting potential spoilers.



So I read the book a second time, my intent being to like it. I didn't *hate* it the first time through, but I didn't like it.

Unfortunately, my opinion really hasn't changed. I didn't hate it, and there were parts of the book I liked, but for me the bad way outweighed the good.

Plotholes. Big, honking plotholes. Other than her being "more verbose than god" and wasted chapters on Hagrid's brother, it's the holes which really killed the enjoyment for me.

How could she write this? Why did an editor not say 'Hey, wait...'? So Harry is taking special lessons with Snape, yes? Snape able to do this both because he has that special ability and because he's a member of the Order. Then Bad Things happen, but Dumbledore and McGonagall are gone from the school, so the three kids have no one from the Order to turn to, so go racing off on their own!

How could they just forget that Snape is in the Order? It's not just one of them, Harry says to the other two that there is no one left from the order in the school. How could Hermione, who knows all and tells all, forget? How could Snape-hating Ron forget? It just makes no sense, and without that the whole ending of the book wouldn't happen.

There were lots of things I liked, including Luna, Dumbledore calling Voldemort 'Tom', and Harry using (or trying to) an Unforgivable. The bad really outweighed those though: HARRY IS REALLY MAD. CAN'T YOU TELL BY THE CAPS? Tonks: While she is cute, *why* is she an auror if she can't walk down a hallway without always tripping over the same thing every time? (And I cringed when Harry said he wanted to be one. Hello fic cliche!)

The whole death thing didn't work for me, either. Ho-hum. A boring, melodramaric, self-centered bully died.

For me, all the problems in OotP added up to one thing: The joy was missing from the book. Last night I read the two new chapters of Bittersweet Potion. Over the weekend, I've been reading the Durmstrang Chronicles. I *smile* as I read good fics, they make me feel good. OotP was more like a chore, even when not speeding through it.

AND I WOULD THINK THAT AN AUTHOR COULD CONVEY EMOTION IN BETTER WAYS THAN TYPING IN ALL CAPS. Seriously.



In other news, I'm blue. Not mood-wise, my skin is blue. I put new sheets on my bed, and though I did wash them before using them, the dye on them rubbed off all over me last night. My face, my arms, my legs, everywhere. It didn't come off in the shower, either. I'm very displeased. And blue. Very blue.

Comments

[sillysophia.livejournal.com]

She's blue, da ba dee, every thing she sees is is blue.... Okay. Sorry. I'm checking out OotP from the library. I guess by reading from what you've put up here, I should try before I buy.

[thelastone.livejournal.com]

I felt the all-caps anger was very interesting, actually. It wasn't subtle. It wasn't dramatic. It wasn't cleverly written. It was anger. Complete out-of-control anger. I was glad to see it. I was thrilled when it lasted as long as it did. Harry was absolutely out of his mind with it, and you could tell. Writing it with clever descriptive words would have lost the brute force effect of all-caps.
In my opinion, of course. ;)

I was very annoyed at Harry and the others for forgetting Snape was in the Order. Yes, he appears to be a creep towards them, but they were frantic to find someone in the Order. Harry not only forgot about Snape, he also forgot the special item Sirius had given him in case of an emergency, which may be even more annoying.

I also agree with you about the death. I suppose I wasn't supposed to cheer when that happened, eh? Oops. o_O

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

I felt the all-caps anger was very interesting, actually. It wasn't subtle. It wasn't dramatic. It wasn't cleverly written...

...it also wasn't correct. I'd expect to see all-caps in an AOL chatroom, not a book I paid $30 or so for. But then, I am rather uptight about proper grammar, so that affects this.

I also agree with you about the death. I suppose I wasn't supposed to cheer when that happened, eh

Heh heh. I'm right there with you on that one. I was quite happy it was him, and not someone important or who I cared about.

[tersa.livejournal.com]

I felt the all-caps anger was very interesting, actually. It wasn't subtle. It wasn't dramatic. It wasn't cleverly written...

...it also wasn't correct. I'd expect to see all-caps in an AOL chatroom, not a book I paid $30 or so for.

Hmm. And I just had an interesting thought while reading this particular bit...

The all-caps convention to convey strong emotion was in place long before AOL...but people have mis-used the all-caps so much, in places like AOL like you mentioned, that for many of us who do know and use proper grammar...well, speaking for myself, at least, I have a knee-jerk reaction when we see it of rolling my eyes and thinking 'cretin'.

However, Rowling, as the original commenter pointed out, was using it deliberately. *And* in the proper context.

Consider that.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

True, I hadn't thought about that.

[quasilemur.livejournal.com]

I don't really consider 'Frantic people doing something that seems stupid to the person observing circumstances from the safe vantage of a reader' a plothole. Hmmm, a bunch of kids with magic powers doing something rash? Oh, how unrealistic. I know if I were an emotionally damaged little wizard-teen, that I would certainly take time out from the time-sensitive rescue of my godfather to think rationally, and then risk being captured and tortured by a madwoman in order to seek help from someone whom I fear and dread, and with whom I share a mutual hate. Pfft.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Two of the three frantic people (Ron and Hermione) weren't frantic, and one of them (Hermione) is a little miss knows-anything-and-everything. And even ignoring those two, I still don't believe that Harry, as upset as he was, could forget they had a member of the Order right there at hand.

[quasilemur.livejournal.com]

Yes, there was a member of the order there. A member of the order who they'd already told about Sirius's alleged plight. What more did you want them to do, go brave the afore-mentioned Cruciating madwoman and the substantial snarkiness of Snape just so they could be told to stay home? Remember. Kids. Kids with powers.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Are you talking about the scene where they were already captured by her and her crew of Slytherins? They had plenty of time before that scene to talk to him. That scene only happened because they had already started acting.

Remember. Kids. Kids with powers.

Yes, I am aware they are kids. Yes, I am aware they have powers. You do not need to keep repearing it.

[quasilemur.livejournal.com]

They had plenty of time before that scene to talk to him.

Maybe we're talking about different things, here. They got caught immediately after getting lied to by Kreacher, which is what made Harry go gallavanting off in the first place. So why would they have talked to Snape about rescuing Sirius before that? When Snape entered during their questioning, he was told by Harry that Sirius was in trouble, and promptly went to work, as was revealed later. Harry, however, racked by wacky teenage hormones and being a protagonist, couldn't leave the fate of his godfather, who may have been, for all he knew, undergoing torture and death at that moment, solely in the hands of the hated Snape, and in a very impetuous fashion proceeded to take matters into his own hands. Was this rash and stupid? Yes. But it was totally in character, particularly as unbalanced as he'd been throughout the book. As for Hermione being all-knowing, she would be a pretty one-dimensional character if she never made mistakes. Plus, Harry was dead-set on his actions...If she couldn't stop him, she had to at least help him live through it. All I'm saying is that lapses in judgment, even mass lapses caused by emotional currents, are not necessarily plot holes. But I do agree on one point...The Hagrid's Brother thing was pretty dumb.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Here's what I'm talking about, my point:

At the end of chapter 31, Harry collapses during his whatever O.W.L. and has the vision of Sirius being tortured.

Start of chapter 32: Harry blows off the rest of his test, tries to go see McGonagall, but learns that she is no longer at the school. Ron and Hermione, now finished with the test, meet up with Harry (pages 730-731). They move into an empty classroom and Harry rants at them until on page 734 he says:

"...they've taken McGonagall to St. Mungo's, there isn't anyone left from the Order at Hogwarts..."

Now until this point in the scene, Hermione was trying to talk him out of acting. She did not want Harry to go running off (recall she said he had a "saving-people-thing"). Ron is just staying out of things and is not upset in any way.

The only reason they break into Umbridge's office and get lied to by Kreacher is because no one said 'Hey wait! Snape is in the Order!'. The whole thing, the lying, the being captured, the going off to the Department of Mysteries, none of that would have happened if two level-headed kids, one who seemingly knows everything from every book she has ever read, would have remembered a simple and basic fact. I don't buy it.

[tersa.livejournal.com]

How could they just forget that Snape is in the Order? It's not just one of them, Harry says to the other two that there is no one left from the order in the school. How could Hermione, who knows all and tells all, forget?

I actually had a similar thought while reading the book--except, I actually *can* imagine Harry and Ron forgetting Snape was in the Order. Selective memory, if you will, since they both hate him so much. And, even with him being in the Order, they still don't trust him.

However, you're right. I think Hermione should have remembered him, and this was a gaffe.

I also didn't really like how Hermione was handled in the book, though, but.