[Warning: If you haven't finished all of HP through book 6, but you plan to, do not read this post, because it contains plot details.] To follow up on Ilya's post to kick off the weeklong build-up to Harry Potter 7...I recommend that serious Potterphiles check out HogwartsProfessor.com. Some very sophisticated analysis. On this page, you'll see links to buy some books--which I urge you to purchase with expedited shipping, so you can read them this week, and thereby understanding Book 7 in greater depth when you start reading it at midnight on Friday. "Who Killed Albus Dumbledore?" and "Unlocking Harry Potter" provide diverse analyses of the mystery, of Rowling's literary techniques, and of the omnipresent influence of alchemy.
At the least, these books demonstrate quite persuasively that what Harry (and the naive reader) saw on the Astronomy Tower in the climactic scene of book 6 was certainly not the full explanation for what was really taking place.
My own analysis, "Severus Snape: The Unlikely Hero of Harry Potter book 7" was originally published on the VC in 2005, and was cited by the NY Times a few weeks ago. Russian, Polish, French, and Spanish translations are available.
A few further predictions:
1. Especially given the alchemical necessity of a resolution involving the combination of all four Houses, Luna Lovegood will play a major role in book 7.
2. Harry's ability to speak with snakes (which he shares with Voldemort) was important in early part of book 1, very important in book 2, and has been mostly ignored since then. I predict that it will be important in book 7, most likely with Nagini.
3. In the penultimate scene of movie 5, Luna (searching for her lost shoes), talks with Harry about Sirius's death, and explains that important things which we have lost often come back to us, although in unexpected ways. She immediately finds her shoes, tied to a rafter. In a movie that had to make tough decisions about condensing a 900 page book (with Rowling supervising the screenplay and every detail of the movie--including where objects are placed), I think that the inclusion of this seemingly trivial scene points us very strongly to Sirius meeting Harry again, somehow.
Related Posts (on one page):
- More Harry Potter:
- Open Harry Potter Speculation Thread:
[DK: Interesting points. There's bunch of fanfiction based on the "Snape is a vampire" premise. BTW, there's a lively debate about whether the mark on Draco's arm (book 6) is a werewolf bite, perhaps inflicted by Fenris G., and whether lycanthropy explains why Draco often seems so sick or weak so much of the time in book 6. )
I mean, the bar exam already saps law students' will to live in a normal year, but does it really have to crush every last bit of joy we might be able to have? It's going to truly be misery to still be studying furiously while my wife and everyone else begins reading at midnight and finishes long before I even sit for the test Tuesday morning.
I'd rather just take the damn test now even though I'm not ready, and be able to get my book on Friday. That would have been a sweet reward.
If that's the case...bring some chocolate and remember a happy thought :)
[DK: Done. Good idea. I hadn't realized that there was any highly literate adult (e.g., a VC reader) who cared about HP and who hadn't finished book 6 yet.)
Now... get that out of your head!
The non-Potterites of the World are avenged! (Muttley snigger)
If your joy is so easily crushed, you are not worthy.
You're not even a lawyer yet, and you've already racked up your first social engagement torpedoed because of the legal profession...
Plunge, I find that to be the normal case. Some books will never translate well. (Try to imagine Lewis's space trilogy done as a movie... Not a pretty thought.) I did think this movie did the best -- it caught some of the spirit of the books and displayed some of the subtleties, without leaving it a "picture album" like the first movie was.
But yes, the books are far better.
Having the centaurs be nearly wordless animals instead of a proud race was pretty much a symbol of things.
You said that Snape was the only other person who knew what Draco's task was. I don't think you can assume that he knew what Voldemort wanted Draco to do. Nowhere is it really clear that he is aware of it, and the dialog in Spinner's End seems to be more indicative of a person pretending to be in on a secret in order to learn more about it from the people who actually do. Even when overheard talking to Draco he doesn't say a single thing that makes it clear he knows what will happen.
Of course, it could be explained simply by Rowling wanting to keep the reader in the dark as well, but I think it's something worth watching for.
While, yes, the books are better than the movies in general, can you name a movie where that really isn't the case? And actually I thought there were several departures in overall development that I thought the movie did much better than the book.
First, and most importantly, Harry actually matured in the movie OotP. I was so pissed at the book because Harry somehow became more IMMATURE than he was in GoF! This was especially clear in his inspiring and forceful teaching of the DA as opposed to the book's version where Harry was diffident and didn't put himself forward. If Harry say some variation of "I, er... yeah" in book 7, I swear I'm ripping it up.
I thought the movie also handled Voldemort's "invasion" of Harry's mind at the end of the fight in a much clearer and sensible way. Harry used that power to love that is so vaunted in the series but has not yet actually been used (in the books).
The first two movies were so in lock-step with the books that it's hard to judge them on their own merits, but I think of 3-5, this is clearly the best movie.
How does she know?
My prediction: Hermoine gives birth at the end of Book 7. But, is the father Ronald Weasley or Viktor Krum?
How does she know?
Okay, now that is funny.
At the middle of "Fire" I told my wife that if I went to firearms school for four years I would think I could find and pull the trigger on a pistol I carried everyday.
You pegged it exactly, it changed the themes and overall moods/feelings, but it did it successfully! 3 and 4 struggled to do that... 3 succeeded sometimes, and 4 was almost laughably bad at times (anytime Michael Gambon was on the screen, just about), but in 5, the differences do an excellent job of flowing naturally from the circumstances.
What do people think Rowling will do next? Stop writing totally? Write about the wizarding world from other perspectives? (Stories from Durmstrang or Beauxbaton, or from earlier days like when James Potter was in school) Break her vow and continue writing more about Harry? How about a whole alternate reality world where Voldy nailed Neville?
As to bookly sequels: I think Rowling will stick to writing about anything else for at least a few years. And I've read enough fanfiction to tell you that there are real problems with stories based at other wizarding schools, or starting other wizarding characters -- not the least of which being, the Potterverse is deeply flawed in ways which Harry is expected to resolve in about five more days. There's actually not a lot of supporting dramatic material in the novels that isn't either hopelessly goofy or directly based on that central conflict. The best adventurish tales typically end out being "what if" alternate universe renditions of the Harry years (Google "The Time of Good Intentions",) or serious prequel, "the previous worst dark wizard ever" affairs. Otherwise it's just "As Knockturn Alley Turns." Note that whenever she decides to do non-direct storyline stuff in the Potterverse herself, JK Rowling always does renditions of props or artifacts already mentioned in the books: the tapestry, Quidditch Through the Ages, etc. I don't blame her -- the only successful piece of fanfiction I ever wrote in her universe was a rendition of Hermione's S.P.E.W declaration.
Geez, I'm a geek.
Moving on, upon the first viewing of your explanation of Harry Potter in fact being one of those horcruxes, I thought it sounded pretty good, and I figured you might be right and might have cracked it. Then I started thinking in a very simple matter.
Think about it, if Harry Potter was one of those things that kept Voldemort tied to the living (and assuming Voldemort knows this, seeing as if you were able to figure it out, I'd think he'd be able to), why is it that he and every one of his followers still wants him dead so much? Chew on that bit bud.