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Not to completely excuse the rant, because as ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
diochrony has confirmed, sometimes you just need to vent. Aunt Flo finally came to visit. I promise emotional stability is looming. Promise.
In other news:
Like everyone else in the world, I picked up my specially reserved copy of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. It took me eleven hours to read. I was pleased.
I was satisfied and I was completely devastated. I don't know if it's because of The 'Rent, but I almost dread what's going to happen when I re-read Order of the Phoenix, later this week.
HP and the HBP is, definitely, a set-up book. There was really no sense of urgency as I read the book. It was merely background information that will become useful in the closing volumes of the series. I even found all of the information interesting, but I think that, to an extent, Rowling gave away the prize by featuring Dumbledore so prominently. I kept thinking that this is a fake Dumbledore or that at some point it would become crucial for Harry to be able to tell the difference between the real!D and the fake!D. Unfortunately, I was not prepared, nor did I even guess what the actual ending would be.
In a way, the ending of HBP makes me NOT want to finish the series. I will, of course, but I was very devasted by the ending and like Harry I think that the light at the end of the tunnel has dimmed considerably. Which, of course, may have been Rowling's point entirely. She has become excellent at mimicking the rhythms of real life. Just when things are really good, everything goes to shit with almost no warning. So, there is our Hero. Flying high on the House Quidditch Cup win, a shiny, new girlfriend, and ever increasing knowledge of his enemy -- then WHAM!! Disaster Strikes. We should not be so surprised. I was.
Another thing that surprised me was Harry's sudden interest in Ginny. Although, it did make a sort of sense and I didn't mind that they were ultimately paired. I think that the whole, I am Destined and we can't be together because of Danger was a little over the top, but other than that I was very satisfied with the easiness of their relationship. And as these things usually happen the way that Harry's affection for Ginny is a sort of dawning.
Rowling has indeed grown as a writer, her storytelling in HBP was, I thought, tight and well constructed. At a whopping 652 pages, I felt as if there wasn't a wasted word. Everything had a purpose and felt essential to either this narrative or to what's to follow.
The way that the opening two chapters focused on the outside world instead of Harry was a rather nice touch. Expanding the narrative and demonstrating the danger Voldemort poses on the world stage. Up til now, it has largely been about Harry and the Wizarding World. I thought that the Other Minister was a great way of making the threat a much larger one.
Snape surprised the shit out of me, and I find myself still holding out hope that it's all a hoax. He can't really be a bad guy, Dumbledore trusted him so.
Dumbledore can't REALLY be dead. He's the Hero's Champion. I mean, even Merlin survived the destruction of Camelot. Of course, there is the whole Phoenix theme, and I can only hope that's a sort of warning.
Loved the way that Rowling humanized Malfoy. Hitherto, he's been largely just a petulant, spoiled, spiteful bully. He has become, like Snape in Order of the Phoenix, a much more complex and empathetic character.
The interactions among students, as hero's, wizards and teenagers was awesome!! Harry and Ron and Hermione especially. The birds!!!!! I laughed my ass off. That's what he gets. I was a surprised at Ginny's malicious teasing of Ron. Although, he seems to generally be the family pick-upon, she was a little more vicious than I would have thought.
I was completely unspoiled for this book, unlike Order of the Phoenix, which still had me on tenterhooks. I've decided to stay that way through the close of the series. Let's cross our fingers that everything turns out well, because even through Harry is Our Hero and this is an Epic Battle between Good and Evil, I feel that with JK Rowling anything is possible. Everything in the Potter-verse comes with a price. Nothing is ever for free. There's always a sacrifice or a trick or a catch. Not unlike real life. I like that about Rowling. I like that about the Harry Potter series.
There was also fun party shenanigans on Saturday night.
The gang headed out to Blue Beet for drinks and dancing. Unfortunately, the band was awful and some chickenhead threw up all over the dancefloor. That guaranteed that we would be spending the entire night out on the patio. It was a rib tickling good time. Boeing got a little heated with ZuZuQ. He's convinced that he looks younger than she does, which is totally NOT true. OC Queen Bay-bee, hooked up with some knucklehead who made us walk all the way around the world for pizza at two in the A.M., and Bullet to the Brain was both drunk AND horny. That kinda equals annoying. But, c'est la vie.
We were cute, for all the good that it did:
At least I was wearing comfortable shoes.
The prize of the night, however, goes to Guido Homeboy who told me that I could find him in the porn section of the local video store.
Updated House of Leaves with a drabble section.
diochrony has confirmed, sometimes you just need to vent. Aunt Flo finally came to visit. I promise emotional stability is looming. Promise. In other news:
Like everyone else in the world, I picked up my specially reserved copy of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. It took me eleven hours to read. I was pleased.
I was satisfied and I was completely devastated. I don't know if it's because of The 'Rent, but I almost dread what's going to happen when I re-read Order of the Phoenix, later this week.
HP and the HBP is, definitely, a set-up book. There was really no sense of urgency as I read the book. It was merely background information that will become useful in the closing volumes of the series. I even found all of the information interesting, but I think that, to an extent, Rowling gave away the prize by featuring Dumbledore so prominently. I kept thinking that this is a fake Dumbledore or that at some point it would become crucial for Harry to be able to tell the difference between the real!D and the fake!D. Unfortunately, I was not prepared, nor did I even guess what the actual ending would be.
In a way, the ending of HBP makes me NOT want to finish the series. I will, of course, but I was very devasted by the ending and like Harry I think that the light at the end of the tunnel has dimmed considerably. Which, of course, may have been Rowling's point entirely. She has become excellent at mimicking the rhythms of real life. Just when things are really good, everything goes to shit with almost no warning. So, there is our Hero. Flying high on the House Quidditch Cup win, a shiny, new girlfriend, and ever increasing knowledge of his enemy -- then WHAM!! Disaster Strikes. We should not be so surprised. I was.
Another thing that surprised me was Harry's sudden interest in Ginny. Although, it did make a sort of sense and I didn't mind that they were ultimately paired. I think that the whole, I am Destined and we can't be together because of Danger was a little over the top, but other than that I was very satisfied with the easiness of their relationship. And as these things usually happen the way that Harry's affection for Ginny is a sort of dawning.
Rowling has indeed grown as a writer, her storytelling in HBP was, I thought, tight and well constructed. At a whopping 652 pages, I felt as if there wasn't a wasted word. Everything had a purpose and felt essential to either this narrative or to what's to follow.
The way that the opening two chapters focused on the outside world instead of Harry was a rather nice touch. Expanding the narrative and demonstrating the danger Voldemort poses on the world stage. Up til now, it has largely been about Harry and the Wizarding World. I thought that the Other Minister was a great way of making the threat a much larger one.
Snape surprised the shit out of me, and I find myself still holding out hope that it's all a hoax. He can't really be a bad guy, Dumbledore trusted him so.
Dumbledore can't REALLY be dead. He's the Hero's Champion. I mean, even Merlin survived the destruction of Camelot. Of course, there is the whole Phoenix theme, and I can only hope that's a sort of warning.
Loved the way that Rowling humanized Malfoy. Hitherto, he's been largely just a petulant, spoiled, spiteful bully. He has become, like Snape in Order of the Phoenix, a much more complex and empathetic character.
The interactions among students, as hero's, wizards and teenagers was awesome!! Harry and Ron and Hermione especially. The birds!!!!! I laughed my ass off. That's what he gets. I was a surprised at Ginny's malicious teasing of Ron. Although, he seems to generally be the family pick-upon, she was a little more vicious than I would have thought.
I was completely unspoiled for this book, unlike Order of the Phoenix, which still had me on tenterhooks. I've decided to stay that way through the close of the series. Let's cross our fingers that everything turns out well, because even through Harry is Our Hero and this is an Epic Battle between Good and Evil, I feel that with JK Rowling anything is possible. Everything in the Potter-verse comes with a price. Nothing is ever for free. There's always a sacrifice or a trick or a catch. Not unlike real life. I like that about Rowling. I like that about the Harry Potter series.
There was also fun party shenanigans on Saturday night.
The gang headed out to Blue Beet for drinks and dancing. Unfortunately, the band was awful and some chickenhead threw up all over the dancefloor. That guaranteed that we would be spending the entire night out on the patio. It was a rib tickling good time. Boeing got a little heated with ZuZuQ. He's convinced that he looks younger than she does, which is totally NOT true. OC Queen Bay-bee, hooked up with some knucklehead who made us walk all the way around the world for pizza at two in the A.M., and Bullet to the Brain was both drunk AND horny. That kinda equals annoying. But, c'est la vie.
We were cute, for all the good that it did:
At least I was wearing comfortable shoes.
The prize of the night, however, goes to Guido Homeboy who told me that I could find him in the porn section of the local video store.
Updated House of Leaves with a drabble section.
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no subject
Date: 2005-07-20 04:26 pm (UTC)From:I'll be sure to give you a heads-up when I put a photo in my LJ. I'm just dreadfully lazy, as usual.
I'm glad you put a drabble section at your site -- I was thinking about that this past weekend 'cause I couldn't find your drabbles there!
I'm actually craving HBP now and here I thought I'd be perfectly fine waiting a month or so. Yeah, right ...
no subject
Date: 2005-07-21 02:07 am (UTC)From:Heh! It's all ZuZuQ! She has a digital camera that she carts everywhere and she's not afraid to use it. You ALWAYS have to be on the money. This one was early enough in the night that our eyes were willing to remain open. Later, uh. Not so much. :)