Aunt Marge's Big Mistake

At breakfast on Harry's birthday Harry and the Dursley's see a news story about an escaped prisoner by the name of Black. Harry then finds out that Vernon's sister, "Aunt" Marge is coming to stay for a week and that he'll have to pretend to be "normal" and attend St. Brutus' something or other. Harry uses this to blackmail Uncle Vernon into signing his Hogsmeade permission slip (if Harry behaves himself). Marge shows up and is more horrible than Vernon, Petunia and Dudley, which is amazing. Eventually, she ticks Harry off so much that he accidentally turns her into a human balloon. While the rest of the family is distracted, Harry grabs his stuff. After a final exchange with Uncle Vernon, Harry heads off into the night...

While in some ways, this could be a good opportunity to talk about the Trace again, there will be better ones in the future, so just know that this is another chapter that makes my head hurt the the wacky Trace rules.

A few years ago, I ran a church book club where we talked about the theological and biblical implications of Harry Potter. I'm someone who likes to get both sides of an issue, so I read both pro-Potter books and anti-Potter books. The guy who wrote one of the anti-Potter books seemed not to have read the books at all. He had all kinds of specious arguments that were easily refutable by anyway with the reading comprehension level of an 8-year-old. For some reason, it was his arguments regarding this book that really stuck in my mind, and this chapter was one of the biggest. You see, the author had a big problem with all the cursing in the books. You know, like when it says "Ron cursed" and when they call people "gits", which he had to look up. His biggest problem though was with the word "bitch" in this chapter, when Aunt Marge says, "You see it all the time with dogs. If there's something wrong with the bitch, there'll be something wrong with the pup." This argument drove me mad! Apparently, he could take the time to look up the word "git" but not the time to look up the word "bitch" and see that it was being used correctly. He completely lost me at that point. If anything, I would argue that seeing the correct usage of a word that has been co-opted to be insulting and degrading is a positive thing for children, giving parents a wonderful chance to teach their children about words and context.

What are your thoughts on the matter? Have you ever read a "review" or critique of a book or movie and wondered if the author had actually read or watched what they were talking about?

Dobby's Warning

There is a weird, somewhat annoying creature hanging out in Harry's room. He introduces himself as Dobby the House-Elf and he's there to convince Harry not to return to Hogwarts. Harry refuses, Dobby reveals that he's been stopping Harry's letter and then goes downstairs and drops the pudding on the floor. Shortly thereafter, and owl arrives with a letter for Harry (ruining Vernon's shot at selling the Masons his drills) which informs him that if he performs magic again he'll be expelled. Upon finding out that Harry isn't allowed to do magic outside of school, Vernon determines to lock Harry in his room and keep him from going back to Hogwarts. Harry's just resigned himself to his fate, when Ron appears at his window...
House-elves.

Love 'em or hate 'em, they're a huge part of the Harry Potter world for the rest of the series. Personally, I don't mind them. I've always had a soft spot for the "cutesy" characters my fellow geeks generally love to hate. I don't even mind Jar-Jar that much, though that could just be because the rest of the movie was so awful I didn't see the point in singling him out for derision.

At any rate, I like Dobby. I don't love him (I love Kreacher), but he doesn't make me want to beat him over the head like Winky does. That being said, I can definitely understand why some people dislike him so much.

First of all, there's the fact that he kinda came out of nowhere. So many other creatures were mentioned, at least in passing, in Philosopher's Stone, that it's a little jarring to discover a new sentient creature. A passing mention in Philosopher's Stone, might have helped (no idea where, obviously Malfoy would be the easiest way to get a mention in, but that might have then given away the game as to who Dobby's master was).

Then there's his Bob Dole-itis. "Dobby came to warn Harry Potter." "Dobby must..." "Dobby is..." blah blah blah. Then he occasionally throws in a first person reference, just to see if you're paying attention, "Sometimes they reminds me to do extra punishments." It's enough to drive anyone mad. I feel like this may have been toned down in later books though. That or I just got used to it.

Finally, at this point, he seems like a big old McGuffin. Useful for now, and then we'll ignore him. Obviously, this doesn't end up being the case at all, Dobby and the other house-elves are integral to the story, but Rowling certainly took her time paying it off!

I can't let this chapter go without mentioning the Dursley's. I can't help but wonder what Vernon's plan is. Harry's only 12, so are they going to let him out for public school? Home school him? (Yeah right) Really, Vernon, isn't your best option letting him go to school so you can get rid of him for 10 months? Especially now that you know he's not allowed to do magic when he's "home"? It seems pretty win-win to me. (Obviously that's the problem, Dursley doesn't mind losing as long as Harry does too, still, not the best laid plan.)

Let's hear from some of the Dobby-haters out there. What is it about him that bugs you? How about the Dobby fans? Why do you like him so much? I look forward to your answers!

The Worst Birthday

After a restful weekend I'm ready and raring to start in on book two, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. I'm hoping to move through this one at a pretty fast clip and I'll tell you why. I long ago removed the dust jackets from my copies and have the book displayed on a shelf full of other Potter stuff (a snitch, glasses, movies, etc.) and I've discovered that when you remove Chamber of Secrets, the red of Sorcerer's Stone and the purple of Prisoner of Azkaban clash horribly. I'm telling you. Go try it with your copies and see how long you'd want to have to see that on you shelf everyday! I would put up pictures if I had a decent camera, it's that bad.

So, now that I've whined about decor for half a page, let's talk about the chapter. There's not much to this one really. It's basically your standard "let me do a quick recap of the first book for you" all sequels are cursed with. I know that it's there for the people who missed the first one and came in in the middle, but for me, who's far too compulsive to ever start a series in the middle, it gets old fast. I wish publisher's would consider putting out editions for people like me, that skip over all that stuff. Rowling is better than most at making it interesting (maybe not here, but she gets better at it). I can remember the days when I was into The Baby-Sitter's Club and Sweet Valley Twins when I would just skip the chapter that gave me all the back story stuff and I never missed a thing. Perhaps now that ebooks are becoming more popular, it will be possible to have editions of books that cut all that junk out. Then again, if you were to cut out all that stuff from this chapter, it would go a little something like this:

Harry and Dursleys were eating breakfast. Dudley demanded that Harry pass him some bacon and Harry said, "You didn't say the magic word."
After Uncle Vernon finished freaking out about Harry saying magic (again) he reminded everyone of his big business meeting. He headed out, admonishing Harry to stay out of Aunt Petunia's way.
He was trying to do just that, quietly singing Happy Birthday to himself and feeling sorry for himself that no one had sent him any gifts. Perhaps Ron and Hermione didn't want to be his friend. Sure, they'd risked their lives just a month before to help him, but they could have easily had a change of heart.
Something's watching him from the hedge.
Dudley comes out to make fun of Harry's lack of friends on his birthday and Harry takes the bait, pretending to cast magic on the hedge. As punishment Petunia makes Harry do the gardening. When finally the day is over, Harry eats and heads upstairs, where someone is sitting on his bed!

That's it. Short chapter. How do you feel about the "previously in" recaps, required of sequels?

Keeper of the Keys

I'm moving! - Across the street! - To an apartment run by the same property management company I currently rent from! Why am I telling you this? Because my awesome property manager is going to give me the keys early and I'll have about two weeks to move my stuff, mostly after work and on weekends. Now, if the weather stays awesome, I might manage to retain enough energy to blog after moving all I can stand everyday, but if I don't, I don't want you to think I've forgotten you. We'll see how it goes. Anyway, speaking of life changing events, Harry's about to experience a doozy. Time to see who's at the door!

The door crashes to the floor and silhouetted in the doorway is a huge man. He comes in, makes himself comfortable, introduces himself as Hagrid, Keeper of the Keys and Grounds at Hogwarts, and proceeds to fill Harry in on the fact that there's magic, that he's a wizard, that his parents were killed by magic, and that he's headed to Hogwarts to study magic. Hagrid also gives Harry a birthday cake (his first (that he can remember)) and gives Dudley a pigs tail. The Dursleys all hide in the bedroom and Hagrid and Harry catch a few more z's before going shopping.

While in some respects, this could be considered a boring chapter, it's pretty much just a bunch of exposition after all, its so chock-full of hints, clues and foreshadowing, the observant reader will find themselves fascinated. I count no fewer than five important points in this short chapter.

1. Harry meets Hagrid. (duh) Hagrid not only tells Harry who and what he is, but he is the first adult Harry has ever known to treat him well. He stands up for Harry, answers his questions and shows Harry more respect than Harry's ever encountered before. Not surprisingly, the meeting creates an almost instantaneous bond between the two that will carry them straight through to the Forbidden Forest and the walk to Hogwarts in Deathly Hallows.

2. "Yeh look a lot like yer dad, but yeh've got yer mother's eyes." Hagrid's the first to say it, but we hear it from plenty of other people throughout the series. Observant readers quickly realized it had to mean something, and sure enough, this one, seemingly innocuous sentence, sets the stage for one of the most beautiful scenes in the series when Snape asks Harry to "Look at me".

3. Hagrid mentions the letter Dumbledore left. While it might not be as important as some of the other hints dropped in this chapter, we later discover that the letter Dumbledore left was not for Harry, but for Petunia, and that it was not the first time they had corresponded. That same letter may just be what later saves Harry's life at the beginning of Order of the Phoenix.

4. Speaking of Petunia, we start to see there's a little more to her than meets the eye. It's reasonably obvious the Vernon is against magic simply because he's an ass, but Petunia's vitriolic speech in which she calls her own sister a freak, could only come from a place of real emotion. We don't know yet what that emotion is, but we know there has to be more. I plan to talk a lot more about this in the future.

5. Hagrid tells Harry about Voldemort. Obviously this is a key bit of plot, for this book and the series as a whole. Before this moment, Harry thinks his parents dies in a a car crash and now he (and we) learn the truth...or as much of the truth as Hagrid knows. It's interesting to see how much Hagrid has guessed ("Some say he died. Codswallop, in my opinion. Dunno if he had enough human left in him to die.") and how much Hagrid got wrong ("You-Know-Who killed 'em. An' then - an' this is the real myst'ry of the thing - he tried to kill you, too. Wanted ter make a clean job of it, I suppose, or maybe he just liked killin' by then.) Regardless, the story Hagrid tells Harry is all Harry has to go on for the next four years in his battles with Voldemort.

One final thing this chapter brings up for me and that's the Trace. It seems obvious the Trace is being used to track Harry (how else would they know where he is?) but that brings up further questions as to how the Trace works. Is it attached to all wizards, or does it simply find magic? The way Voldemort modifies it in Deathly Hallows would imply the latter, but that would mean that Harry would have had to have (inadvertently) done magic in each of the places the Dursleys tried to hide, none of which is mentioned. Or is there some other, even creepier, big brother way of tracking wizards? If so, its either only for underage wizards, or Voldemort certainly would have used it in Deathly Hallows. Unless, perhaps there's some sort of self-destruct mode...

What do you think of my "important moments"? Would you add some? Do you disagree with me on any? What about the Trace? Does anyone else spend as much time trying to figure out how this stuff works as I do? I look forward to hearing from you!

The Letters from No One

Important decision to make today, does blogging "every day" mean on the weekends as well? I've decided that Saturdays, yes, Sundays, only if I feel like it. Decision made, moving on.

This is the chapter where we get to see Harry's sense of humor. Personally, I'm a big fan. In this chapter we get gems like:

"They stuff people's heads down the toilet the first day at Stonewall," [Dudley] told Harry. "Want to come upstairs and practice?"
"No, thanks," said Harry. "The poor toilet's never had anything as horrible as your head down it - it might be sick."

and

"What's this?" he asked Aunt Petunia. Her lips tightened as they always did if he dared to ask a question.
"Your new school uniform," she said.
Harry looked in the bowl again.
"Oh," he said, "I didn't realize it had to be so wet."

What can I say, it makes me laugh.

In the next scene a mysterious letter arrives for Harry but before he can read it, Vernon grabs it out of his hands. Now, as I don't live in England, I'm not sure of the legality of reading someone else's mail there, but were this the U.S., it's a bit of a problem. Of course, since the next thing Vernon does is throw both Harry and Dudley bodily from the room, there's obviously some more serious issues happening at old number four. I have to wonder if one of the reasons Harry never got to watch much TV was the Dursley's worry that he might discover that he was being rather horribly abused and report them. I'd love to see them play that off with their friends and neighbors.

I generally find this chapter to be pretty boring (except, of course, for the excerpts above). The first read through it might have been interesting to read about all the ways "they" tried to get the letters to Harry, but by now, I just want to get to the good stuff, namely Hagrid and Diagon Alley. Thankfully, it's midnight and someone is knocking on the shack's door...

The Vanishing Glass

I almost missed another day, getting far too caught up in Wil Wheaton's Memories of the Future - Volume 1 to remember little Harry. (On a related note, I was inspired to create a new tag for my LibraryThing catalog: "geek porn" for which I have some very particular and yet nebulous criteria, so far only Wheaton's book and Russell T. Davies' The Writer's Tale qualify.) I've also got a couple Sam Smith Oatmeal Stouts in me now, which might make this post more interesting...or it might just make me sleepy after a long week.

So it's ten-years-later and Harry is living in the cupboard under the stairs, where he apparently rooms with a bunch of spiders. (I can't help but find it odd that uptight Petunia would allow any spiders in her house, even to torture Harry.) Oh, and it's Dudley's birthday. This is actually one of the (very few) scenes I prefer in the movie. "But last year - last year I had 37!", so much better than "That's two less than last year." particularly as the latter requires Dudley to do some rather quick math we he proves is all but impossible a paragraph later.

Harry's baby-sitter breaks her leg (does she really though? Is this addressed in Order of the Phoenix?) and Harry gets to go to the zoo with the family. Vernon tells Harry there better not be any funny business, which is a bit ridiculous, even for the Dursleys, but it turns out to be a pretty good way to tell us all the weird stuff that seems to happen around Harry, so we'll forgive it, and Harry proceeds to have a pretty good day (I have no idea what a Knickerbocker Glory is, (and I'm too lazy to look it up) but I'm pretty sure I want one). It's a good day until they go to the reptile house anyway, where Harry has a quick conversation with a snake before the glass on it's cage disappears and the snake escapes, thanking Harry on the way. Surely that snake thing won't come up again, right?

Harry is, of course, punished for the Great Snake Escape, even though there's no proof he had anything to do with it other than a traumatized boy mentioning that Harry was talking to the snake (no 10-year-old boy has ever done that before) but this gives Harry the opportunity to be retrospective and tell us about what he remembers of his parents' death (a lot of green light, sounds like a car crash to me alright) and that a bunch of weirdos do things like bow and wave and shake his hand (can't say I really blame Petunia for trying to avoid that, it's a bit creepy).

Changed the format a bit, thoughts?

The Boy Who Lived

See, I told you there was no way I'd actually be able to blog everyday, although, to be honest yesterday's absence had more to do with the sudden panic that I wouldn't have anything of interest to say about the first chapter than any pressing business I had to get done. Unless of course you consider watching the "extras" disc of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince pressing.

Anyway, here's the plan as it currently exists in my head. I often find when I'm reading this series that I have thoughts I want to talk to fellow Potterheads about and then I forget them by the time I have the opportunity, so I'm going to have this post open as I read and if and when these thoughts come to me (no pressure brain) I'll share them with you. This of course means, that anything that comes after this sentence is nothing more than free-flowing, unedited ideas, make of it what you will.

The Dursleys think they're normal and if your definition of normal is boring, nosy, and mean, I guess they are. Mr. Dursley heads to work and notices a lot of strange people around, which he does not appreciate. At one point he hears a group of these strange people talking about the Potters and a child name Harry, could they be talking about his in-laws? Surely not. Later that night he hears about more strange goings on on the news.

While the Dursleys sleep that night, a strange man appears on the street. He uses a lighter to put out all the lights on the street and then heads toward number 4. A cat that's been hanging out on the wall by the Dursleys all day, turns into Professor McGonagall, who greets the man as Professor Dumbledore. They have a conversation that doesn't make a whole lot of sense at this point and are soon joined by a huge man on a flying motorcycle caring a baby. There's some more talk that doesn't quite make sense yet, and they leave the baby, with a lightning shaped scar on his forehead, on the Dursley's doorstep along with a note.

I'm a big fan of Mary Grandpre's illustrations, and I always like to take a second to look at the drawing on the cover page, in this case, of Hogwarts. Scholastic's website has all the illustrations in color, which is pretty cool to see.

I always find it jarring when I read that Aunt Petunia is blond. In most cases, I've been able to avoid having the actor from the movie become the character that lives in my head, but Fiona Shaw is so brilliant, that she's completely taken over the character for me.

Rowling's narrative style has noticeably changed since the first book. The last time I reread Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, I noticed on my last reread that this is the only book where we're given a perspective that is not Harry's when Harry is in the scene (it's during Quiddich, we'll get there) and just now I've noticed that Rowling directly references the fact that she is narrating a story: "When Mr. and Mrs. Dursley woke up on the dull, gray Tuesday our story starts..." I don't know why I find that interesting, but I do.

One of the things I miss most in the movies is cloaks and robes. Most of the adults manage to dress reasonably normally. The "robes" the girls wore to the Yuleball in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (I'm going to start shortening the titles now, consider the "Harry Potter and the" part implied.) were dresses, pretty dresses, but definitely not robes.

We get the first hint at Rowling's knack for names with Jim McGuffin, who does exactly what a MacGuffin is supposed to do by forcing the plot to move along (in this case, making it so that Mr. Dursley has to mention the weirdness he's noticed).

Everyone knows that Rowling had a plan from the start and that there's a lot of set up in the earlier novels that pay off later. Even the first chapter is chock full of them: the mystery of just why the Dursleys hate the Potters so much, the Put-Outer, Voldemort's name, Dumbledore's letter to Petunia, Sirius' bike, and of course, the scar. All will come into play in the future in HUGE ways.

And now comes the hard part: ignoring the pull to keep reading, because once I get started with this series, it's hard to stop myself, even for sleep. I'm determined to do it slowly this time though, one chapter at a time.

Think I've said something stupid? Did I bring up something you've never thought of before (not really expecting that to have happened, but a girl can dream)? Please share your thoughts, I'd love for this to turn into a conversation and not stay a monologue.