last but not least

[diekahvi]

I finished Harry Potter #7 yesterday. I'll share my opinions after the weekend (sashatwen is coming for sleepover and FFF). Just in short:

I liked it but enjoyed #6 more; agree with chinawolf on the Slytherin issue (it left a bad feeling in my stomach, one of the reasons might be that I always felt a connection to that house); YAY for Neville (the character I can assoziate with the most ... yeah I'm weird, doesn't mix with my Slytherinphilia ); Snapes memories: haha I knew it - guess I have a new OTP LOL; didn't like the books pacing/timing due to all the long passages about hiding; Epilogue=ROFL; Ginny=Mary Sue from end of novel 6 on *shudder*; looking forward to lots of great Helena B. Carter demented-Bellatrix-scenes in the next two movies; lots of headesking after reading the first pages concerning Grindlewalds symbol, a symbol representing both a tyranny and a spiritual quest ... svastika anyone???

Ok, need to do stuff ... more later

Comments

[sashatwen.livejournal.com]

I liked the Grindelwald stuff a lot myself. The interaction with Dumbledore, what little we know of it, lent a much needed dimension to the HP world. It's a pity that JKR achieved multidimensional ethics on a character level (with Dumbledore and, somewhat, with Snape) but not on a world building level, with the Slytherins.

[kahvi-elf.livejournal.com]

Yes, I liked what she did with Dumbledores background and even showing Grindelwald to not being totally evil. And I think I would have liked the Grindelwald/WWII references better if I hadn't watched that much old Doctor Who stuff in the last months. They use a lot of old German WWII uniforms or Hitler-mustaches for the evil guys in the 70s and 80s seasons. I had a "Nooo not AGAIN" moment in that chapter. But JKR handles the subject of raceism/fashism very well, especially as an element in a book for kids/teenagers.
But I don't like how she keeps up the theme Slytherin = evil/fellow travellers (Mitläufer). The development of the Malfoy familiy and Snape were well done - but the rest of the Slytherins remained one dimensional. IMO the attributes of the other houses could spawn Dark Wizards as well (just think of the often quoted thin boundary between genius and insanity or quest for knowledge at any cost).

[hiyami.livejournal.com]

I didn't catch the analogy between Grindlewald's symbol and the svastika *head desk*
I did roll my eyes in a "Ah, and so it's probably a coincidence that the power-hungry dictator comes from a country rather on the East of Europe and has a German-sounding name, right?" way at his story, though.

But the novels are so built on archetypes anyway (the boy unloved by his family who finds escape in another world where he is someone important, the spiritual master, the "evil" house having a snake for emblem, etc...), I figured it was fair game to use another one.

I was hoping that Draco would have more of a change of heart than simply running away...

[kahvi-elf.livejournal.com]

Yes, I had hoped for Draco to change sides at the end (after all that happened to him) - it would have fitted him to turn to the winning side right before the showdown. I also miss a describtion of how he reacted to Cragges death. But she speeded up with all the deaths in the end anyway :-/

Yup, she used lots of archetypes right from the beginning.