(no subject)

[felis_ultharus]

Today was the first day in seven that I didn't have to go into my regular job, though I was in training for my very temporary moonlighting one instead, giving Cambridge Exams. My first official day on the job for that is tomorrow afternoon. Then I'm back at my usual on Friday.

I also got my first heavy edit for my novel done today (checking for historical accuracy and internal consistency), as well as getting a little more research done. I stumbled onto a book of 19th-century pictures of British Columbia, which may prove helpful.

I also reread The Half-Blood Prince.

So, having re-read the book in preparation for Deathly Hallows, I have to admit that my least-favourite Snape theory is probably accurate -- I now think it is true he killed Dumbledore on Dumbledore's orders. Snape is one of my least-favourite characters in the story so I hate to think well of him, but the way his and Dumbledore's dialogue is set up there are plenty of double entendres pointing that direction.

There's all sorts of historical stuff Rowling is throwing in, and I'm not sure where it's going. Marvolo Gaunt's Ring of Peverell is interesting because Peverell was a real person, the son of William the Conqueror, and whose castle was later held by John of Gaunt.

I may be the only person obsessed with this aspect of the novels, but there are repeated nods throughout the story towards events in real British history, and since I studied this period because of Chaucer and the matter of Britain, I'm curious where they lead.

Overall, I thought the book was fantastic, but I still think it was flawed whenever it came to romance. Also, Fleur's character is especially jarring, because she's a stereotype of a French women which was already cliché by the turn of the 20th century. Plus, no French-speaker on earth speaks English the way she does. Speaking as someone who does English-placement exams, no francophone can conjugate English verbs perfectly without knowing that that the English word for au revoir is "goodbye." She talks like Inspector Clousseau.

As always on second reading, I kept looking for the throwaway detail that's the key to the last book -- the way vanishing cabinets and forgotten lockets became important later.

On that note, he Imperius curse tends to make the reader paranoid. I noticed that Ron walked right past Scrimgeour in the last chapter -- Scrimgeour being a man who can legally perform the Imperius curse, and probably do it without words -- just before he asked Harry about his plans, and right after Harry refused to tell them to Scrimgeour. Harry then announces every single detail of them, exactly what Scrimgeour would like to know.

I won't make any further predictions. All my predictions so far have been wrong, so I'm clearly not very good at this. Maybe I should make the prediction that Harry will die, because I want him to live and if I've predicted it, it's likely to be wrong.

Comments

Re: Spoilers ahead!

[em-fish.livejournal.com]

pretty much the nastiest thing he could do would be to work on that old Inferius curse, and figure out where Harry's parents are buried.

This is one of the reasons why I was surprised that Big D was apparently cremated. What could possibly be sweeter to Voldy than the moment where he sicced the desecrated shell of his most formidable opponent on Harry, who cherished him as a mentor? ...Maybe not even Rowling is that evil.

Harry was the only one who could throw off the Imperius charm, after all. This is true. Ron DID fail spectacularly.

So now I'm even wondering about McGonagall.

I noticed that too and thought it was odd, but I didn't know what to make of it at the time.

Re: Spoilers ahead!

[felis-ultharus.livejournal.com]

"This is one of the reasons why I was surprised that Big D was apparently cremated."

See, I suspect the reason Dumbledore specified that was to give Voldemort the least opportunity to do so.

"I noticed that too and thought it was odd, but I didn't know what to make of it at the time."

She was in the Battle of Hogwarts, as it gets called in fanfic. Most of the Death Eaters who were firing curses all around, and all but one of them survived. They may be passing messages to her, and she's now in charge of the school 0_o

Yeah, so as I was saying, Rowling is great at developing an air of paranoia in her novels.