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Nothing in particular
Feeling somewhat grumpy today, as I have been ever since I acquired a nasty cold...these things just seem to go on forever. In contrast, it comes so quickly. I wake up one morning with a slightly sore throat, and I know what's coming for the next week - hacking cough, throat rubbed raw as if with sandpaper, distressing inability to breathe through my nose, head spinning from the vigor with which I must blow said stuffy nose, and general miserableness. Blech.
Well, enough of that. Hopefully it will go away before my grumpiness becomes too much of a habit.
So I realized I hadn't really read OotP straight through since it first came out almost a year ago, and it was starting to get a bit fuzzy - I'm afraid my thoughts were colored quite a bit by the numerous fandom interpretations going around, to the point that I couldn't remember what was actual canon. Thus, I've been re-reading it for the past couple of days (I'm hoping to finish it by tommorow so I can give PoA a quick read-through before the movie - we have tickets for Friday! Yay!). It's still quite painful to get through the Umbridge parts, as well as watching Sirius in his last year of life. :( But there's still some great moments, and I've also had a number of thoughts pop into my head. I'll probably put down some more as they come.
-What exactly defines a Muggle artifact, and what determines whether something is permitted to have magical properties or not? For example, I would personally think that a lift is pretty darn Muggle-ish, but they have some sort of magical lifts at the Ministry (I assume they're not powered by ekeltricity ;)). On the other hand, Arthur Weasley's car was clearly not permitted. What is the difference?
-Umbridge could be seen as a red herring, but much more than that I think she's a clear indication that people don't have to associated with Voldemort to be evil. There are a whole myriad of ways to promote evil and put down good, and Umbridge is an ugly example of them. Also, she seems to me to represent pretty clearly JKR's view on incompetent or even malignant government interference in education. But then, that's just a guess. :)
-What is Hermione's reasoning in determing when the rules should be strictly followed and enforced and when they should be broken? Because she seems to have pretty solid convictions on both sides, and it's easy to think that she's being hypocritical or contradictory. I don't think she is, but I'm kind of curious what's going on in her brain. Her reasoning must be different from either Ron's or Harry's, who tend to break the rules without too much deliberation or guilt, while Hermione seems to have a bit more of a crisis between being a model student/prefect and following her internal conscience. I'm sort of thinking this out as I write, so it might not make much sense. But I just think Hermione's rule-breaking is complicated, to say the least.
I'm getting very near the climax in my novel, and it's rather painful. I'm making my main character undergo some downright horrible things, and despite her fictional nature I feel somewhat guilty. I mean, she's only about thirteen years old and I'm having her brutally tortured. Ugh. Said like that, it sounds hideously gratuitous, angst of the very dumbest sort. It's just that this is the nadir of her experience, in which she endures her worst despair and self-doubt. Actually, it's a bit like that moment in OotP when Harry is afraid that Voldemort's using him as a weapon, and he decides to run away so he can't be used against the people he cares about. Not that it's near as good as JKR's books, of course. :( Now I feel disgustingly self-promoting.
I'll end with something better, I hope - more gushing about my son. Oh, he's getting into everything right now, driving me crazy, but then he'll smile and laugh, and I'm thoroughly charmed. Sometimes when I give him a bite to eat he'll thrust it instead toward my mouth, because he wants to share. Or, more likely, just because it delights him to see me open my mouth wide and then close on the bit of food he put in it. And when he sees me drinking from a cup, he wants to take a sip, lets out a breath like grownups do after taking a drink, and watches very carefully to make sure I do it too. What is going on in that brain of his? :)
Well, enough of that. Hopefully it will go away before my grumpiness becomes too much of a habit.
So I realized I hadn't really read OotP straight through since it first came out almost a year ago, and it was starting to get a bit fuzzy - I'm afraid my thoughts were colored quite a bit by the numerous fandom interpretations going around, to the point that I couldn't remember what was actual canon. Thus, I've been re-reading it for the past couple of days (I'm hoping to finish it by tommorow so I can give PoA a quick read-through before the movie - we have tickets for Friday! Yay!). It's still quite painful to get through the Umbridge parts, as well as watching Sirius in his last year of life. :( But there's still some great moments, and I've also had a number of thoughts pop into my head. I'll probably put down some more as they come.
-What exactly defines a Muggle artifact, and what determines whether something is permitted to have magical properties or not? For example, I would personally think that a lift is pretty darn Muggle-ish, but they have some sort of magical lifts at the Ministry (I assume they're not powered by ekeltricity ;)). On the other hand, Arthur Weasley's car was clearly not permitted. What is the difference?
-Umbridge could be seen as a red herring, but much more than that I think she's a clear indication that people don't have to associated with Voldemort to be evil. There are a whole myriad of ways to promote evil and put down good, and Umbridge is an ugly example of them. Also, she seems to me to represent pretty clearly JKR's view on incompetent or even malignant government interference in education. But then, that's just a guess. :)
-What is Hermione's reasoning in determing when the rules should be strictly followed and enforced and when they should be broken? Because she seems to have pretty solid convictions on both sides, and it's easy to think that she's being hypocritical or contradictory. I don't think she is, but I'm kind of curious what's going on in her brain. Her reasoning must be different from either Ron's or Harry's, who tend to break the rules without too much deliberation or guilt, while Hermione seems to have a bit more of a crisis between being a model student/prefect and following her internal conscience. I'm sort of thinking this out as I write, so it might not make much sense. But I just think Hermione's rule-breaking is complicated, to say the least.
I'm getting very near the climax in my novel, and it's rather painful. I'm making my main character undergo some downright horrible things, and despite her fictional nature I feel somewhat guilty. I mean, she's only about thirteen years old and I'm having her brutally tortured. Ugh. Said like that, it sounds hideously gratuitous, angst of the very dumbest sort. It's just that this is the nadir of her experience, in which she endures her worst despair and self-doubt. Actually, it's a bit like that moment in OotP when Harry is afraid that Voldemort's using him as a weapon, and he decides to run away so he can't be used against the people he cares about. Not that it's near as good as JKR's books, of course. :( Now I feel disgustingly self-promoting.
I'll end with something better, I hope - more gushing about my son. Oh, he's getting into everything right now, driving me crazy, but then he'll smile and laugh, and I'm thoroughly charmed. Sometimes when I give him a bite to eat he'll thrust it instead toward my mouth, because he wants to share. Or, more likely, just because it delights him to see me open my mouth wide and then close on the bit of food he put in it. And when he sees me drinking from a cup, he wants to take a sip, lets out a breath like grownups do after taking a drink, and watches very carefully to make sure I do it too. What is going on in that brain of his? :)