Deathly Hallows

[sistermagpie]

I feel weird writing this post, because I don't really feel like posting, yet it seems like I should, and then I think--what, do you imagine the public is waiting on pins and needles for your words? Get over yourself!:-D

Anyway, I didn't much like it. Perhaps my feelings will change, but stop here if you don’t want to read any negative stuff. I don't have any rants prepared or anything or want to harsh anybody's buzz. (But misery also loves company!) I was talking to someone who's asked me what I needed from the book, what I wanted to happen or what would have made me satisfied, and the truth is, I don't have an answer. I don't have a list of prescriptive criticism, or think things were done badly, or should have been done a different way.

Well, except one little thing, which couldn't be helped. When that white doe showed up I never doubted for a second it was Snape's Lily!Patronus (cause she's a lady!James!). We'd seen Arthur's and Kingsley's Patronuses talk, and oh, how I wanted that beautiful sparkly stag to come up to Harry and tell him to get this Quest going already in Snape's sarcastic voice.

I've never loved these books the way some do--which should not be taken as a criticism of people who do. I just mean that I know there are people who re-read the books over and over as comfort, and that's not something I ever did. I didn't ever want to re-read to spend time with these people or in this world. There are other books I do feel that way about, books that other people find meh. Basically, I felt like JKR was writing a story of good and evil, and life and death, that resonated with her and satisfied her, and felt like a triumph for her--just not me. So I was a bit left out of the story, objectively even seeing characters doing good, brave things, and just not sharing much in the emotions. More than once I felt like I was seeing more story outline/structure than story so that it seemed very contrived (a couple of times Harry himself seemed to admit it) and made it feel like nothing was building to anything.

What it mostly made me do is go over all the ways I was reading it wrong, making my issues more central than the author really considered them. I don't think I was ever so off as, say, a Harmonian banking on the Hippogriff o'love or anything like that, and some things that happened I did predict (Snape/Lily, obviously, and DDM!Snape). But in general I think I was reading Rowling a bit too much like a Tolkien fan, and maybe too much as a Jungian (not that I'm any expert on Jung, but I was reading from my own idea of his stuff). And I think when JKR said that she was Christian and if she talked about her faith we'd know the ending, I immediately began interrogating from the *wrong* Christian perspective and got that wrong too.

Contrary to what some may have thought at times-or not-I don't hate the good guys. Still don't hate them, just still would not want to spend time with them or re-read the books to spend time with them. The characters I liked the most I think less of now or am just kind of confused by, which is unfortunate. I find Harry affectionately naming his child Albus Severus downright creepy--but that wasn't the first time in the book where that kind of thing happened.

Not sure what I predict fanfic-wise. I wonder if people might not start writing some interesting stuff. I did at one point think how I wanted to take a favorite character and put him in a different story.

Oh, also I've been dreading the epilogue for years, because I've always hated epilogues. Even when I was too young to know the name for them I hated them. Some books I guess can make a case for them being appropriate. HP is really not one of them that I can see. There was no reason I could see for needing to see these people married with children. The one good thing I read about it was after it was leaked, before I read it, and I read a comment where someone said the epilogue read like any cliché H/G fic...or any cliché post-war H/D fic.;-)

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Whew. Never have so many been so fussed about such a lot of nothing. The characters, that is; the fans seem pretty numb. I'm not even upset, I'm just sort of stunned that the soap bubble didn't even contain any soap. I'm also perversely impressed by the amount of crushed expectations all across the fannish spectrum. No House unity, but the bad guys got off lightly (too lame to be a threat, I guess). Snape was neither good nor evil, simply pathetic. R/S is sunk but R/T made them both miserable until they ded from emo. Far from being the bad apple Draco was the only (almost) redeemable Slytherin student. Ginny didn't get to kick ass and take names. Neville didn't kill Bellatrix. One twin died. Hagrid lived. Multicolored werewolf cubs are canon. There's something to disappoint absolutely everyone here.

As to the epilogue, I agree with the poster who brought up Dickens. "This is the type of the Victorian happy ending—a vision of a huge, loving family of three or four generations, all crammed together in the same house and constantly multiplying, like a bed of oysters. What is striking about it is the utterly soft, sheltered, effortless life that it implies", as George Orwell wrote in his Dickens essay. It's instantly convincing that with Voldemort gone, the heroes settle into the Stepford complacency that in retrospect was always lurking around the corner. I did like Draco's nod (despite the continuing Slytherin-bashing -- and the hair, wtf was that?) and it was interesting that he gave his son a Black name and what the heck, ASS 4EVA.

PS on Snape: I think there were hints that he changed for the better over time. Except it wasn't believable since he never lost his Lily fixation which, to me, was part of the problem, because it a) kept him stuck in the past and b) didn't prevent him from being a committed DE, ergo it was not a force for good.

-L

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

I thought Snape was supposed to have gotten better over time, but as with everything else, not in a way that had much meaning. It seemed like the more time he spent with Dumbledore, basically being *trained* in better behavior, he did find himself softening somewhat. But that leads me to ask first, why that isn't proof of what Emerson suggested to JKR--why keep the Slytherins all together? Why not spread them out over the different houses? Snape seems to be proof that if you put them in a society with normal people where they're accepted as valuable, they actually can start to take on the beliefs of that society. They might not ever really become as good as other houses could be, but they wouldn't be weakening stuff from the inside. The one thing that is redeemable about some Slytherins (some) is that they can genuinely feel connection to other people.

Secondly, since I did have desires for Slytherin the house I feel like Snape let them down. His redemption was strictly personal, and he ultimately seemed to not care at all about anybody but the ones special to him--Lily and Dumbledore. Something for Harry because his place in the scheme of things, but nothing much admirable.

That's a great Orwell quote and yeah, that is how it struck me. I get that in this context it's supposed to be "peace." It's the normal, safe life where everyone's with their family. But to me it really did just seem like a reset to the beginning of PS/SS.

[(Anonymous)]

But that leads me to ask first, why that isn't proof of what Emerson suggested to JKR--why keep the Slytherins all together? Why not spread them out over the different houses? Snape seems to be proof that if you put them in a society with normal people where they're accepted as valuable, they actually can start to take on the beliefs of that society.

IAWTC. At Draco's age, Snape was pretty much a monster. Apparently the only thing that was keeping him from becoming Dark Lord Snape was his attachment to one other person. If such an exceptionally damaged individual could eventually grow a conscience in his new environment, other Slytherins should be given the same chance.

Secondly, since I did have desires for Slytherin the house I feel like Snape let them down.

Exactly. He was their Head of House. He was supposed to care about them. They looked up to him! Silly me for assuming that the alpha of a despised group might feel some solidarity with that group, or that his favoring the kids who everyone else had written off as irredeemable was a clue that he was a good person at heart. And let's not get started on his relationship with Draco, who needed him a sight more than Harry did.

Okay, I'm a little more upset than I thought. :P

-L

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

Exactly. He was their Head of House. He was supposed to care about them. They looked up to him! Silly me for assuming that the alpha of a despised group might feel some solidarity with that group, or that his favoring the kids who everyone else had written off as irredeemable was a clue that he was a good person at heart. And let's not get started on his relationship with Draco, who needed him a sight more than Harry did.

Yes, apparently he liked him in school, but it was a shallow thing that didn't matter--not anything that would really make him feel like he wanted to act like a father figure. Which is pathetic since Draco could have been the son he would never have, but no. If he wasn't Lily's and if he had a dad, what difference did it make? In fact, go ahead and encourage him to be a DE, since that's basically what Snape was, even if he was betraying them at the same time.

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

I wasn't defending Draco, I was saying how all over their relationship to be less important than I thought it was. I thought Snape in HBP was looking at Draco and seeing partially himself at that age, acting like an idiot, and that although he certainly couldn't save Draco, that he would see it as redemptive if Draco didn't just fall into the same pattern he did.

But not only did Draco's liking Snape ultimately not matter that much (his pulling away from him was explained by his usual limited reasons--that he seemed like he was against his family), Snape's views were a lot less admirable than I thought they were. He was no longer working as a DE, obviously, but he hadn't turned away from them as much as I assumed he did. He was doing a whole private penance for his own mistakes for Lily--which is a fine thing for a character to do, it's just a definitely come-down from what I had assumed the character was doing (which included a different relationship between Draco and Snape). They both got the smack-down, imo.