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The first time I read HBP, I didn't like it. I didn't like the feeling 'coz I'm really a huge fan of JK Rowling and I adore her more than anything. I've always been guilty in posting in The Real Tragedy of HBP because I felt disloyal to her. But of course, being a Harry Potter fan, I had to go back and read the book to find if I'd betrayed it by expecting more than I should or misunderstanding salient points. And after reading it again the second time, and the third time, I think I've recovered.
I've also thought hard about the reason why it felt so unfamiliar the first time I read it. Firstly, even after a few years later, I was still hanged up with TOotP, which of course, we all know, was a highly climactic book compared to HBP. I mean, I was on the edge of my seat when the dementors attacked Harry and Dudles in the first chapter. And I almost swallowed my tongue when I first read the letter telling Harry his wand would be split in two! Right now, all I'm sure of is that HBP wasn't the first on the list of my most fave in the HP series--my child-part still can't decide whether my favorite is TOotP or GoF!
Second, so many happenings in HBP were almost predictable--the shippings (except Lupin and Tonks), Snape finally incriminating himself (and still remaining ambiguous, for goodness' sake!), DD, being Harry's staunchest supporter (let's face it, they always tend to disappear dramatically before the end) dying, and nothing new happening to our other favorite characters or the new character Slughorn not measuring to Umbridge.
I'm not going to mention minute details anymore because I'm starting to become guilty again. Also, I don't want to make it sound as if it was a bad book, because it wasn't. It gets better and better when you read it. Its just that I think, there were important changes in the book that we could not call climactic in a loud or vigorous kind of way (Sorry, English's not my native language and those were the only appropriate descriptive words I could think of at the moment!). First of those changes were that Harry has grown up.
What a tragedy! The main reason why I enjoyed the first five books tremendously is because when I have my nose buried in any of those books even if I've read it many times before or even until now after HBP, I can always go back to a world where I could be a child again and I can dream of the kind of magic I've exactly dreamt of when I was little, and I can remember again how I'd want to be as innocent and courageous and.. well, lucky, as H, Hr, Ron, Neville or Luna. I can be Harry, Hermoine, or even Ron or Draco for a time, and it was fun. I can't imagine being like Luna, though. Even if I love her.
The second change is that finally, the main villain is solidly back and they all had to get really serious. Thirdly, Hermoine, Ron, Neville, etc... even Draco, has to grow up, too. Fourth, the book has to start in a setting that made me realize there's a muggle world more realistic than Privet Drive, and that made me uncomfortable because that was what I was exactly trying to hide from temporarily everytime I pick up an HP book.
Anyway, I know. I'm getting off topic. What I'm trying to say is in spite of these changes I can safely say I still think HBP was superbly written, just that the way the theme was explored here was much darker than I was ready to accept when I first read it. After reading it for the third time now, I think I can honestly say it's the most favorite book of that grown up part of me. I won't be able to fully make others understand that, I guess, unless I mention this paragraph taken from page 512. It's the last paragraph of the twenty-third chapter, as is:
But he understood at last what Dumbledore had been trying to tell him. It was, he thought, the difference between being dragged into the arena to face a battle to the death and walking into the arena with your head held high. Some people, perhaps, would say that there was little to choose between the two ways, but Dumbledore knew--and so do I, thought Harry, with a rush of fierce pride, and so did my parents--that there was all the difference in the world.
OK? I'm sure others can also find narratives or quotes in the book that affected them in some way. It could be as simple as this--which could still put tears in my eyes until now, knowing what will happen to DD in the end of the book--
"He accused me of being 'Dumbledore's man through and through.'"
"How very rude of him."
"I told him I was."
Or you can choose the narrative above and expound on it. So post in. Enjoy! :wave:
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Member S.K.I.M/S.O.U.R.M.I.L.K. (July 2005) S.P.E.W. (April 4, 2006)
Deliver me from writers who say the way they live doesn't matter. I'm not sure a bad person can write a good book. If art doesn't make us better, then what on earth is it for? Alice Walker
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Sep 17 2005, 03:20 PM
