One Is Called Love, The Other Is Pain.

[rionaleonhart]

My personal view of the individual Harry Potter books is essentially 'Philosopher's Stone is okay. Chamber of Secrets is okay. Prisoner of Azkaban and Goblet of Fire are magnificent, near-perfect works of art. Order of the Phoenix, Half-Blood Prince and Deathly Hallows are okay.' I've read the last three books far fewer times than the first four, though, so I'm interested to see whether my opinion of them changes on this reread!


The relationship between Harry and Sirius is a really interesting one. There's undoubtedly love between them, and yet they don't really know each other very well. Harry loves Sirius because of what Sirius represents - a family that isn't the Dursleys - and because Sirius gives him a link to the parents he doesn't remember.

Sirius loves Harry because he loved James. Here's James's son, a surviving remnant of Sirius's best friend from his younger years - and it's not as if Sirius has been able to form any new emotional connections since James's death; he's been isolated inside his own head in Azkaban for twelve years. He escapes, he's on the run, and almost the first person he exchanges two non-hostile words with is this teenage boy who looks exactly like his friend as he remembers him. It's no wonder he can't move on. In a way, Sirius seems like a man permanently trapped in his young adulthood.

Here is an incomplete list of moments that have broken my heart so far in this reread of Order of the Phoenix:


'He's not James, Sirius!'

'I'm perfectly clear who he is, thanks, Molly,' said Sirius coldly.

'I'm not sure you are!' said Mrs Weasley. 'Sometimes, the way you talk about him, it's as though you think you've got your best friend back!'


(Semi-relatedly, I'd quite like to see how Mrs Weasley and Sirius interact in the gap between the fourth and the fifth book, when Mrs Weasley is trying to adjust to the sudden discovery that this man is not, in fact, the person who betrayed Harry's parents and subsequently tried to kill Harry.)


'... I think a part of him was really hoping you'd be expelled. Then you'd both be outcasts together.'

'Come off it!' said Harry and Ron together, but Hermione merely shrugged.

'Suit yourselves. But I sometimes think Ron's mum's right and Sirius gets confused about whether you're you or your father, Harry.'

'So you think he's touched in the head?' said Harry heatedly.

'No, I just think he's been very lonely for a long time,' said Hermione simply.


I was also struck by 'Sirius was staring at the patch of carpet where the Boggart, pretending to be Harry's body, had lain'. Is he thinking of James? Of Harry himself? Of both? Does it really matter, when all three answers make me sad?

I'm fascinated and a little heartbroken by the idea that Sirius thinks of Harry as James. I loved the addition of Sirius calling Harry 'James' towards the end of Order of the Phoenix film, even if my feelings about the films can sometimes be a bit conflicted; Harry Potter is one of the few book series for which I actually have mental images of the characters, despite my very poor visual imagination (this is why I frequently forget to have any description at all in my fanfiction, whoops), and most of the film castings don't fit my image at all, so I slightly resent it when I find myself picturing film Sirius, for example, instead of my Sirius.

I've never really written Harry Potter fanfiction, which seems bizarre, given that I adore these books and I've written fanfiction for every other thing under the sun. I'm not really getting struck by go-off-and-write-this inspiration just yet, but I do feel this relationship could be something worth exploring.

Comments

[milliebee.livejournal.com]

Sirius was definitely a fascinating - and tragic - character. He was never a favourite of mine, but I liked him. I didn't cry when he died purely because I was certain he was going to come back to life, since he was so important.

I feel like the books go thusly:

Philosopher's Stone and Chamber of Secrets have an excellent plot structure, but the writing is wavery. JK's technical skill improved later.

Prisoner of Azkaban is perfect. The plot structure is still there, although it plays with the earlier set-up just enough to still be interesting, and the technical writing is much better.

Goblet of Fire was all right in terms of plot structure and writing, but it needed a little trimming. This was where I think JK's editors stopped cutting because a) they didn't want to mess with Her Royal Highness JKR and b) a longer book meant they could price it higher and make more money.

Order of the Phoenix was much too long. The technical writing is great, but the plot structure begins to collapse. The story meanders and the ending is a little lacklustre compared to previous 'OMG TWIST!'s. This is also where the books changed dramatically from Children's to Teens (with 'I must not tell lies'), which was seriously offputting for some readers.

Half Blood Prince is also too long, and suffers the same problems as OftP. There's a touch of a twist at the end, but nothing as good as before.

Deathly Hallows was an enormous disappointment. It was boring, it went on too long, it was predictable as hell, and it was such a bloodbath all the character death blurred into one, long groan of, 'UGH.' Colin Creevy? Really? I don't care about Colin Creevy. What was the point? The epilogue didn't bother me but it irritated a lot of my friends - cheesy, unnecessary, and also just unlikely. They all married their teenage sweethearts and had children in their early 20s? Sure.

I still love HP, of course. It was a huge phenomenon in my childhood, and it got hundreds of children into reading - and, at the end of the day, it's a good story. That's lovely. But I do like picking at flaws in literature.

Ferret Brain (http://ferretbrain.com/contributors/6/articles?from=96) has some really long (really salty) articles about Harry Potter. I've also read a lot of fascinating fan theories over the years ... I'll see if I can dig any up, if you're interested?

[rionaleonhart]

I didn't cry when Sirius died because I'd managed to spoil myself for it! I was trying to find my place, and I happened to catch sight of exactly the wrong page as I was flicking through. Fortunately, I didn't feel too spoiled because I'd already suspected he was not long for this world; there's a scene early on where a knife thuds into the table just where Sirius's hand was a moment before, and somehow I'd managed to pick up on this as foreshadowing, even though I'm usually fantastically oblivious to that sort of thing.

Your thoughts on the individual books sound right to me! The first four books were so well-structured - there's one big revelation/event at the end, and everything that precedes it, in retrospect, is leading up to that - and the final three can end up feeling a bit like a series of disconnected events in comparison.

I reread the 'I must not tell lies' scene last night. There are a few scenes that made a huge, huge impact on me when I first read the books, and that's definitely one of them. I think of Order of the Phoenix, and my mind goes straight to Umbridge's detention. It's still horrifying, over a decade later. Possibly more horrifying, because I never registered before that Harry was sitting there and writing in his own blood for five hours on the first and second days.

I'm interested to read Deathly Hallows for a second time (I think it's the only book in the series I've read only once); it never really felt like a Harry Potter book to me, but I wonder whether that's because I was in California when it came out, so I've only read the American edition. I've got a UK copy waiting for me now. My housemate says that it worked much better for her on a second read.

I didn't loathe the epilogue, but it didn't sit right with me. Maybe it's the fanfiction-writing side of me; I feel in a way that the events after Voldemort is defeated should belong to us.

[milliebee.livejournal.com]

'Deathly Hallows never really felt like a Harry Potter book.'

YEP. I remember finally reaching the moment when they crawled into Hogwarts and thinking, Yes, now this is a Harry Potter book!

I almost gave up on HP at Order of the Phoenix because a lot of it was just Harry being kicked around by Umbridge, with very little action or comedy to pull me through. Fred and George leaving Hogwarts encouraged me to keep reading.

I think I hit the name Albus Severus and cringed. Do people in real life ever name their children after lost loved ones? Not middle names, I mean, but actual Christian names. I think that's a thing that only happens in cheesy fiction. Thankfully, Tumblr agrees (http://milliebee11.tumblr.com/post/114395606030/mayorbenjywyatt-any-one-of-these-would-have-been).

[rionaleonhart]

I was so distressed when Harry announced his decision not to return to Hogwarts at the end of Half-Blood Prince. HOGWARTS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT CHARACTER IN THE SERIES.

I think people probably do name their children after lost loved ones, but I thought it was perhaps strange that all three of their children were named after Harry's lost loved ones. Admittedly Harry had more lost loved ones than the average person of his age, but did Ginny get any say in the naming at all? (I love that link!)