Harry Potter, it's been a while!
Apr. 10th, 2014 09:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sarnathBeen sick with a cold the past week and started rereading the Harry Potter books on a whim (I like rereading books when I'm ill). It's been long enough that many things have become decidedly vague in my recollections, so it's been fun to relive it.
Harry is a curious little cat, isn't he? Always wandering off after strange glittering things, listening at doors, sneaking around and overhearing conversations. Also pretty good at deduction, I keep forgetting that with Hermione usually being the convenient source of information.
I like his dry, ironic sense of humour, pragmatism, and actually pretty serious ambition (I think it's shown fairly clearly how well he would have fit in Slytherin).
Two things struck me, reading the first four books (I'm going to start OotP tonight): how often Harry goes off on his own, and how often he, Ron, and Hermione actually try to tell teachers what's going on but fail due to circumstance. Like Dumbledore being called away at a critical moment, and similar.
They are so young.
Harry strikes me as a late bloomer in many ways (as late as GoF Trelawney goes on about his "mean stature"). The beginnings of his first crush on Cho is really cute, but Ron is already checking out Rosmerta. And Harry's reaction to the Veela is really weak compared to Ron's (except for the first time when there's a whole horde of them dancing and even then his want is vague and formless).
The Harry/Cho parts are nicely foreshadowed and written, but Ginny is woefully underdeveloped. Which works for me, as I ship H/D and want the H/G relationship to be as badly written as possible (hey, I'm just being honest with myself here!)
Draco is a right little shit in the first four books, though (and in the fifth, IIRC, but I'm just getting there). I remember being so incredibly angry with him the first time reading, completely forgetting how I'd expected him to be Harry's future best friend when they first met in the robe shop (probably because of reading too much shōnen manga, they tend to work with different tropes).
GoF reminded me why I started off shipping Harry/Ron, though! All that "what you'll sorely miss" and that falling out they had before the first task that looked more like a lover's spat than anything (Hermione's reaction when they made up just added to the impression, crying and calling them both idiots). After HBP I was solidly in the H/D camp, but in the GoF aftermath (I read it before OotP was out, but not long before) I scoured the net for Harry/Ron. There was some decent stuff, I think, but sadly I didn't save any.
Rereading has made me like Ron/Hermione less, though. I see what JKR is trying for, but I think the emphasis on their bickering in the text becomes too much - their good times have to be inferred rather than experienced most of the time. They have some good moments, but I think their differences are highlighted a bit too much. I started thinking that Hermione really should try that summer with Krum, heh.
One thing I've been actively trying to do is erase the impressions I have from the films. I don't like them much, but that's not the reason; the problem I have with them is that they so often contradict the books and I want the impressions from the text to form my views on the characters.
Also, I've always been annoyed at the lack of robes, which sadly influenced fandom to such a degree that no one draws or write the characters wearing them any more. And I liked the hats!
Onwards to Order of the Phoenix!
Harry is a curious little cat, isn't he? Always wandering off after strange glittering things, listening at doors, sneaking around and overhearing conversations. Also pretty good at deduction, I keep forgetting that with Hermione usually being the convenient source of information.
I like his dry, ironic sense of humour, pragmatism, and actually pretty serious ambition (I think it's shown fairly clearly how well he would have fit in Slytherin).
Two things struck me, reading the first four books (I'm going to start OotP tonight): how often Harry goes off on his own, and how often he, Ron, and Hermione actually try to tell teachers what's going on but fail due to circumstance. Like Dumbledore being called away at a critical moment, and similar.
They are so young.
Harry strikes me as a late bloomer in many ways (as late as GoF Trelawney goes on about his "mean stature"). The beginnings of his first crush on Cho is really cute, but Ron is already checking out Rosmerta. And Harry's reaction to the Veela is really weak compared to Ron's (except for the first time when there's a whole horde of them dancing and even then his want is vague and formless).
The Harry/Cho parts are nicely foreshadowed and written, but Ginny is woefully underdeveloped. Which works for me, as I ship H/D and want the H/G relationship to be as badly written as possible (hey, I'm just being honest with myself here!)
Draco is a right little shit in the first four books, though (and in the fifth, IIRC, but I'm just getting there). I remember being so incredibly angry with him the first time reading, completely forgetting how I'd expected him to be Harry's future best friend when they first met in the robe shop (probably because of reading too much shōnen manga, they tend to work with different tropes).
GoF reminded me why I started off shipping Harry/Ron, though! All that "what you'll sorely miss" and that falling out they had before the first task that looked more like a lover's spat than anything (Hermione's reaction when they made up just added to the impression, crying and calling them both idiots). After HBP I was solidly in the H/D camp, but in the GoF aftermath (I read it before OotP was out, but not long before) I scoured the net for Harry/Ron. There was some decent stuff, I think, but sadly I didn't save any.
Rereading has made me like Ron/Hermione less, though. I see what JKR is trying for, but I think the emphasis on their bickering in the text becomes too much - their good times have to be inferred rather than experienced most of the time. They have some good moments, but I think their differences are highlighted a bit too much. I started thinking that Hermione really should try that summer with Krum, heh.
One thing I've been actively trying to do is erase the impressions I have from the films. I don't like them much, but that's not the reason; the problem I have with them is that they so often contradict the books and I want the impressions from the text to form my views on the characters.
Also, I've always been annoyed at the lack of robes, which sadly influenced fandom to such a degree that no one draws or write the characters wearing them any more. And I liked the hats!
Onwards to Order of the Phoenix!
no subject
Date: 2014-04-14 03:52 pm (UTC)One thing I've been actively trying to do is erase the impressions I have from the films.
And that is so hard, isn't it? I've rewatched The Lord of the Rings films and afterwards reread certain passages from the Two Towers to find that I had forgotten how much had been changed for the film. Images stay for so much longer than what one has read, unfortunately.
no subject
Date: 2014-04-14 05:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-04-23 04:04 pm (UTC)Mmh yes that would be helpful. I like that AO3 has the option to separate canon like that by having categories for the book canon and film canon of various fandoms. And sometimes even a mishmash-canon option.
It's more like that in the LotR fandom, isn't it?
I'm not sure... I am not very very active in the fandom atm. But since there's so much material that hasn't been filmed (e.g. The Silmarillion), people at least usually clearly mark which canon they refer to in their art and fic.