notes and observations on HP #2

[salixbabylon]

I don't have very much to say about this book. It's always been my least favorite...



Things I Noted On This Reading

1) Reading it again, I see that Book #2 isn't a bad book, it's just the least-interesting, to me. Like OotP, it's very much a bridge-book, IMO. Despite plot points like the intro to Tom Riddle, it just doesn't grab me.

2) Draco = totally evil! (Is it wrong that I think that's cute?) But yes, even for someone just repeating Daddy's racist hatred, he's still an evil little boy, saying he hopes other students will die.

3) I do love some of the little asides in this book - things like the mandrakes hitting puberty and the Valentine's Day song where Harry's eyes are the color of fresh pickled toads. Hee!

4) Hermione is unusually assertive/pushy about the polyjuice potion and general resolution of the mystery. I don't think it fits with her character in the rest of the books, but it's certainly interesting.

5) Once again it's been weird to me to notice how different the pacing/emphasis is in the books versus the movies. The battle with the basilisk is barely over 1 page in the book! Likewise the spider-chase.

Mistakes/Loopholes/WTF Questions

1) I only had one as I was reading, which was "how the bloody fuck does Tom Riddle in a 50-year-old diary know about Harry Potter?" But Tom answered that question in the chamber, so nevermind.

Either I really fell down on the job of trying to read this one critically at all, or there's just not much there. What do you think?

Again - offer your own observations, comment on mine, answer my questions, argue, discuss, debate with each other!



Book #3 = werewolf love! Whoohooohoooo! :)

Comments

[telesilla.livejournal.com]

Really the best thing about this one was that the movie introduced a whole bunch of us to the sexiness that is one Jason Isaacs. Seeing as the sexiness that is Jason Isaacs was more than a little responsible for my current relationship, I'm inclined to forgive the book/movie for being kind of...well not all that engaging.

Also? I frekain' hate Dobby.

[salixbabylon.livejournal.com]

Hehehe! He does make an impression of sexyevilness, that's for sure. :)

Dobby in the books struck me as a lot less racist than Dobby in the movies, at least on this reading. But yes, he's a poorly constructed character anyway, IMO.

[londinensa.livejournal.com]

Oooh, you've been rereading the books too? Yay!

Not that I'm going to get my hands on the new book for a while *sigh* I think my Pooter overdose is having an unfortunate effect though because today with the Police & whathername (new Home Secretary) going on about the need for vigilance all I could hear was Moody shouting "Constant Vigillance"!

*cough* yeah, I'll go hide now...

[salixbabylon.livejournal.com]

Hehehehe! My husband and I shout "Constant Vigilance!" at each other all the time.

It's so nice t be surrounded by other geeks. ;)

[zooniverse.livejournal.com]

I rather dangerously re read the books, then read a load of fanfic, then watched the films, then read a load more fanfic to tide me over till 21st. this made canon and fanon go mad ion my brain so now i'm having to re read them AGAIN to sort it out and i finished COS yesterday.

I definitely agree about the basilisk battle, I'd gotten the book and movie melded in my mind, but i remember reading the book the first time my heart was pounding through the whole chamber of secrets section, such is the sense of foreboding that builds throughout the books, which isn't int he films. I think if that sequence was longer in the books it would be far too stressful, wheras the build up isn't quite as frightening in the film, so they can get away with more of the BIG scary.

I think Hermione in book two is so assertive as she's a) gotten a taste for their investigations after book one and b) she thinks it's Malfoy, who is already targeting her personally, so I think there's a sense there that it's not just trying to catch him out, it's partly self preservation as well.

And Draco is all mouth and no trousers! I think that now he knows what it all really means after what happened in HBP he may mellow a little, or try and pull out of the whole death eating nonsense.

I see book one and two as backstory, really, with book two adding an extra but ultimately non related to the overal arc (unless you count the planting of the Diary as a clue to the Horcruxes). I also noticed a lot of clues to things that happen later in this time around that i'd not even registered on my previous re-reading, such as peeves smashing the vanishing cabinet that Fred and George stuff the slytherin in in book five so Draco knows to use it in book six...

[salixbabylon.livejournal.com]

Hehehe! That confusion about "oh wait, is that canon?" was exactly why I decided to give the books a re-read and try to cut back on fanfic until after the next book.

those are good points about Hermione's assertiveness. I guess I hadn't considered how much Malfoy's specific hatred of her would spur her on to doing just about anything to see if he was the Heir of Slytherin.

I noted the vanishing cabinets, too - despite the fact that there's not much in this book, there are a few small throw-aways. It's kind of fun to rediscover them. :)

Thanks for discussing!

[imogenelovelace.livejournal.com]

1) Yeah, they didn't start getting really good until book 3. I read book 1 when it first came out, thought, 'it's cute but it's just a kid's book,' and didn't bother with the other ones until after book 5 came out. Then my brother-in-law loaned them to me and I read all 4 in a mad HP-spree, and was amazed at how much more sophisticated they got as the kids got older.

2) Yes, he is. But kids this age have a impressive capacity to be truly horrible, so I can actually see the possibility that he grows up to be kind of a git but not totally evil. Book 6 is hinting at that, I think.

5) This happens in most book-> movie conversions, I think - movies rely much more heavily on action sequences. It annoyed me most in Goblet of Fire, where they cut out tons of interesting plot (house-elves, anyone?) but found time for an epic dragon-chase scene.

I had hoped, when reading these, to see lots of the little set-up details mentioned elsewhere in the comments, but I'm afraid that I'm missing a lot by getting caught up in the story. (Like, what vanishing cabinet?) Oh well, maybe I will not uncover all of JKR's little tricks after all.

[salixbabylon.livejournal.com]

Agreed - I got book 1 for am xmas present a few years after it was published, and when I said I liked it, my mom sent me books 2 and 3 right away. I'd assumed since they were so popular, they must suck. ;)

I maintain hope that Draco is snobbish and mean, but not actually evil. *g*

To be honest, I've read the books so many times that I don't think some of the bits of foreshadowing are really all that obscure. Sure, the mention of the vanishing cabinet at Borgin and Burkes, and one that Forge and Gred are messing around with is nice, but really not important. *shrug* There's always the essays at the Leaky Cauldron if you miss something!