discussdeathlyhallows

Harry Potter encyclopedia

2007-07-26T12:06:00.000-07:00

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19959323/

Nymeth says:

How do you feel about being given information not through the book,
but through an interview with the author? What kind of book do you
think Rowling will write after Harry Potter? What are your
expectations? Do you look forward to the Potter Encyclopaedia? What
kind of information do you hope she will include? And do you think
this will be the very last Harry Potter book, or do you expect her to
give in at some point and write more books? How would you react if she
did?

Petunia

2007-07-24T08:57:00.000-07:00

Susan Helene Gottfried said...

Let's give Petunia her own thread.

Susan was responding to my speculation about how Petunia turned out the way she did. Was it Vernon's influence? Did her envy of Lily going to Hogwarts (which was bad enough that she wrote asking to be allowed to attend) get to her?

And what about how the book portrays Petunia as being as nasty as Vernon (or almost?) but the movies portray her as much more passive?

How Good Was Snape?

2007-07-23T14:53:00.000-07:00

Nymeth says:

Speaking of Snape, I saw someone asking this in a discussion forum and I thought it might be fun to have a post in which we discussed it: how "good" was Snape? He only had a change of heart when someone he loved, Lily, was threatened. Would he have cheerfully continued to be a Death Eater if Voldermort had gone after the Longbottoms instead?

emailed topic from Thryn

2007-07-23T14:12:00.000-07:00

Hey Dewey,
Even though it isn't as analytical, I think it would be fun to share
some of the parts of the book we thought were the funniest. There
were two parts in the book that made me laugh out loud (I usually
don't show outward emotion much when I read). I can't remember the
second, but it might have been Ron's sarcastic comment about them
having a store of Basilisk fangs when discussing how to destroy
horcruxes. A lot of Ron's comments made me laugh in my head a lot.
But the first part that made me laugh out loud was in the beginning,
after all of the decoys had turned into duplicate Harrys, Harry sees
the Fleur-Harry look up at Bill and it reads something like "with an
expression he hoped with all his heart he would never see on his face
again." The mental image of Fleur as Harry looking lovingly up at
Bill and his thought at seeing it made me laugh so hard.

Anyway, that's one idea for a thread. Might be fun to see what made
others laugh.

Thanks for making the discussion blog :)

Thryn

discuss Deathly Hallows

2007-07-23T11:02:00.000-07:00

Hi Everyone,

I made this blog so that we'd have a place to talk about Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows while keeping our own blogs spoiler-free.

I don't normally use blogger other than when I post to group challenge blogs, so I have no idea how to make a password that I can give to other people who want to start different threads. If someone knows how, email me please! dew pie at gmail dot com. Otherwise you can email (or just use the comments) and ask me to start specific threads.

The first thread I want to start is this: Rowling's messages.

I think that Rowling was making some very strong statements in this book.

Examples:

1. By not mentioning what any of the most central characters did as jobs at the end (she only mentioned Neville's job and vaguely hinted at Percy's) but only showing who had married whom and what they named their kids, etc., I think she was making a statement that love and family are what really matters.

2. I also think that by letting some beloved characters die, she was really putting forth a message that war is not just a romantic adventure but will result in devastation and life-long grief and/or disabilities for survivors. I think this is something that today's kids desperately need to hear. I only wish she had focused more on George at the end. How did he live with the loss of his twin and his ear? I would have liked some more concrete demonstration of the effects of war on survivors, but then again, could kids have handled more than just the hint?

Does anyone have any other examples of themes/messages, or want to comment on what I brought up?