Author: Jabberwocky
*Warning - HP6 Spoilers*
To sum up the latest adventure in the series in one sentence from a long-time fan: good, well-prepared and endlessly speculated on drama, some of which was foreseeable, some of which was surprising. Rowling is tying up lose ends like mad now, and there's no denying that Harry Potter & The Half-Blood Prince is 600+ pages of the purest geek porn so thoroughly unfit for first-time readers and so inevitably destined to send fans and fan fiction writers into a theorizing/shipping/tale-spinning frenzy that one is likely to need the electronic equivalent of a Muffliato-spell to block out the constant chatter that is soon to start.
Some thoughts that went through my head while reading:
* After catching my first glimpse of the first chapter's title, I thought Fudge had been assassinated by Death Eaters during the summer holidays and replaced by one of Voldemort's cronies. Many had suspected Amelia Bones would be the one to succeed him but I was skeptical and, in the end, right.
* I'm always very suspicious about Rowling dropping clues on her website or releasing chapter titles or even short paragraphs, and when the description of Scrimgeour didn't prove to be what was generally agreed upon would be the Half-Blood Prince's appearance I was once again confirmed in my assumption that she is quite capable of playing her fans' expectations like a devil's harp to push the mystique (and ultimately the sales) of her books.
* I was quite convinced from the start that Dumbledore had somehow stolen Slytherin's ring and hurt himself in the process. The nature of the ring I couldn't guess at that time, of course.
* Horace Slughorn. My initial guess was that not unlike Moody he was attacked and that somehow some kind of treachery had to surround him. (Except Rowling wouldn't use exactly the same trick twice.) Slughorn is still there, however, and who knows how he'll get tangled up in future adventures? For now, I like the guy. A manipulative but not altogether despicable Slytherin. A nice change.
* Bill Weasley and Fleur Delacour - ahem, first big geek porn alert and not quite as funny -to my mind- as Rowling may have intended - but what the heck.
* Draco's Detour. The plot starts to thicken. After the slightly disappointing Order of the Phoenix - angst and quarreling galore, little real development, most of the plot being a huge red herring and foreseeable revelations - Rowling promises to take the series back to what makes it enticing. Meticulously plotted threads intertwining to form a whole. Since Half-Blood Prince was said to contain much which originally was to be revealed in Chamber of Secrets (my favourite, yes, I'm one of those guys), my hopes for a similarly entertaining detective story were up.
* Snape finally gets the DADA job. Well, Rowling pulled one over us all. Who didn't expect Slughorn would scoop that job after Rowling assured us so many times Dumbledore had his reasons for keeping it from Snape? I know countless fans still harbour that fascination for the character but regardless of what he turns out to be in the end, I say the guy stinks as I've always done. There will be no flattering/sappily romantic/gothic/heroic depictions of him from my pencil. Period.
* Dumbledore's private lessons are probably the parts of the book I enjoyed most. Revelation, drama, pieces falling into place. The slightly degenerate wizarding hillbilly family Riddle should make for an interesting illustration.
* We then get to the part that should send the shipper community into orgiastic reveries. Going out, splitting up, bickering, quarreling, that tiny voice in my head piping up, 'Oh please!' several times - but OK, I'll play along. Rowling did get me hooked again.
* The plot thickens further. Rowling is laying on the revelations, raising of questions and possible dead ends a bit thick, maybe. But if reading Sherlock Holmes has taught me one thing, it's to never jump to conclusions. It's all about definite data and that, quite honestly, tends to be scarce in Harry Potter books.
* A Very Frosty Christmas to not let us forget that the Ministry is still out there, followed by more interesting revelations about Voldemort's past and a lot of speculation on the protagonists' part as to what everyone might be up to. Is Rowling leading us on the road to another major red herring again? Nah, not after the last book. Or is she?
* Horcruxes. Finally a bit of definite data, and very interesting. Granted, the element of parting with parts of oneself to attain immortality is quite common in literature. Barry Hughart wonderfully used it in his novel 'The Bridge Of Birds' (which I hereby recommend to everyone, it's hilarious and beautiful!). More classic examples are tales like The Heartless Giant, for example. I can't help one suspicion, though: I expect Dumbledore is wrong about at least one Horcrux. He said himself that on the night Voldemort attacked Harry, Voldemort poured parts of himself into Harry. Did Harry become a Horcrux himself without either him or Voldemort realizing? Wouldn't bode well for a happy ending of the series. Still, the seventh part of Voldemort's soul residing in his body has to be destroyed last, so ... hum ...
* The finale. We knew it would come to this. One of the most beloved mentor figures in modern fiction is dead. Yoda, Gandalf, Dumbledore - they all die some kind of death. It moved me far more than Sirius Black's death whom I never really liked as a character anyway, but it somehow felt as though Rowling had tired herself out on Sirius in terms of drastic emotional outbreaks from the characters. I think what touched me most was the appearance of Dumbledore's portrait in what is now Minerva McGonagall's office. Remember Joseph Campbell's work on myths and storytelling, though: Death is never the limit of human experience.
On a related note, the fact that Rowling included tarot symbolism (the lightning-struck tower) as such plain imagery in her story makes me strongly suspect she has read Campbell's works. Many tarot symbols depict stereotypical characters and situations from myths and legends and found their way into modern storytelling. The destruction of the hero's haven toward the end of the adventure is one of those symbols. Dumbledore's funeral was OK, but more impressive in symbolic gestures than in words. Harry telling Ginny there and then they can't be lovers - uh, someone's been watching Spider-Man ...
I'm quite unconvinced Harry won't set foot in Hogwarts again. However, we're nearing the final confrontation. Snape is too important a character to be all evil, and his murdering Dumbledore may be one of the desperate measures helping to eventually serve the greater good. I still don't like him; well, I suppose even though many Snape-lovers will console themselves with the thought of him serving higher interests, what he did should destroy some of the more romantic notions about him.
The message from the false Horcrux? Very vague and very suspicious, maybe the one riddle Rowling saw fit to introduce and leave unresolved before the last book. My guess is that the use of a time-turner has to do with it. Well, we'll undoubtedly see in the next book. Draco is still on the verge of making his decision toward good or evil. I wouldn't be surprised at all if he turned in the very last moment and become the one Hogwarts student who will later be a Hogwarts teacher. That school needs a Snape after all (-I still do strongly believe the real one won't survive in the end-), and -
Muffliato!
Posted by Madmaxime at July 19, 2005 06:50 AM