Outside of a Dog: Rowling, J.K.: (06) Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Trent Goulding

Trent Goulding wrote on July 22, 2005 at 9:38 PM:

[reposted to correct entry]

Trent Goulding wrote: I enjoyed it a lot, more than Phoenix, although I didn’t dislike Phoenix (or think it entirely analogous to Teckla, which is more a comment on how much I dislike Teckla than anything, I suppose). The worst parts of Phoenix were the Harry-being-pissy parts, which granted, were an awful lot of parts…anyhoo, moving on…

I’m gratified to see that commentary that I’ve read is pretty much in accord with the broad outlines of what I think happened at the climax on the rooftop, and that the actions of the HBP have to be seen in a different context than what seems to have happened on the surface.

I think one of the most important themes of this work is that to the extent that Harry is extraordinary – taking Dumbledore’s word for it, in addition to whatever evidence the story presents us – he’s extraordinary very much not because he’s ultra-bright, or a great wizard. He’s clearly not either of those…something that was even more clear in this book, since we see examples of those that are. Dumbledore, for instance, does things that are leaps beyond where Harry can imagine. No fair comparison, because he’s old and experienced? How about the HBP himself, inventing his own advanced spells and working out better potions methods, all presumably while still a student at Hogwarts. What makes Harry extraordinary? His character? His character in light of his history and upbringing? Interesting questions.

Kate

Kate wrote on July 22, 2005 at 9:40 PM:

Trent, the two dashes turning into deletes is some weird quirk of the new auto-formatting module. Real Soon Now I’ll be switching this over to Movable Type and that problem should go away.

Elaine

Elaine wrote on July 23, 2005 at 6:32 PM:

I had lost interest in the series while reading Phoenix, but have decided to give Half-Blood Prince a go after reading your review. I am glad to hear it is shorter: I thought Phoenix to drastically overlong for the story it told.

Kate

Kate wrote on July 23, 2005 at 8:04 PM:

Elaine, there’s still some life-at-Hogwarts stuff, but I thought this one considerably tighter. As I said, still not as tight as it could be in places, but definitely a more satisfying read for me.

Mike Kozlowski

Mike Kozlowski wrote on July 28, 2005 at 10:59 PM:

Trent: Harry is special because he’s got his name in the title, plus a prophecy. Title + Prophecy = Hero.

Really, though, somebody should re-write these books from Hermione’s point of view, because it’s pretty clear from the first book onward that she’s done more against evil than Potter.