HP Yet Again (Even More Epilogue Info, Yay!)
More good stuff, I just had to share! More on epilogue spoilers, what the last sentence was supposed to be, a good book 7 summary online and an amusing comparison summary of the whole series, and good articles too, can be found after the cut.
Here is a full transcript of that Dateline NBC interview last night with Rowling (which I didn't watch or know about; I was installing curtains in my house.) The very last page of the interview reveals what the last sentence was originally supposed to be. I agree with Rowling, that it was good of her to find a different ending sentence that was not vague, and tied up things rather than pose new questions. (Enough people were going "What the. . . ?" anyway, why make it worse?)
Also, a great transcript of an online chat Rowling had with about a bazillion of reader's questions. The ones that stuck out to me are posted below; if one strikes your fancy, click on the link and read the answer (somwehere; the article is lengthy after all. I could answer them here, but you really should read them in Rowling's own words.) But she still didn't answer who Draco marries, blast! I am doomed to never know!
• How Dumbledore knew when Harry was under the cloak
• who raised Teddy, and if he's part werewolf
• what Ron/Harry/Ginny/Kingsley/Hermione/Luna/Percy/George/Umbridge/Skeeter/Firenze did after book 7 (yes, Ginny gets a great job and Kingley stays Minister; 'Mione reunites with her parents, yay, and first works with Regulation of Magical Creatures which makes sense; but Luna/Neville or Luna/Dean shippers tehnically not accurate as canon from this revelation? Discuss.)
• what Dudley really saw when attacked by the dementors
• what the deathly hallows fable is based off of
• who actually killed Lupin and Tonks (poor tonks, to poetic and sad)
• why Snape's portrait not in the Headmaster's ofice (sob! He should be anyway!)
• what the Hufflepuff common room is like
• how George copes with losing Fred and what he names his son (awwww)
• what Dumbledore sees in the Mirror of Erised (sob!)
• that Rowling changed her mind about someone doing magic laer in life so it's not in the book (Petunia? Mrs. Figg? Filch? We will never know I guess.)
• how voldemort got his wand during exile
• how Regulus discovered the horcruxes and why he turned (poor Kreacher!)
• if Lily loved Snape back or could have (what might have been, huh? I desperately want to read this fanfic, if anyone can find good ones please direct me!)
• why Fawkes doesn't return
• if Dumbledore sleaks Parseltoungue
• who Voldemort murdered to make the horcruxes
• why exactly Snape went to the dark side, and would he do it again
• what it means to be a master of death
• Ron's true importance in the trio, and why he got the out-puter
• what happens to the Marauder's Map and the DA coins
• what Petunia was about to say to Harry in book 7 before she left
• the question no one ever asked, but that would have revealed too much if they had(ab. Dumbledore's wand)
• if Harry can continue to speak Parseltounge
• Dumbledore's boggart (sob again!)
• why muggles become witches/wizards (has to do w/ genes)
• If Minerva loved Albus (hee, I wondered that too)
• how others perceived the Snape/Lily relationship, esp. James
• a little about Scorpius and the Harry/Draco epilogue relationship
• where Sirius' motorbike ends up
• why Patronuses change/are affected by the person you are in love with (makes sense, but I hadn't really thought much about it)
• what the ugly baby thing at the station was! At last! Poor Voldie? Nah.
• if Krum finds love (heh)
• the symbolism of Hedwig's death and the King Cross Station
• love them being on chocolate cards in the future and Ron declaring that his finest hour; reminds me of Whodehouse proclaiming that his greatest accomplishments were being knighted and being in Madam Tussauds, hah)
• Snape being the only death eater with a Patronus (awwww), and how he concealed it
• Rowling discussing the senses of snakes (this is for Meliss, as you despise movie 2's explanation; is Rowling more correct?)
• other two alternatives for the book 7 title
• what Rowling's patronus and wand would be
• what happens to the dark mark after Voldy's death
• Bellatrix's true love (gah, I don't know if I could read the fanfics that will be spawned!)
• what muggle song, if any, would be played at Dumbledore's funeral (hah)
And more good things about the book and series keep popping up. If you need a brilliant summary of the whole book (with a running list of everyone who dies), check out the summary at The Book Spoiler (found via The Movie Spoiler, one of my fave sites.)
Aishuu linked to an interesting summary of the symbolism and meanings in HP. But the best part is in the comments; compare HP to Star Wars to LOTR, and apparently the stories are more similar than you would think, LOL.
Also a really interesting article about how fans are coping with no more books to look forward to and the deaths of beloved characters. Glad that it sounds like a lot of psychologists don't just dismiss that as "they're not real people, get over it," but acknowledge the grief of their patients as real.
And I also liked this article at the Slate, which supposes that Rowling was talking from her heart, about the HP series in particular or fantasy and folk/fairy tales in general, when she wrote these lines in Book 7 (and I am changing the meaning slightly, in brackets):
"That which [the critic] does not value, [the critic] takes no trouble to comprehend . . . Of house-elves and children's tales, of love, loyalty, and innocence, [the critic] knows and understands nothing. . . . That they all have a power beyond his own, a power beyond the reach of any magic, is a truth he has never grasped."
I don't mean critical reviewers, per se, what I really mean is those who are critical of fantasy literature in general, and scoff at it as not having real merit as "high literature." It wouldn't surprise me if Rowling's been stung by that at times, and this is, as the Slate suggests, her response. As I'm not a mind reader, I couldn't say if that's 100% true. But I will say that I've always felt that there are messages and lessons about life and love that you need a fictional story to really tell properly, and that the sweetness of fantasy helps the biterness of those lessons to go down a lot better than if you do a real-life, gritty drama or a long-winded op/ed sort of essay in which people are being lectured to. Not always, but quite a bit of the time. You don't mind the lesson in a story as much, because it is being told to you in such a beautiful, creative, and seductive way. HP may never be considered high literature, sadly, I am sure that it will become a household staple and re-read by generations of families, and that way of influencing hearts and minds is more powerful than almost any other form of expression, in my book. */soapbox rant, heh*
Okay, that's all for now. Hope you guys like all this stuff; it's a ton but it's made my day.
Here is a full transcript of that Dateline NBC interview last night with Rowling (which I didn't watch or know about; I was installing curtains in my house.) The very last page of the interview reveals what the last sentence was originally supposed to be. I agree with Rowling, that it was good of her to find a different ending sentence that was not vague, and tied up things rather than pose new questions. (Enough people were going "What the. . . ?" anyway, why make it worse?)
Also, a great transcript of an online chat Rowling had with about a bazillion of reader's questions. The ones that stuck out to me are posted below; if one strikes your fancy, click on the link and read the answer (somwehere; the article is lengthy after all. I could answer them here, but you really should read them in Rowling's own words.) But she still didn't answer who Draco marries, blast! I am doomed to never know!
• How Dumbledore knew when Harry was under the cloak
• who raised Teddy, and if he's part werewolf
• what Ron/Harry/Ginny/Kingsley/Hermione/Luna/Percy/George/Umbridge/Skeeter/Firenze did after book 7 (yes, Ginny gets a great job and Kingley stays Minister; 'Mione reunites with her parents, yay, and first works with Regulation of Magical Creatures which makes sense; but Luna/Neville or Luna/Dean shippers tehnically not accurate as canon from this revelation? Discuss.)
• what Dudley really saw when attacked by the dementors
• what the deathly hallows fable is based off of
• who actually killed Lupin and Tonks (poor tonks, to poetic and sad)
• why Snape's portrait not in the Headmaster's ofice (sob! He should be anyway!)
• what the Hufflepuff common room is like
• how George copes with losing Fred and what he names his son (awwww)
• what Dumbledore sees in the Mirror of Erised (sob!)
• that Rowling changed her mind about someone doing magic laer in life so it's not in the book (Petunia? Mrs. Figg? Filch? We will never know I guess.)
• how voldemort got his wand during exile
• how Regulus discovered the horcruxes and why he turned (poor Kreacher!)
• if Lily loved Snape back or could have (what might have been, huh? I desperately want to read this fanfic, if anyone can find good ones please direct me!)
• why Fawkes doesn't return
• if Dumbledore sleaks Parseltoungue
• who Voldemort murdered to make the horcruxes
• why exactly Snape went to the dark side, and would he do it again
• what it means to be a master of death
• Ron's true importance in the trio, and why he got the out-puter
• what happens to the Marauder's Map and the DA coins
• what Petunia was about to say to Harry in book 7 before she left
• the question no one ever asked, but that would have revealed too much if they had(ab. Dumbledore's wand)
• if Harry can continue to speak Parseltounge
• Dumbledore's boggart (sob again!)
• why muggles become witches/wizards (has to do w/ genes)
• If Minerva loved Albus (hee, I wondered that too)
• how others perceived the Snape/Lily relationship, esp. James
• a little about Scorpius and the Harry/Draco epilogue relationship
• where Sirius' motorbike ends up
• why Patronuses change/are affected by the person you are in love with (makes sense, but I hadn't really thought much about it)
• what the ugly baby thing at the station was! At last! Poor Voldie? Nah.
• if Krum finds love (heh)
• the symbolism of Hedwig's death and the King Cross Station
• love them being on chocolate cards in the future and Ron declaring that his finest hour; reminds me of Whodehouse proclaiming that his greatest accomplishments were being knighted and being in Madam Tussauds, hah)
• Snape being the only death eater with a Patronus (awwww), and how he concealed it
• Rowling discussing the senses of snakes (this is for Meliss, as you despise movie 2's explanation; is Rowling more correct?)
• other two alternatives for the book 7 title
• what Rowling's patronus and wand would be
• what happens to the dark mark after Voldy's death
• Bellatrix's true love (gah, I don't know if I could read the fanfics that will be spawned!)
• what muggle song, if any, would be played at Dumbledore's funeral (hah)
And more good things about the book and series keep popping up. If you need a brilliant summary of the whole book (with a running list of everyone who dies), check out the summary at The Book Spoiler (found via The Movie Spoiler, one of my fave sites.)
Aishuu linked to an interesting summary of the symbolism and meanings in HP. But the best part is in the comments; compare HP to Star Wars to LOTR, and apparently the stories are more similar than you would think, LOL.
Also a really interesting article about how fans are coping with no more books to look forward to and the deaths of beloved characters. Glad that it sounds like a lot of psychologists don't just dismiss that as "they're not real people, get over it," but acknowledge the grief of their patients as real.
And I also liked this article at the Slate, which supposes that Rowling was talking from her heart, about the HP series in particular or fantasy and folk/fairy tales in general, when she wrote these lines in Book 7 (and I am changing the meaning slightly, in brackets):
"That which [the critic] does not value, [the critic] takes no trouble to comprehend . . . Of house-elves and children's tales, of love, loyalty, and innocence, [the critic] knows and understands nothing. . . . That they all have a power beyond his own, a power beyond the reach of any magic, is a truth he has never grasped."
I don't mean critical reviewers, per se, what I really mean is those who are critical of fantasy literature in general, and scoff at it as not having real merit as "high literature." It wouldn't surprise me if Rowling's been stung by that at times, and this is, as the Slate suggests, her response. As I'm not a mind reader, I couldn't say if that's 100% true. But I will say that I've always felt that there are messages and lessons about life and love that you need a fictional story to really tell properly, and that the sweetness of fantasy helps the biterness of those lessons to go down a lot better than if you do a real-life, gritty drama or a long-winded op/ed sort of essay in which people are being lectured to. Not always, but quite a bit of the time. You don't mind the lesson in a story as much, because it is being told to you in such a beautiful, creative, and seductive way. HP may never be considered high literature, sadly, I am sure that it will become a household staple and re-read by generations of families, and that way of influencing hearts and minds is more powerful than almost any other form of expression, in my book. */soapbox rant, heh*
Okay, that's all for now. Hope you guys like all this stuff; it's a ton but it's made my day.