Who is the Half-Blood Prince...?

Birdie · Post by **Birdie** » Sun Jul 24, 2005 7:49 am

Mr.Bob wrote:Hey, it's not like I'm too happy about it either!

I was always more of a Harry/Draco shipper.

You'll never know what to expect in book 7

Christwriter · Post by **Christwriter** » Sun Jul 24, 2005 9:43 am

supernerdcore wrote:
christwriter wrote:True, but I credit that less to her ability and more to "right time, right place" syndrome.

In my albeit limited experiance, nobody who becomes a bestseller gets there by their skill. It's more like they get there by accident, the way some people start avalanches.
Right place and right time for what? It's not like books are the new pink right now. We have one author here who has created an amazing demand for her books. Books in general do alright, but if you think reading Harry Potter is nothing more than a trend in literature than you are sadly mistaken.

Right place and right time to hit that wave of potental fans and coast on it.

It's not a disparagement of Rowling. It's the way I understand the industry to work. It's an industry and Rowling hit it at just the right time for her work to sell. She didn't create a demand for her books, she filled a demand with her books. Good, interesting children's lit, which is what the first three books, and maybe book number four, are. It means that a publisher saw the demand, saw her, did the math and picked her up. That's how it works. That's how Terry Brooks got published. His work hit the desk of Lester Del Ray right about the time Del Ray was considering that maybe, maybe there was a market for fantasy works that weren't Tolkien. He's not a great writer. He's a good writer. I'd put his work on a par with Rowling's first three. Rowling is not a great writer. With the exception of the last two books, she's a good one. Add in the last two and it dilutes down to "OK".

She's become the poster-child for reading. Fine. GREAT for her, and for me, because that means that maybe the next generation will pick up my books and read them. But the way she exploded on the scene doesn't tell me she's great. It tells me she hit the market at the right time, with the right book and the right publisher, to start a hystarical love for her books. Nothing bad about that. Writers dream about it. The alternative is the long, hard slog through book signings, advertising, publicity drives, book clubs, the slowly growing trickle of fans and royalties and publishing a book regular as clockwork.

CW

Rock_dash · Post by **Rock_dash** » Tue Jul 26, 2005 12:38 am

Okay, I just finished it, and I wanna put in my two cents.

#1: Okay, did Ron and Hermione's fight over the snogging annoy the crap out of anyone else? It seemed like that went on for way too long. While they were having thier stupid little fight, maybe they could have been doing something interesting.

#2: The Ginny and Harry pairing annoyed me, mostly because I still imagine Ginny as a little girl for some bizzare reason.

#3: The Half-Blood Prince thing seems kind of lame to me. Pointless, really. It's almost like Rowling had something grand and magnificent planned for it, and then when she realized she was almost at the end of the story, decided, "Oh, what the fuck...Snape's the prince. There, that's taken care of."

The book left me wondering if there really won't be a Hogwarts next year.
It would be interesting to see Harry, Ron, and Hermione actually exploring the wizarding world outside Hogwarts for a change

Pylon · Post by **Pylon** » Tue Jul 26, 2005 1:40 am

Rock dash,I agree on #1 and 2.

#3, I would place also as annoying, since

She introduced it so early, and then it stagnated! I spent most of the book wondering who the hell the Half Blood Prince was, and then at the end it was "Oh yeah, that... um.... It was Snape! Because!" It was annoying how useless it was overall. I hated being led on, believeing it was somehow important when it really wasn't.
I also like how dumbledore's private lessons were more like sherlock holmes on Voldemort. "I, Albus Dumbledore, supreme wizard of ages, will teach you, Harry Potter, all I know! Which is , let's play Clue!"

Grabmygoblin · Post by **Grabmygoblin** » Tue Jul 26, 2005 7:32 am

I just read the book yesterday, and then came here and read the thread.
well except the tiny parts.
really there is no need to type all tiny. except that it's really fun pretending to be all superspy-like ^_-

Spoilers

...I thought Tonks was gay.

I saw if-you've-read-the-book-you'd-know's death way far off.

CJBurgandy · Post by **CJBurgandy** » Tue Jul 26, 2005 7:35 am

actually that didn't annoy me and here is why:

I think she orginally wanted the main focus of this story to be Snape. Is he good, is he bad....that sort of thing, but at the same time, it would have given away the fact that snape was a focal part if she called the book, Harry Potter and the old Potions Master, or Harry Potter and the new DADA teacher... or even Harry Potter and the Greasy Guy Allan Rickman plays on the movies. That or it would have given those slash writers new fuel *shudder* So I can see why she titled the book the way she did... it was kind of anti-climatic the way you find out it's him, but I don't think it was %100 pointless either.

Mvmarcz · Post by **Mvmarcz** » Tue Jul 26, 2005 8:10 am

cjburgandy wrote:actually that didn't annoy me and here is why:

I think she orginally wanted the main focus of this story to be Snape. Is he good, is he bad....that sort of thing, but at the same time, it would have given away the fact that snape was a focal part if she called the book, Harry Potter and the old Potions Master, or Harry Potter and the new DADA teacher... or even Harry Potter and the Greasy Guy Allan Rickman plays on the movies. That or it would have given those slash writers new fuel *shudder* So I can see why she titled the book the way she did... it was kind of anti-climatic the way you find out it's him, but I don't think it was %100 pointless either.

I love your alternate book titles

Mr.Bob · Post by **Mr.Bob** » Tue Jul 26, 2005 6:35 pm

Harry potter and the Sniveling Sniffles of Snivellus Snape!

Dr Legostar · Post by **Dr Legostar** » Tue Jul 26, 2005 7:11 pm

Honestly the complaint about all the lovey stuff doesn't bother me that much. First of all, they're teenagers, they think about this kind of thing, it's a big part of their lives, no matter what else is going on, it's hormones, wizard or not, it happens. Second, Dumbledore keeps going on and on, for all of the books now, about how love is the most powerful magic, it's a theme, it's an overt, very overt, theme, but it'd be appropriate that people would be coupling and finding love etc etc.

::starts singing "all you need is love"::

MariaAndMichelle · Post by **MariaAndMichelle** » Wed Jul 27, 2005 9:44 am

But Lupin and Tonks aren't teenagers!

Even if it weren't for the fact that Remus is obviously gay and totally in love with Sirius (:P

), the relationship 'twixt those two would still piss us off.

Mr.Bob wrote:Harry potter and the Sniveling Sniffles of Snivellus Snape!

Dr Legostar · Post by **Dr Legostar** » Wed Jul 27, 2005 1:22 pm

MariaAndMichelle wrote: But Lupin and Tonks aren't teenagers!

I'm told that people out of their teens are capable of falling in love also, I have no experienced this is my many lonely twenty somethings but I'm told, so.. you know, it might be true. And they were the only non teenage couple.. it's not like McGonagal got together with Flitwick... or something of that sort in addition to everything else. Besides, situations of high stress and close contact tend to bring people together.

Mr.Bob · Post by **Mr.Bob** » Wed Jul 27, 2005 1:47 pm

Besides, the amount of off-stage time shared between Lupin and Tonks is huge. The books are set to Harry's point of view so we have very little information regarding the history of their realtionship (not to mention the lurid details of all the hanky-panky contained therein).

MariaAndMichelle · Post by **MariaAndMichelle** » Wed Jul 27, 2005 2:25 pm

Bah on you and your logic!

Dr Legostar · Post by **Dr Legostar** » Wed Jul 27, 2005 2:32 pm

MariaAndMichelle wrote: Even if it weren't for the fact that Remus is obviously gay and totally in love with Sirius (:P ), the relationship 'twixt those two would still piss us off.

Oh and I meant to say this earlier but I forgot. You two always have these silly notions about two guys having to be together.. seriously... it's so very obvious Snape and Sirius had the unrequited love and now with Sirius gone Snape has nothing to live for so he turns back to the Dark Lord. Did you miss all the sexual tension in book 5? Sheesh.. women...

BrownEyedCat · Post by **BrownEyedCat** » Wed Jul 27, 2005 2:37 pm

Bob: The logical forumite.

Something about this just doesn't work . . .

ManyWorlds · Post by **ManyWorlds** » Wed Jul 27, 2005 5:51 pm

SnapexSirius... Allan Rickman and Gary Oldman...
DEAR GOD, GET THE IMAGES OUT OF MY HEAD!!!

Joel Fagin · Post by **Joel Fagin** » Wed Jul 27, 2005 6:30 pm

Read it. Good stuff. I must say that the identity of the Half-Blood Prince was pretty obvious, though. I was expecting something more devious.

Oh, and...

There's every chance Dumbledore's alive. It would be bad storytelling but Rowling spent the whole book introducing silent spells. What Severus said and what came out of his wand may be two different things.

- Joel Fagin

Mr.Bob · Post by **Mr.Bob** » Wed Jul 27, 2005 6:50 pm

Joel Fagin wrote:Read it. Good stuff. I must say that the identity of the Half-Blood Prince was pretty obvious, though. I was expecting something more devious.

Oh, and...

There's every chance Dumbledore's alive. It would be bad storytelling but Rowling spent the whole book introducing silent spells. What Severus said and what came out of his wand may be two different things.

- Joel Fagin

OR MAYBE THAT'S WHAT SHE WANTS US TO THINK

Dr Legostar · Post by **Dr Legostar** » Wed Jul 27, 2005 6:58 pm

Joel Fagin wrote:Read it. Good stuff. I must say that the identity of the Half-Blood Prince was pretty obvious, though. I was expecting something more devious.

Oh, and...

There's every chance Dumbledore's alive. It would be bad storytelling but Rowling spent the whole book introducing silent spells. What Severus said and what came out of his wand may be two different things.

- Joel Fagin

That is frankly the only way I would accept that as a twist... and even then it's a bit dodgy.

Mr.Bob · Post by **Mr.Bob** » Wed Jul 27, 2005 7:21 pm

You're forgetting the polyjuice thoery!