Jul 26, 2005 06:12 PM
1203 Views
(Updated Jul 26, 2005 06:26 PM)
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When and where? During my first stay abroad, at one of the world’s oldest universities. With a limited scholarship amount of 650 pounds pm, there was not much to shop in Sainsburys’. But how can I miss the opportunity to go around in the big supermarket and examine the strange commodities and stranger magazines displayed. In one of those travels, I met with a thing labeled “Chocolate Frog”, which was like a frog flattened by a truck. I learnt the “sweet” as a hot commodity among the UK children after the novel happened called Harry Potter.
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Time and place have changed a lot after that. I completed my course at Cam and came to Europe for doctoral studies to deal with more serious subjects and personalities. Though seems childish, I completed all five HP novels and was eagerly waiting for the 6th one.. Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. Parsimonious, though, I made no reluctance to pay Euro 20 for amazon.com and made sure my Half Blood Prince copy.
I got it on Monday, the 18th at 1.32pm and kept it back by 4.36am on 19th. My eyes were sore and stomach was loud with hunger, as I didn’t cook anything. My feelings? It was not exhilarating or utterly disappointed.. The feeling of consuming a whole packet of Every Flavored Beans at one gulp!
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Harry and friends deal with the universal problems of teenage in addition to those caused by the villain lot of You-Know-Who.. (This name is the sweetest thing happened in Rowling’s world.. and I simply refuse to call him Voldemort). Life follows the familiar pattern (Quidditch, Romance, Detentions, Fight, a new DADA teacher etc etc.) for a Potteranian in the Half Blood Prince, and no big surprise awaits you till the last chapters… except those “few” Kisses! (For that, Kudos to Ron, Ginny and Harry and my dear Lavender). And the climax even is filled more with emotion than motion. The biggest revelation made in form of Horcuxes was not so moving for one reading HP part IV and V - amongst the lines.
Thanks to the spoilers (my friend made an ISD from India to tell who is dying at the end.. He was late, I got it from mugglenet.com), the impression the climax made was not of shock, but of compassion. The dialogues (and pauses between) are delivered straight from the heart.
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Am I upset? Not really, as Rowling magic is such that even she describes each day of Harry as a book, it will be less boring.. for the Midas touch she has to mix humor (which could be light or dark) and suspense in the background of pure fantasy. The emotion takes the front seat here, in contrast to the action-packed Globlet or Order. The laces are well knit to make the reader the trauma that Harry faces at the end. There are very few books made in the literary world like HP that can be read at a stretch with out compulsion.
Complaints rest with me... When Harry was growing as the perfect gentle-wizard of Hogwards, his best mates suffer. The character of Ron is turned to be half-baked (he behaves as a clown if not dumb and deteriorated to a Won-Won) and Hermione is irritating at times. On the other hand, Ginny is showing finest shades of a strong woman, to make us feel that she is made for Harry. Still the development of their affair seems unrealistic and un-Rowli-stic.
My personal loss... It was Snape. The Potter book contains characters mostly of three kinds – Good (Off course, Harry, Ron, Herm… to Dumbledore), Kool (Fred and George, Sirius Black, James Potter..) and Bad (You-know-who, his followers and Ministry fellows at different degrees). One exception was Snape. He was human to the core, with dark sides, still standing with goodness. Half Blood Prince painted him to one of these three categories. Hope the role reversal will occur in the next part of Harry.
I have another doubt.. Is it a book meant for kids? Drugs, sex and abuses.. Think of a mother reading out Half Blood Price to her nine year old son/daughter and how she is going to tell the Lav-Lav and Won-Won! Though it was funny!!
And my favorite character? None other than lovely LUNA LOVEGOOD!!
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Oh.. We have to wait so much for HP – VII! Why don't you post a comment for the timebeing?
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