Harry Potter (spoilers cut-tagged)

[neadods]

I have boggled one of my co-worker's minds by telling him the simple truth - I went to a midnight madness party (heavy on the midnight but mercifully low on the madness) and read the entire book the next day. Hey, I'm a fast reader, and it's not a difficult read, y'know?

Also - props for Barnes and Noble. I've been hearing horror stories about Borders, to the point that I'm wondering if their management had a "101 ways to hose our customers" meeting before Friday night. On the other hand, Barnes and Noble were marvels of efficiency. Go in, check in, get a wristband per book (different colors for preorders and walkins, but they had so many that they sold to all comers.) Get option of a giveaway pack or elements thereof. I arrived at 9:45 and the line - one single one - had started. For those who couldn't sit still, there were readings and a wand-making table and stuff like that. By an hour to showtime the line quietly snaked through the building; nobody was outside in the steaming heat. They did PA announcements every 10 minutes until they coaxed us all to shout "10 - 9 - 8 - 7..." and exactly at midnight they started the line. There were 5 sellers and 1 guy directing traffic; I was around 20th in line and walked out the door about 10 minutes later.

No insanity, no hysteria, no wailing kids, and to the best of my knowledge, no one turned away. And we only paid $17.99 regardless of when (or if) you ordered it.

My only comment - it's gonna be awful hard for Alan Rickman to make THAT sexy!

Okay, two comments. Anyone else get "All You Need is Love" stuck in their head towards the end?

And now a whole bunch o' links for the interested. metaquotes is having wank because someone posted a comment and someone else wanted a warning on the LJ cut text. Not warning of spoilers, because it isn't, really, but warning that the comment was offensive to fans of their particular 'ship.

I thought it was just one person who was taking their ship a little too seriously, but noooooo H/Hr fans seem to be completely losing their minds. When [JKR] saw that there were readers out there who were in love with the idea of H/Hr, instead of going ahead and being honest with the readers she willfully mislead H/Hr shippers by writing in H/Hr clues, writing Hermione as the lead girl in the series, the one most important to Harry for the sole purpose of fueling shipping wars, which she admitted to enjoying. This is fucking sick in my opinion. She purposefully played with the hearts of so many loyal readers, INTENDING to hurt them with book six. She strung us along for YEARS intending to hurt us and I deeply resent her doing that.

Damn those authors with their own opinions on how to envision their universe! She's spent six books building assorted mysteries to work towards a final conflict, how DARE she get her sick jollies via red herrings!! It's not like any other adolescent in the universe has ever changed his mind about who he's sweet on!!! Best buddies MUST be fuckbuddies, it's a law of writing, just like "i before e except after c!"!!!! It's not about the death and darkness and the challenge, it's all about the SHIP, damnit!!!!!

ETA Good golly, it just gets more insane. A "fellow author" (who admits in her letter that she "hopes to be publised one day") gives JK writing advice in the "this is what you're doing wrong" sense and then calls her a traitor to women. If only I had listened when my children’s literature lecturer at university told me in no uncertain terms that it was a conservative, traditional and patriarchal story that lacked originality and depth. If only I had listened to the critics who argued that, despite its popularity, it was poorly written. I did not know what they meant. [snip] As far as the role of women in literature, you have done inestimable damage. You had absolutely nothing new to say about the world - not in regards to the role of women in society or the way in which the sexes relate nor in terms of how one fights the devil inside. But for all of that, I want to thank you for providing me with several years good reading. I did truly enjoy the series up until now. While, in my opinion, your grasp of the craft is poor, your talent as a storyteller is considerable.

Good golly Miss Molly. Pretentious much? (I am dying to - but so far refraining from - asking her how she would react to getting letters exactly like this if she's ever published.)

On a much more serious note, garlandgraves has some really thoughtful things to say about this book regarding what we think vs what might be true, and digs up some hints in the past books regarding #7.

And tchwrtr has has a writer's view of the whole thing: "There's a typo on page 10."

Comments

[ancarett]

Damn those authors with their own opinions on how to envision their universe! She's spent six books building assorted mysteries to work towards a final conflict, how DARE she get her sick jollies via red herrings!! It's not like any other adolescent in the universe has ever changed his mind about who he's sweet on!!! Best buddies MUST be fuckbuddies, it's a law of writing, just like "i before e except after c!"!!!! It's not about the death and darkness and the challenge, it's all about the SHIP, damnit!!!!!

Word!

(Found you via FoF and had to say: you win "best mock of the week" award for your lovely, skewering commentary above.)

[neadods.livejournal.com]

Thank you kindly!