28 replies to this topic

[ami1436]

I just finally finished this book last night, and finally talked to my flatmate about it and read this thread - I agree on all accounts - Dumbledore's death didn't hit me, but I think part of that was how it was presented. He was less present and tied into this book than others I think. Also agree about Snape's ambiguity; I want to believe that he is a Good Guy and that Dumbledore was not wrong.

What do people think the significance of the number 7 is? Or is it 'just a number'?

[sandik]

What do people think the significance of the number 7 is?  Or is it 'just a number'?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

As far as I know, there are seven books because there are seven grades in the English public schools.

[ami1436]

Sorry for being unclear, I meant 7 as in the 7 parts of Voldemort's soul...

[GWTW]

7 is a mystical number in many cultures, I think - 7 days of creation according to the Judeo-Christian tradition, 7 days in the week, 7 heavenly spheres.
OTOH, there are so many mystical numbers...

[Gina Ness]

I just finished the book last night. I like the Potter books very much. I am, however, what you might call a Tolkien "freak". I have loved, read, and reread the trilogy since the late 60s. Rowlings draws from these books. Dumbledore and Gandalf are similar characters, and we all know what happened to Gandalf after his "death". He rose again from the dead to become the White Rider; he was the great master architect of the final overthrow of Sauron. Dumbledore plays the same role in relation to Voldemort. My guess is he will return in book seven...

[dirac]

Say hello to a new addition to the dinosaur family, Dracorex hogwartsia.

Victor Porter, the museum's vertebrate paleontologist, used dental tools to clean the pieces, then reassembled the skull. He also made casts of the skull that he sent to other paleontologists to confirm it actually was a new species.

Finally, to re-create the 10-foot-long herbivore as scientists believe it looked, he paired the skull with a pachycephalosaurus skeleton from another excavation. Young museum visitors said it looked like a dragon. Porter and Robert T. Bakker, a national dinosaur expert and consultant to The Children's Museum, factored that into its name.

[Gina Ness]

I just read this (didn't notice it in May)... Dracorex hogwartsia...:cool2: I am so looking forward to the next movie and final book...

[Brioche]

I just read books 5 & 6 back to back (finally!) and I miss the gang at Hogwarts very much. I may start with book 1 and work through again in anticipation of book 7.

I rarely read fiction, but HP has won me over.

[dirac]

Our esteemed Mel Johnson posted the following comments on the new Potter book in the What Are You Reading? thread, and I have copied the text here in case others would like to add comments or look at previous Harry Potter related postings:

What am I reading? Why, what millions of others worldwide are reading: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows! I've been following it from the first, initially to find out what there was in juvenile fiction that had attracted so much attention, and then I was hooked! I follow the "Potter Phenomenon" and have noticed that with the books' publishing dates, the story has progressed in very nearly real time, which appealed to a series readership. And I am favorably taken by Rowling's "inside references" to Tolkien, Lovecraft, Arthur Clarke and even a bit of Robert Heinlein. She passes her readers on to further challenges and joy of reading. I sincerely hope that she can translate her talent into writing stand-alone work. She has re-introduced reading for pleasure to a generation for whom this WAS an alien concept. Brava!

[carbro]

I haven't read any of these, nor seen the movies. I tend to buck pop culture tidal waves. But in all the media hoopla, and along the lines of Mel's observation, "the story has progressed in very nearly real time, which appealed to a series readership " local news broadcast a sharp observation from a girl, about age 16, as she stood on line for the midnight sales to start. She said she'd started reading the books with the first one, when she was a new reader, that each was a landmark along her road to maturity, and this final installment signals the end of her childhood.

So poignant.

[perky]

I just finished The Deathly Hallows last night. I read it rather fast, I couldn't stop myself! So I start rereading it again in a few days, this time slowly so as to savor everything. I think it's a fitting finale to an amazing literary series. I won't get into specific plot points (NO SPOILERS), however I have to say, Voldemort flying without a broom seriously creeped me out!! It just seemed so him, unnatural and spooky as hell. My mouth also opened during the final battle when Molly Weasley called Bellatrix a b......! and then proceeded to fight a mother of duel with her. It seemed appropriate that is was Molly who brought such an evil demented witch down. The part of the book that moved me the most was the walk Harry took into the forest to meet his fate during the battle at Hogwarts. Being surrounded by the spirits of those he loved most as they provided support and love in the most difficult time of life had me in tears. Finally the final battle between Harry and Voldemort was everything and more I could have hoped. To be able to experience the journey of the unloved and neglected Harry we meet in the first pages of the first book to the wise, brave and pure of heart Harry he becomes by the time of the final battle was a pleasure and an honor.

[Old Fashioned]

I haven't read any of these, nor seen the movies. I tend to buck pop culture tidal waves. But in all the media hoopla, and along the lines of Mel's observation, "the story has progressed in very nearly real time, which appealed to a series readership " local news broadcast a sharp observation from a girl, about age 16, as she stood on line for the midnight sales to start. She said she'd started reading the books with the first one, when she was a new reader, that each was a landmark along her road to maturity, and this final installment signals the end of her childhood.

It's one of those rare instances when a trend actually deserves its widespread popularity. I have no qualms about telling people to jump on this bandwagon! In the latest film release, Imelda Staunton's performance as the deliciously evil Professor Umbridge was worth the price of admission.

As I completed Book 7, I felt as though my childhood has also come to an end, even though I haven't technically been a child for a couple of years now. I think anyone who has been following the series with avid fascination would feel the same way, whether that person is 16 or 61. Following the Potter phenomena has brought me closest to the feeling of excitement I used to experience as a child; it's like going trick-or-treating or throwing a slumber party all over again. Yet I never experience the feeling that the writing in the books is below my intelligence, nor do I feel childish reading them.

[dirac]

It's one of those rare instances when a trend actually deserves its widespread popularity. I have no qualms about telling people to jump on this bandwagon!

I have not read any of the books, but people whose judgment I trust have, and there does seem to be something more going on than the usual media flavor-of-the-month. Only time will tell, of course.

[leibling]

I also just finished Deathly Hallows last night- I felt as if I hab been bewitched as I COULD NOT put the book down. What a terrifc storyteller JK Rowling is- the way the plot kept twisting through every page of the very long book. Yet none of it seemed irrelevant to the story- everything fit into place at the end. What interested me even more were (what I felt to be) the occassional allusions to today's real world problems (a ministry of magic that people don't trust to tell the truth, government conspiracies). I don't know that it was subtle, but I had to chuckle a bit to find myself relating to her characters through these situations.