CoS wrap-up

[pauraque_bk]

All kinds of discussion in Chapter 18, but I'd like to call special attention to black_dog's comments in defense of Dumbledore, because they're way far down the page, and because I think he's the only person who didn't agree with my assessment of what Dumbledore says. *g*

The first part.

The second part. (This bit also calls Ginny's innocence into question, which I think is wicked interesting.)

*

THANK YOU to everyone who participated in the re-read. You guys are great. All the posts are saved here. (And the PoA re-read is here. Two down, three to go. [Or five, if I'm around that long.])

My opinion of the book as a whole hasn't changed very much; it's still not a favorite. It lacks the depth and coherence of PoA, as well as the theme of love that's so important to the latter three books. I have no idea if JKR meant it to read this way, but at the end of the book Harry is handed the moral that he was right to be loyal to Dumbledore, not that he was right to risk his life to save another. At every turn, the book is cheerfully cruel -- Crabbe and Goyle left locked in a closet, Hagrid carted off to Azkaban, Lockhart dealt a comeuppance out of proportion to his crimes (I kept thinking of Hansel and Gretl pushing the witch into the oven).

The movie version is a fair (in the sense of 'just') adaptation for the most part, except that it tacks on a sappy ending. Having read the book more carefully, I can sympathize with the urge to add some sugar -- the thing's downright nasty. This is a story where, when a little girl is rescued from certain death, her parents -- whom we're meant to like -- don't even give her a hug. [EDIT: Actually, they do, I just can't read. But Ginny's suffering still isn't given adequate weight, in my opinion.]

I'm also no more enlightened about what the book might once have had to do with half-blood princes than I was to start with. I do think the good money is on Godric Gryffindor to be the HBP, but there isn't a lot in CoS to support that claim, except the general introduction of the story of the Founders.

But, in any case, I certainly enjoyed all the discussion. I'll probably do PS/SS next, though not right away (I've got a merry_smutmas fic to write -- eep). If you fear withdrawal, there's a chapter-a-week OotP read-along happening at the_snarkery. They're up to Chapter 9.

Comments

[maidenjedi]

I've been following along with this, but not having my copy of CoS here at school prevented me from actually participating. Once again, thanks for doing these, because it provides some real insight and things to think on while waiting (im)patiently for HBP.

Do you really think Lockhart's punishment disproportionate to his crimes? He's spent an unknown number of years taking credit for other people's successes, using Memory Charms (which, incidentally, don't seem to be controlled by the Ministry the way other charms are....hmm) without any apparent discrimination, and when he tries, once again, to take the credit (and let a little girl and possibly two little boys die in the process), he's rendered amnesiac. I think it's perfectly just, almost poetic. It's a lesson, too, for Harry. The fact that we see Lockhart again in OotP, just as Harry's at a place where his anger combined with his desire to be a part of things could drive him to do unethical if not illegal things, suggests to me that Harry's (and maybe not Harry, but someone else - Ron, possibly) meant to take Lockhart's plight as an example. There are a number of lessons like that in the books - Quirrell's death, Snape's childhood, even Sirius' death.

Heh....$.02 I didn't know I was about to contribute ;-)

[arclevel.livejournal.com]

I mostly agree, here. I don't think it's particularly poetic, but then, I've never found that of any sort of comeuppance. Nor have I ever really found comeuppance funny, which JKR clearly expects me to (in a wide variety of places, usually involving Draco or Dudley).

OTOH, Lockhart here strikes me as one of the only places in the series where the comeuppance/punishment actually *does* fit the crime. Lockhart was quite literally struck by the exact spell he had intended for one of the boys. I don't think that he completely erased the memories of all the people whose deeds he stole (as opposed to altering certain memories), but they probably wouldn't have been the first. What I *did* think was overly vicious was that, upon being discovered as a fraud, the boys forced him to wandlessly accompany them into the lair of a deadly monster.

[black-dog.livejournal.com]

I wonder (and please thwack me if this came up in the discussion and I missed it) if Lockhart's guilt is even greater than we suppose, though. The series is full of cases where the Trio radically misjudge people. We know the Trio approached Lockhart about getting Moste Potente Potions from the restricted section because they assumed he was a fool. But was he, maybe, perfectly aware that the kids were risking themselves to solve the mystery, and planning all along to monitor them from a distance and do his usual Memory-charm thing afterward? It's a tenuous theory, I know, and it might be stronger if the potions text were more directly related to the solution, or if Lockhart hadn't tried to run at the end. But I wonder if it's within the capacities of his character?

[pauraque]

arclevel said what I was going to say. It's not so much what actually happened to Lockhart, but what COULD easily have happened, given Harry and Ron's behavior. They were far too eager to have him face the Basilisk, knowing he was incompetent to do so.