(Reply to the_red_shoes posted in the form of a massive edit to this post, in case you're curious. I'm beginning to realize that footnotes work better in a format that contains actual pages.)
the less is said about the characters, other than he did this and she did that and that's not what moves a book along for me.
Seriously. Her character work seems to have gone right out the window.
As well, making Snape bad was too easy. I was hoping, not for goodness, but for more of the wondering about his character, simply because Snape is one of the few characters that I've found interesting in the last few books.
Yeah. From about the midpoint of Philosopher's Stone, he was my hands-down favorite character. (Remus Lupin and Sirius Black were close seconds, starting when they showed up; although Sirius is now a favorite-in-memoriam.) See yesterday's ramble on the topic. And I agree with you—if we are to take the text at face value, I am severely disappointed. It's not that I want Snape to roll on over to the side of sweetness and light, because I'd be about as bored by that extreme as by this one, but I loved his contradictions!
Letting me know right away, in the first chapter, that Snape is a bad guy, after all, just about killed the whole story for me. Maybe I would have had a different reaction if she'd have left this to my imagination for a while longer.
Look, I'm left with my fingers crossed that he was lying to Bellatrix and Narcissa, and Dumbledore knew something he wasn't telling. Because my primary respect for J.K. Rowling as an author was founded on her ability to create—and maintain—a character whose loyalties were as shady as his behavior was split, and I'll have very little left if it proves in Book Seven that Snape has gone unambiguously to the bad. That's too simple a resolution for all the suspicion. Sigh.
At least the spine of your copy is printed upside down . . .
no subject
the less is said about the characters, other than he did this and she did that and that's not what moves a book along for me.
Seriously. Her character work seems to have gone right out the window.
As well, making Snape bad was too easy. I was hoping, not for goodness, but for more of the wondering about his character, simply because Snape is one of the few characters that I've found interesting in the last few books.
Yeah. From about the midpoint of Philosopher's Stone, he was my hands-down favorite character. (Remus Lupin and Sirius Black were close seconds, starting when they showed up; although Sirius is now a favorite-in-memoriam.) See yesterday's ramble on the topic. And I agree with you—if we are to take the text at face value, I am severely disappointed. It's not that I want Snape to roll on over to the side of sweetness and light, because I'd be about as bored by that extreme as by this one, but I loved his contradictions!
Letting me know right away, in the first chapter, that Snape is a bad guy, after all, just about killed the whole story for me. Maybe I would have had a different reaction if she'd have left this to my imagination for a while longer.
Look, I'm left with my fingers crossed that he was lying to Bellatrix and Narcissa, and Dumbledore knew something he wasn't telling. Because my primary respect for J.K. Rowling as an author was founded on her ability to create—and maintain—a character whose loyalties were as shady as his behavior was split, and I'll have very little left if it proves in Book Seven that Snape has gone unambiguously to the bad. That's too simple a resolution for all the suspicion. Sigh.
At least the spine of your copy is printed upside down . . .