Harry Potter = fun! I still think the third movie is the best, but even if I had despised the movie, the spectacle would have made it all worthwhile.
My group took up half a row in our theater. We got there THREE BLOODY HOURS early; once we had our coats on the seats we could pretty much come and go as we pleased, so we kept making small-group excursions to Barnes & Noble.
It turns out that our idea of making customized shirts was nowhere near unique; we expected a few costumes, but nearly everyone in the show was decked out in anything from a simple striped scarf to full Hogwarts regalia. (One kid dressed as a ninja. Um, OK.) Two guys dressed as Harry and Draco staged a duel in front of the screen.
I think our theater was the first (of eight screens!) to open for ticket sales, meaning all the superfans were in with us. These kids clapped when the lights dimmed and again when the black curtain rolled down to make the screen wider. They clapped for the previews (until it became abundantly clear that the previews sucked hardcore). They clapped for the Warner Bros. logo, and again 10 seconds later for the title screen.
They screamed when Harry took his shirt off.
When I got home I was too pumped up to go right to sleep. I should have curled up with The Inferno or something else that requires enough concentration to tire me out, but no. Instead, I stayed up until 5 sodding a.m. reading Harry Potter fan fiction! (A hex on you, emma blog, for planting the idea in my head!) I got four hours of sleep; if not for my cat's plaintative mewing outside my door, I might have drowsed all day to the tune of my CD alarm clock's current selection, the not-at-all-rousing Garden State soundtrack.
And here's the interesting thing. Cassie Claire's excellent fanfic left me feeling more satisfied than did the movie. Is this a testament to C.C.'s spot-on depiction and expansion of the Harry Potter universe – or even the triumph of written over audiovisual media? (Nah; I probably just like the bits with the snogging.)
Meanwhile, my cat looks just like Mrs. Norris - except for the red eyes. Anyone know of a good feline cantact lens dealer?
5 comments:
heh heh. Isn't it addictive? What did you read? She has such tremendous respect and affection for the characters. It's about so much more than the snogging, although there is, of course, the snogging.
I went back & reread "Something Impossible" with the image of Tom Felton's tree-sneering Draco. It worked surprisingly well. I think I just really want Draco to be complicated.
Warning: If you read the Draco Trilogy, you might not leave the house for days. I'm putting off reading the third installment for this reason.
I certainly wish you had told me that before I began the trilogy when I got home from the movie. I am now on Chapter 3 of Draco Sinister.
Goblet of Fire is where I first began to take interest in Draco's character - not through any revelations about him, but because of what we learn about his father. I immediately wondered if Draco would be back at Hogwarts for his fifth year, and how having a Death Eater father would affect his education under Dumbledore.
J.K. Rowling has followed up on this conflict in Half-Blood Prince, but Cassie shows such a perfect grasp of it years before that book's publication - even pointing out something I'd never considered: that Draco's favorite teacher is a traitor to the Death Eater cause.
I'm still not sure I like her portrayal of Slytherin in Draco Sinister, but that doesn't stop it from being a thumping good read.
Oh dear! Sorry about that. DS is much longer than DD, as I recall, so you have probably only just finished it. Next spell of nasty weather we have, I want to start the trilogy over.
JK's books get so much more satisfying as she describes the larger world around Harry. It's a relief when she gives Draco and Lucius motives of their own other than being "evil characters who annoy Harry." Cassie just plunges headlong into that world, and she's so faithful to the details of canon.
TGR? Are you a Common Reader fan as well?
Not sure if DV Christmas is linked on that page, but it has some great short items. I particularly like the Malfoy-Finnegan Correspondence:
http://www.heidi8.com/dvxmas/
Actually, I'm still working on DS; I keep taking breaks to do other things so that I can tell myself I still reside in the world of the living. (But I know the truth - every waking moment I am not finding out about the Magid sword of Slytherin that is also a Living Blade - my, that sword has a lot of qualities - I am as one dead. Your human pleasures cannot touch me until I have seen the relationship between Ginny and Draco come to snoggy fruition! Fruition, I tell you! FRUITION!!!)
I have a three-hour trip to Indiana coming up - perhaps I will copy the story into a Word file for my perusal during the drive.
Common Reader? Never heard of it - until, of course, you mentioned it. :)
Post a Comment