I've had a crazy-busy few days, without much time to post (or think or write or check in at many blogs -- I know I'm missing some wonderful Deathly Hallows discussion!) but at least I'm back here for the moment, catching up with some of Erin's beautiful posts and poetry.
And in the evenings, I'm re-reading Deathly Hallows, this time aloud to my husband. We've gotten so caught up in the story that we've actually stayed up several nights in a row, reading way too late into the night for people who have to get up early in the morning. We're about half-way through, and he regretfully informed me today that with our church's VBS (of which he is in charge) right on the horizon, we're going to have to take about a week-long break. I admire his ability to put this story on hold (though he's picked up various pieces of the ending from me, I'm afraid, in spite of my not always successful attempts to not give anything away or talk about anything important). Maybe with the reading break, I will be able to eke out some late-night musing time.
I like the book even more the second time through than I did the first, and that's saying something because I really loved it the first time. But there is so much here that I didn't have time to fully notice or savor my first time through. Richer characterizations than I realized, more poignancy, more humor, more echoes of the earlier books. Reading the words aloud forces me to slow down, and to really hear the characters and move into the story's rhythm. I love that.
One of the things that caught my attention this time through was just how important some of Fred and George's magical inventions were to the plot, especially early on when Harry, Ron and Hermione had to infiltrate the Ministry of Magic (M.O.M. -- that always makes me laugh!) in order to get the locket horcrux back from Delores Umbridge. There's a lot of really frightening things going on in the Ministry in this book, especially their hatred for and hunting down of Muggles. It was a relief to see how Fred and George's inventions, basically created as 'gags' and schooltime jokes, are put to terrific effect here to undermine the corrupt regime. Puking pastilles, noseblood nougats, decoy detonators, and extendable ears are all brought into service. This barely grazed my consciousness the first time through -- these things have become such a regular part of Rowling's "landscape" -- but this time through it hit me how important those fun little inventions were to the crucial first step of the quest, getting the locket. Hooray for the twins, merry-makers and pranksters, whose hearts were always on the right side, and whose love of a good laugh proved so invaluable in so many ways in the fight against darkness!
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5 comments:
By golly, you're right! I was on the lookout for it, but that pretty much escaped by attention too. They really did contribute a lot, didn't they?
I admire your husband's resolve. It was hard enough for me waiting three days!
They did indeed contribute so much!
One of the things that concerns me most about George going on without Fred is how hard it would be to keep your "creative spark" gone when your partner in creativity (as well as so much else) is gone. But I find myself really hoping that George was able to keep the joke shop going, and that he found other people to help spur on continued merry creativity. I've even wondered if the fact that Percy made a joke, an actual joke, right before all hell broke loose and Fred died, might not be a hint from Rowling that Percy has untapped creativity himself. Maybe he (and his kids, if he had any) got involved in the joke shop in some way.
That would be great! He's a Weasley; he's got to have some wit rattling around in there somewhere - and we did see that he does. I think it would be very healing for both Percy and George if the overly serious older brother lightened up and lent a hand in sustaining the twins' business.
OK, but here's something interesting. (I'm finally getting a few minutes here and there to poke around on websites and such, and do a little more DH thinking.) At the Bloomsbury chat with fans, JKR apparently said that RON went into business with George, which confused me a bit. I mean, I could actually see it happening, but was this before, after, or during the auror career? Inquiring minds want to know!
Hmmm... Well, I'd imagine it takes a while to become an auror, so maybe while he was training up for it he worked at the joke shop to keep a little income flowing and help his brother out?
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