HP re-read: The Philosopher's Stone

[trude]

Like a bunch of other people I'm making an attempt to re-read the entire Harry Potter-series before Book 7 is published, and started by reading PS this weekend. I havn't read this book for seven years and...it's boring. Really really boring. There is some clever stuff in it, and some other stuff which is interesting i hindsight but...no. To be fair, it does probably work much better for it's intended age-group and for people who geek out over other things than I do.

Random observations:
* Vernon wouldn't notice, and neither would a first-time reader, but it is quite possible that Petunia knows more about Lily's life than she pretends in chapter one.
* Also in ch1: McGonagal is very keen on asking questions about Voldemort's defeat. Which either means that she is secretly evil or that Rowling used her for exposition. (Hope it's the latter.)
* Knowing about parseltounge and how Harry "learned" it, the scene with Harry and the boa constrictor becomes oddly sad and touching.
* Page 31: Harry uses the CAPSLOCK OF RAGE for the very first time.
* I like Ron more here than I usually do. I dislike Hermione until chapter eleven, but that is kind of the point.
* Sorry Dumbledore, waiting until the feast to hand out the 170 last points to Gryffindor is just bloody stupid, even if it is understandable from a narrative view-point.
* So is not telling Harry why Voldemort wants to kill him.
* Even if he spends a lot of time being stupid and saying stupid things, Hagrid is by far the best thing about the book.

Comments

[sprite6.livejournal.com]

Also in ch1: McGonagal is very keen on asking questions about Voldemort's defeat. Which either means that she is secretly evil or that Rowling used her for exposition. (Hope it's the latter.)

I wouldn't think she was evil from just that scene, but everything in the later books shows her to be a white hat. Snape could conceivably be evil; McGonagall can't unless the series jumps the shark.

Even if he spends a lot of time being stupid and saying stupid things, Hagrid is by far the best thing about the book.

Hagrid gets a bad rap in fandom, and I don't get it because he's a funny, likeable character. He's genuinely fond of Harry, and that's very appealing, at least to me.

[sprite6.livejournal.com]

Oh, and hi! You friended me a while back, and now that I'm back on LJ I friended you back. :)

[trude.livejournal.com]

I don't want McG to be evil (I like her a lot and like you I think it would be bad for the series if she were), and she probably isn't, but she seems really really determined to learn what happened to Voldemort in that scene.

I love Hagrid. The really widespread dislike of him in fandom just baffles me, even if I can understand individual motives for not liking him.

Thanks for the friending!