Half-Blood Prince

[prog]

I finished Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and enjoyed it a great deal, probably the most of all the books in the series so far. (Yes, I've been having a good run of books and movies lately. I do dislike things sometimes, honest!)

The statute of limitations on this volume probably passed a while ago but just the same, let's hide my spoilers under a cut.

I began the book already aware about its big shocker, and I also knew that it seemed to have polarized all my Potter-reading friends. (I recall leighjen saying she hated the ending with the fires of a thousand suns.) Since at the time I was putting up a modicum of spoiler suppression, I never asked for more details, but I assume that those on the hatey side were upset that Snape, who up until then had been presented as a complex and deeply conflicted character, seemed to flatten out into an out-and-out villain in the end.

I do not think it is so simple, though. After the climax, and right up through the last pages, the characters remain utterly confounded why Dumbledore trusted Snape, mentioning it frequently. This is clearly something that will be carried over into the next - and final - book for ultimate resolution. Also, did you notice that Snape was still giving lessons to Potter while he was fleeing Hogwarts, telling Harry why he was able to counter-hex all his spells and advising him how to improve? The tone seemed more teaching than taunting. Given the circumstances I found it weirdly touching, and maybe the most raw emotional scene between those two characters yet.

And finally, did you notice that when Dumbledore called for Snape after he and Harry landed on the tower, he didn't say why he wanted him? The readers are free to assume it's because he wanted Snape to provide an antidote for the terrible potion he drank at Voldemort's cache, but I think this is just more of the misdirection that Rowling just loves to do. Even when Snape finally appeared, Dumbledore only begged him "please".

I'm with doctor_atomic that the apparent murder was all part of Dumbledore's plan, that he had worked out a situation with Snape - perhaps with Snape's conscious consent, perhaps not - that would involve him sacrificing himself in exactly the way that happened. The clues all point to a hell of a reveal about this event in the final book.

Comments

[brentdax.livejournal.com]

Yay, you're not an idiot!

In deep agrement vis-a-vis Snape

[taskboy3000.livejournal.com]

I agree that the best part of Half-Blood is Snape. Hell, THE TITLE OF THE BOOK REFERS TO HIM.

Also, do you think it mere chance that Dumbledore's familiar is a phoenix? It's not that I expect a Gandalf-like return in the final book, but I do expect that readers have not seen the last of the good professor.

Last point, the most touching scene for me is not on the tower, but in the cave in which Harry and Dumbledore attempt to retrieve one of the Horicruxes. Harry has to lie to his wounded teacher to feed him the potion. The vulnerability of Dumbledore really affected me.

Any observant reader of heroic fiction cannot fail to notice the numerous archetypes Rowling uses in all her books, especially this one. The mentor-protege going underground to confront some horror is always a welcomed bit. Unfortunately, the mentor must step aside if the hero is to become fully realized, so I've been expecting the major plot development of this book for some time now.

Snape is the one new character of Rowlings that I can't find an easy archetype for. He's not the mustache-twirling villian. He's not really "on the team." He may be a sort of failed hero, which is pretty interesting actually.

Enough muggle prattling.

spoilers enclosed.

[doctor-atomic.livejournal.com]

Yes, all the plot highlights you so aptly listed really do seem to point to Snape carrying out Dumbledore's plan. I think people who want the books to be good vs. evil stories are missing the point. Throughout the series, Rowling takes care to blur these lines. This book in particular was full of this. Look at the Malfoy plot arc: this previously kind of flat schoolboy rival becomes a complex and pitiable character, used by Voldemort, threatened with the life of his mother, going to Moaning Myrtle for help. Harry himself, usually a good guy, becomes obsessed with tailing Malfoy, eventually slicing him up with a crazy ass curse. The theme of Book 6 is that most everyone is guessing, bumbling through a life in which they don't know whom to trust, making some good decisions, some bad. It seems to me that there are three characters who aren't just blindly groping through the situation: Dumbledore, Voldemort, and Snape. I am looking forward to Snape fleshing out as a character in the next book. I think we will find that he is on the side of 'good'.

We shall find out in July whether we are right.

[toonhead-npl.livejournal.com]

Alan Rickman's been complaining that he doesn't get to do anything in the movies anymore. Guess he's getting his wish! Hard to believe that the cast only needs to film two more.

As far as the antidote thing goes, JKR has already said that SPOILER ALERT Dumbledore is really dead. But I guess his portrait will now appear in the headmaster's office and maybe offer advice? It's still not clear how those portraits relate to their original subjects.

[prog.livejournal.com]

He was shown snoozing in a portrait when McGonnagal and Potter first entered the headmaster's office after his death.

I was imagining that the portraits were something like ghosts, not really vital enough to act as characters unto themselves. I'm sure he'll manage to get in a few lines anyway.

[radtea.livejournal.com]

The Snape/Dumbledore thing bugs the hell of out me. I don't think Rowling is being fair with the reader. She's either playing it straight, in which case Snape is indeed just a cardboard yawn-yawn bad guy, or she has something up her sleeve, in which case we have absolutely zero foreshadowing what it is.

This kind of cutesy does-she-or-doesn't-she nonsense is the lamest sort of narrative hook in the business.

My bet: there will be unexplored alternatives by the end of the series that are not explained by the nominal logic of the climax. That is, we will find that Snape "had" to kill Dumbledore, but to anyone capable of a moment's reflection there will be stunningly obvious alternative actions that he could have taken that are in no way closed off by the "explanation" the author purports to give.