harry potter: last book almost out - no spoilers! - Page 5

that was published before the release of the book. hard to say how much truth if any to it.

people are posting spoilers to the other books, which a lot of people still have not read as well, so as long as there is a very noticeable warning, i don't see the difference.

What exactly did I say that strikes you as "ethnocentric" or as "completely cropping another society"? I was only suggesting that different things tick in different society, and that an author, as a part of the society she finds herself in, necessarily reflects its values. I don't even label Rowling's hierarchy system as "good" or "bad", and If I am to pass a judgment on my argument, I'd call it overly ethno-relativist!

But truth be told, I really don't mind coming across an odiously racist, classist, sexist, or whateverist character in a book, as long as the author has the skill and care to endow the character with human motives and human emotions.

read enough amazon reviews and you can get the ending. no need for any further explanation here.

For some one with such finesse for literary critique you should know that the tone of a sample of writing can say more than the words themselves. Forgive me if I was incorrect in my assumption, but you came off as very critical of the series for, in your eyes, simply banking on a few fairly specific aspects of the book and its author. An unfair judgment, imo.


Spoilers to pretty much the entire Harry Potter series, save The Deathly Hallows:

First let's delve into why both Vernon and Petunia Dursley snub the magical society:

As a young girl Petunia's sister, Lily, (Yes, her sister, and Harry's mother. Harry is not part of their "extended family," but Petunia's very own nephew.) was accepted into a magical school of witchcraft and wizardry called Hogwarts, yet Petunia was not. Lily received much attention from their parents and they displayed a great amount of pride in her admission to such a prestigious school. Now, with an obvious feeling of inferiority to her sister, Petunia decides to pretend to hate what she probably most deeply desires to be part of. She later imparts these feelings onto her husband, Vernon Dursley, whom most likely never knew about magical folk to begin with so was completely unbiased in viewpoint. This transforms into a hate relationship with not only her sister, Lily, but Lily's magical husband and son, James and Harry Potter.

Now that we know why the Dursley's hate the Potter's we can try to ascribe why Vernon would go to such an extent to keep Harry from attending Hogwarts, which is in fact a little more difficult to figure out taking slightly more speculation and inquiry into Vernon, Petunia and even Dudley's characters.

At first Harry receives a letter from Hogwarts, unknowing what Hogwarts even remotely is, and is curious as to how "it" knows precisely where he lives in the Dursley home. Harry has never received an iota of interest from anyone up 'til this point in his life so his obvious interest is unquestionable. The fact that Dudley steals the letter out of his hand, however, comes into examination and I believe the answer would simply be jealousy. He, not dissimilar form his mother, doesn't like to see his "sibling" get any attention, especially attention he, himself, is not getting! So, he rips the letter out of his hand and turns it over to his father like any snitch just doing their job would do. Vernon, immediately knowing what the letter is, decides to keep Harry in the dark as to what it was, and that a magical "world" even exists. I believe he does this as a defense mechanism for his wife. She would obviously, once again, feel inferior to her sister, wondering why Harry, Lily's son, received a letter and not her Dudley.

However, Hogwarts won't let the famous Harry Potter go not being taught the ways of magic without a fight, and it certainly won't be undermined by, as you said, such a simple minded muggle like Vernon Dursely. He believes he can outsmart hundreds of years of magical practice by burning up a few letters?! Let the owls FILL his house with Harry's letters of acceptance to Hogwarts and show him they will stop at nothing to recruit this extremely important magical figure. For Dumbeldore knows very well, having heard the prophecy himself, Harry must be the one to kill Voldemort, which would be an impossible task without being trained in the magical ways. Now with Vernon knowing (seemingly) exactly what Hogwarts will do to get Harry into their school, decides to move. He believes this feeble trick will outsmart the owls and he will be able to protect his family, specifically Petunia, from the magical world for good.

End of spoilers.

Now I believe it's rather clear that the characters are slightly more complex than you ever thought they were having only read the first six chapters of the first book of the series. And it also seems that these characters have very human motives and emotions to justify their actions...

Hi guys, I'm back and I've finished reading book 7. I've made this thread for those of you who have read the book as a place for discussing it among HP enthusiast.

Reader impressions have improved. Amazon now has 176 reviews, and the score has reached 4.5 / 5:

http://www.amazon.com/Harry-Potter-D...e=UTF8&s=books

It should be, it's a much better book than 5 & 6.

Hey guys, I pulled an all-nighter and read (and understood) the book in 7 hours.

Very nice overall, but I didn't feel much impact on crucial events like the other books did.

Also, there is a TON of explaining from the characters in this book. I mean it's great to tie up loose ends, but geez...those were a lot of loose ends.

Oh man good news!

Vuldemort dies, harry dies, and hermiony is a man.

Now you don't have to read the book.

Obviously, given the target groups there are a lot children among the fans but I didn't think there'd be children among the haters as well.

Just finished the book... a few hours ago. Stayed up all night doing so, in fact.

It is superb. The best book in the series. It is similar in pacing to book 6, meaning that the first 2/3 is a massive buildup to the last 1/3 which packs all of the action, but it is better done this time around. There's a lot less pointless melodrama, and a high level of tension is maintained throughout.

More detailed impressions later if I have the time.

For your Harry Potter Fans. I just got these stamps from the post office, very cool thought ! not a stamp collector but each stamp is each book cover, comes in a plastic and card wallet thing too. oh, it was £4.60 and its a limited run only. The covers are the English version covers (i think the US has its own covers design)

pretty cool. and yes. US versions are different. i wonder if they plan to release stamps in the US as well.