I'm trying really hard to have thoughts about THEMES and CHARACTERS and OWLS . . . but I'm drawing a total blank. And it's not because I'm not loving Harry Potter. It's because opening this book is like tying my brain to a fence post and letting it float in the warm breeze.
So we read Chapters 1 through 9. I think I remember them.
I know everyone is talking about the Dursleys and how they are terrible humans. It's true. They totally are. I was talking to Alice about this earlier today and thinking this seems to be a theme in children's lit, in particular. The first example that came to mind was Lemony Snicket's Series of Unfortunate Events, where there is, in fact, a child-bride situation. WHAT is our fascination with torturing fictional children?
But as bad as everything about Harry's life at the Dursleys was, my heart of stone didn't melt until this:
Harry got slowly out of bed and started looking for socks. He found a pair under his bed and, after pulling a spider off one of them, put them on. Harry was used to spiders, because the cupboard under the stairs was full of them, and that was where he slept. (p. 19)NO ONE should be accustomed to spiders. This is a travesty.
And later in that chapter, when Harry has that conversation with the snake, I decided that I prefer Book Snake to Movie Snake. Book Snake is cheekier.
Is it generally acknowledged that the characters in this first book are a little . . . one-dimensional? I mean, I know because of the movies that even the worst characters have some pretty interesting back stories to explain their naughties. And the good ones sometimes turn out not to be quite 100% good. But for now, it's very black and white. Lady Rowling probably did that on purpose didn't she? Fine. Whatever. We'll revisit this later.
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| GO AWAY SIRIUS IT'S NOT YOUR TIME. |
