发表于 2005-7-24 22:16
In an old Chinese story, a poet lost his ability of writing poems after his pen had been taken away in a bad dream. It seems that this tragedy has happened to JK Rowling too.
Last weekend, the Harry Potter and Half-blood Prince was greeted with a rousing fanfare worldwide. Millions of people wasted the whole weekend to explore the magic world. Me too.
The book is heavy. Rowling’s ability to write concisely seems not improved. This is not surprising. In fact, female writers in general like to elaborate details. For example, Virginia Woolf also had her thoughts wandering around in her writings with many unnecessary details. The volume of the book about the Bloody Queen Mary written by Margaret George was so formidable that I might never be able to finish it. A recent bestseller—The Historian, written by Elizabeth Kostova—also deterred my attempt to read it. Only Jane Austen avoided boring readers by her witty humors in the Pride and Prejudice. But her books were also full of details. Anyway, by reading the sixth Harry Potter book, most kids probably surpass their summer reading requirement, which is good.
Before reading the sixth book, I have many questions expected to be answered in this book. Who is the Half-blood Prince? Is Snape loyal to Dumbledore? Who will be Harry Potter’s girl friend after Cho? And most importantly, how to defeat the Dark Lord?
JK Rowling has answered most of these questions in her new book but in an awkward way.
The book starts with a disclosure that the magic war was in its full blown and affected both the magic community and the muggle world. In the second chapter, the book reveals that Snape was now loyal to the Dark Lord again. He even made an unbreakable vow with Draco Malfoy’s mother to protect Draco. Obviously, there will be much to say about Snape in this book, as it should be after so many conflictions between Harry and Snape told in the previous books.
After some trivial paragraphs about Harry’s life in the Burrow—Ron’s home, Harry got an impression that his nemesis, Draco, was a Death Eater now. He found that Draco behaved suspiciously in the Diagon Valley. As usual, Ron and Hermione didn’t believe him.
There were some surprises in the new semester. Horace Slughorn, the new teacher recruited by Dumbledore with the help from Harry, would teach the Potions course while Snape would teach the Defense against Dark Arts. Things are getting exciting. It is certain that something would happen between Snape and Harry. How and what would Snape teach? Furthermore, although Horace seemed to be a friend of Dumbledore, how and what would he teach?
However, the book spends little on them except at the end of the book. Harry had a not-too-bad time in Snape’s class, and became the best student in Horace’s class. Harry incidentally obtained a book once owned by a person who called himself “Half-blood Prince”. The book was full of excellent tips on portion making and many innovative spells. Harry loved this book. However, Ginny and Hermione remained skeptical. Hermione even resented this book because she was not the best student in the portion class any more. It was on Hermione to find who the Half-blood Prince was.
Nevertheless, the book has ignored the importance of its book title. Instead, the multilateral teenage romance suspended most of the story. Ron was jealous of Hermione because she had kissed other people before. That Ginny kissed her boyfriend in public places also annoyed him. He decided to date with a girl for the sake of kissing. Harry, on the other hand, started to have a strange feeling about Ginny. Well, they were hormone loaded teenagers. What else could you expect from them?
The only shining point in this book, I think, is about the earlier life of Lord Voldemort. During the private lessons with Dumbledore, Harry learned that the dark lord had a miserable childhood. His characteristics were not perfect which was fortunate. It was possible to defeat the Dark Lord using his weakness. After reviewing the memory from Horace Slughorn, Dumbledore and Harry realized that the Dark Lord had split his soul into seven parts using a dark magic– horcrux. Then the first task was to find these horcruxes and destroy them. But how?
The answer was in the Dark Lord’s life events. Dumbledore figured out that one horcrux might be hidden in a cave where the Dark Lord once visited in his childhood. The trip was full of magic and they obtained the horcrux by Dumbledore poisoning himself.
After Dumbledore and Harry returned the Hogwarts, they found that Death Eaters had entered the school. Draco finally succeeded creating a passage from outside into the school. They set up a trap for Dumbledore and disarmed him. It was Snape, however, who finished the revered Dumbledore. This proved that trusting Snape was the fatal judgment in Dumbledore’s life.
Who was the Half-blood Prince? It was …! I won’t tell you but the identity itself was not that important.
Unlike previous ones, the sixth book barely has a plot. The beginning is excellent. However, with so many things going on simultaneously, Rowling lost her control of the story flow and her efforts were not focused. The family history of the Dark Lord could be told within one lesson. It would be desirable to reveal a bit more about old wars, the life of Snape, and something about Harry’s parents. The importance of the Half-blood Prince has been neglected until the end of book. Essentially, you felt lost in this massive book. After reading more than half of the book, you may still not know what this book is about.
Another interesting fact in this book is that Rowling has borrowed ideas from other literatures extensively. She even used “the Chosen One” for Harry Potter. Sounds familiar?
By the way, it was supposed that Ron and Hermione would be more useful in this enormous task of defeating the Dark Lord. However, you can’t find anything about them except in the frivolous teenage romance.
After all, the intention of this penultimate book may be a bridge to the final duel between Harry and Lord Voldemort in the seventh book. It is admirable that JK Rowling has spent most of the book trying to weave all the previous books into a consistent story.
The sixth book ends with a respectful Dumbledore’s funeral. All enemies were at large. Darkness was all over the place. Harry decided to face the challenge by his own. We will wait and see the final action.