marycatelli: (Rapunzel)
One noteworthy difference between Hogwarts and, say, Roke Island in Earthsea.  In Hogwarts, everyone studies magic.  On Roke Island, the school is for specialists, and not even all sorcerers went.
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marycatelli: (Galahad)
Was in a discussion of Cursed Child and its flaws. . . . one observation was that in one respect Albus was Slytherin ambitious.

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marycatelli: (Cat)
The Cursed Child did not add much to the details of why the magic is all living in secrecy in the Harry Potter world.  However, it did have one interesting touch -- spoiler warning --

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marycatelli: (A Birthday)
One thing you often get in time travel stories is ones where the time was changed -- o cursed spite -- and you have to put it back again.  To set it right.

What you do not often get is reflections on the people who will be annihiliated by this.

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marycatelli: (Golden Hair)
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child by J.K. Rowling, John Tiffany, and Jack Thorne

Hmmmm. . . . I don't think I'm very fond of this book. Though it had some wonderful moments of gem-like perfection. . . I don't think it worked as a whole.
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marycatelli: (A Birthday)
Have been philosophically contemplating epics and fantasy and the TriWizard Tournament. . .

One problem with epic fantasy (or SF) is that, unlike an epic tale of historical fiction, you can't do against the backdrop of a known epic event. An epic tale of WWII would probably concentrate on as few characters as the main ones of The Lord of the Rings, but taking the background more of less as read.
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marycatelli: (Architect's Dream)
Hmmm -- if the wizard society pulled away from Muggles in modern types, as the Harry Potter books say it did, how did wizardly history affect Muggle history?

All those Goblin Wars?  All those dragons?  If they weren't separate, the wizards would have had to re-write history with censorship to prevent notice.  Perhaps recast some of it as fiction.  (A la L. Jagi Lamplighter's Prospero's Daughter trilogy.)

But there might still be traces left where the patch job had to be a bit awkward because nothing could make the omission of magic neat.
marycatelli: (Rapunzel)
Read an article on Harry Potter.  In which the author asked why the wizarding world didn't have TV.
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marycatelli: (Cat)
Some times you don't see holes in a story until you carefully piece them all together.  Take one minor one:  how did they know that Regulus Black died in Harry Potter?

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sensawunda

Sep. 3rd, 2015 11:00 pm
marycatelli: (Rapunzel)
The elusive sense of wonder.  So hard to get in your fantasy. . .
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marycatelli: (A Birthday)
Was thinking of series and their notoriously interminable sprawls. . . the sort that Tom Simon wrote so eloquently about in Zeno's mountains.

And which Harry Potter did not turn into, however fat the later volumes became.

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marycatelli: (A Birthday)
Sometimes things leap out when you read a series in rapid sequence.  Like the gifts in Harry Potter.

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quests

Aug. 19th, 2015 11:31 pm
marycatelli: (A Birthday)
Harriet the Invincible and Harry Potter have a certain commonality to their quest that contrast with Frodo.

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marycatelli: (A Birthday)
One thing I think was inadequate in Deathly Hallows, and thought so the first time, was in the scene where Snape gave up his memories.

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marycatelli: (Baby)
There isn't much in Harry Potter.    Logical.  There frequently isn't.  When Sir Water Eliot raises his objections to the Navy in Persuasion, he just states the objection of social climbing:Read more... )
marycatelli: (Roman Campagna)
Sometimes when a world-building question gets raised in a story, you have to answer it one way.

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plot hole

Aug. 13th, 2015 07:53 pm
marycatelli: (Rapunzel)
Was pondering things about Harry Potter and noticed one particularly glaring one.

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