Afternoon

[tarotgal]

Had a pretty bad afternoon... I'm hoping all the problems resolve themselves for the better tomorrow... but I'm not counting on that.

Watched the new Return of the King trailer. Wow. Looks fantastic! As a kid, the ending always scared me (of course, the cartoon version scares everyone now, doesn't it?) The whole finger thing totally freaked me out. I won't go into details... I dunno if I need spoilers for this or anything. But I'm a little scared of the third movie- silly, isn't it? Anyway, it looks fantastic. It really, really does! Looking forward to it!

Anyway, I'm about a third of the way through Order of the Phoenix, only a second time. I've read parts over and over again, but I decided just to start over from the beginning with Jim. I cried for about half an hour last night when he got to the sorting hat scene again. That to me, honestly, is the whole point of the series and one of the BEST parts of the book. *sniffles* I adore the voice he uses for the sorting hat. Just hearing it sung makes it so... I dunno. It's a whole different feeling. You know, maybe that's why I'm so worried about them cutting and changing for the movies? Because I'm so used to hearing the books performed in their unabridged entirety? I mean, the third book isn only something like 20 hours long. That's not too long for a movie, is it?
heehee OK... maybe... but they could easily get it down to 10, taking out the chapter titles and some of the description and stuff. Now that's not too long at all. *G*

OK, off to finish Hermione's third chapter of 'That's the Way it Is'. I'm halfway through betaing it right now :-)

Comments

[tarotgal]

Oh my GOSH yes! When Merry and Pip were talking about seeing the shire again- honestly, I was ready to cry, too! *snuggles Pippin*

And Aragorn looks great. All dirty and tough and "Grrr!" Very warrior kingly. LOL And Gandalf looks fantastic too! And Shadowfax climbing those stairs- wow. I'm very impressed with that horse!
And Sam... man... I just want him to knock some sense into Frodo sooner rather than later. That finger being bitten off scene just scares the heck out of me. Childhood trama or something I suppose. LOL

[(Anonymous)]

Just watched the ROTK trailer this morning. I can't wait!!! Aragorn looks spunky *lol* They didn't show nearly enough of Legolas. But you know what? I thought that the horse climbing the stair bit was Legolas! I didn't think it was Gandalf because of the cloak... it was all shimmery and elven-y. Hmm. I should rewatch it but that requires too much effort. I read RotK once after I saw FotR but I haven't read it since, so the movie should have been more or less new to me. But I've read so many fanfics that it no longer is. Oh, well. I can't wait till Boxing Day anyway!

girlwithtulips
(Emailing you now. Really!)

[(Anonymous)]

I agree that one of the most important parts of the OotP is the Sorting Hat's New Song. I haven't heard the book read yet, but certainly hope to - I have heard SS and PoA read by Jim Dale and of course, he is "the bomb" as my kids say. I knew he would sing it! But the words - the whole point of that section of the book - it is vitally important. It points to wizardkind's history to show that when people fail to unite and take a stand against evil, the results are disastrous for everyone. And more to the point of the characters in this book, it makes case that Harry and Dumbledore are RIGHT in what they have been saying for three months, not crazy! The Sorting Hat is an extremely powerful magical tool - look at it's role in CoS with saving Harry's life! And I believe it is much smarter than we even know yet. But what it says about divisions between people versus remembering that we are all one - to me, that was one of the wisest passages in the book. I too hope very much that that part of OotP will make it onto the big screen. The adults and leaders especially of this Muggle world could stand to take a lesson from the Sorting Hat!

[tarotgal]

EXACTLY!!! Couldn't agree with you more!
Oh, and I adore Jim Dale. I've listened to him read all the books at least 20 times each now (except for 5) He's ruined me for other books on tape now!

It bothers me that they sort of blow off the hat's message for a long while in the book- or at least not make reference to it again. But there are a lot of details leading up to an increased understanding an unity. The fact that the DA is made up of people from multiple houses, the fact that more than just the trio help out at the end, and even the coming together of multiple races (and the statue, especially) are all very important in the book and echo the sentiment of putting aside differences, understanding each other, and standing for each other. I really love the trend that this book is taking the series in. And though I still don't like Slytherin, I feel that nothing will be accomplished until they're encorporated in the movement, too. THough I have no idea how that will happen!

[tarotgal]

Gah... sorry about errors... my eyes are killing me... I think you get the point anyway. But sorry for them!!

Grr... I really want to finish the book again so I can finish up my full review of the book now- you've gotten me inspired (I rant about this subject for about a page in my review, lol!)

[(Anonymous)]

You being up some very good points about the demonstrations of inter-House unity in OotP. I am leading a book club group of kids mainly 10-12 years old, and I am always looking for good dicussion topics for them. The reading goes kind of slowly, but we have talked about events up through Chapter 13, and so the Sorting Hat's New Song was one of the chapters, and the kids actually made up a little tune and sang the whole thing. As we read more, I should remember to point out times when kids from other Houses are coming together and link that back to the Sorting Hat's song. Thanks for the idea!

[tarotgal]

There are a lot of great examples of that- and how they have to be careful not to hook up at times because the school isn't used to a lot of people from other houses meeting up. You might want to take a look at Dumbledore's closing speech to the school in book 4 about this as well. He talks about how people must put differences aside and stand strong together.
The ending, especially, marks a huge bit of this, as the big 'ending' doesn't just feature the trio or Harry and instead includes a member from another house.
Anyway, it's a great theme in the book- and in the series itself (look at Snape&Sirius for example) and one that I really think needs to go further in book 6 for anything good to happen. But it's NICE to see that the kids did it with the DA almost subconsciously... though it worries me that the Slytherins are still isolated. I think this unification is a huge part of the final solution, though. After all, many people do posess qualities from multiple houses (Harry and Hermione, for example) so they're really not as different and divided as it may seem.

You might also want to look at it from the point of other races. The good that can come of the giants' involvement, the hiring (and friendship) of a Centaur, etc. In addition, the kids are starting to think about their careers, and it's clear our main three want to get out there and help the world. Ron and Harry are all about being aurors... and Hermione says she wants to do something "really worthwhile" like taking SPEW further. Just goes to show that helping doesn't always just mean one group fighting against Voldy all the time.

I'll, ah, stop rambling now, shall I? :-)

[tarotgal]

Oh, and the kids making up their own tune? That's precious! What a cool idea! I sang it out loud when I read it to myself the first time, but mine was based off the tune the sorting hat uses in book 4 (which I knew from listening to the audio tape)

Oddly enough, the song the Slytherins make up about Ron later on... I just listened to it today in the audio book version and I had a completely different tune in my head when I read it myself. It'd be neat to hear the sorting hat song to other tunes, too! :-)