09.18.05
Posted in Scoops at 3:22 am by RavenclawWit
by RavenclawWit
I came across this drivel a few weeks ago via del.icio.us. Apparently, “bestselling” children’s author Jane Yolen believes that J.K. Rowling ripped off the idea for Harry Potter from an earlier book she wrote, entitled Wizard’s Hall. In a Newsweek article she says of the books,
I read the first three. The fourth one stopped me in my tracks, partially because even though the story moves along, I just don’t feel like they’re well written. Besides, I wrote a book called “Wizard’s Hall” [in 1991, eight years before the first “Harry Potter” book]. And there’s an awful lot of “Wizard’s Hall” in it [the Harry Potter books]. I always tell people that if Ms. Rowling would like to cut me a very large check, I would cash it. [”Wizard’s Hall”] has got a boy named Henry [who] goes to wizard school, doesn’t think he has talent. He has a good friend with red hair. There’s a wicked wizard who’s trying to destroy the school, and the pictures on the wall move and speak and change.
Sigh. First of all, I have never heard of this author, despite the fact that I studied children’s lit in college. I think someone may be playing fast and loose with the word “bestselling”. Next there’s her rather petty statement that they’re not “well written”. Exactly what do you mean, Ms. Yolen? Is the plot too utilitarian? Does Rowling use too much passive voice? It’s a pretty vague criticism, especially for a fellow author. In fact, it smacks of someone who just wants to throw dirt at something and can’t quite come up with any.
Of course, Yolen’s next statement gets to the crux of the matter. She implies that she wrote a book featuring young wizards eight years before Harry Potter appeared on the scene, therefore Rowling ripped her off. I’m afraid her logic doesn’t hold. I’ll be the first to admit that Rowling’s subject matter is not in the least original. But she didn’t get the idea from Yolen. In the english language, there are thousands of novels, short stories, and poems about or featuring wizards, sorcerers, and witches of all ages. That’s because wizardry and magic is a part of the larger Anglo-saxon world of folklore and fantasy that many english speaking authors write about. This is called an archetype, something that as an author, Ms. Yolen should know all about.
I think the real problem is that nobody particularly liked Ms. Yolen’s attempt at Wizard fiction, and she’s just a wee bit jealous. This is nothing new for J.K. Rowling, or any bestselling author for that matter. In 2002, author Nancy Stouffer sued Rowling for copyright infringment, based on some very superficial and possibly falsified evidence. The judge found that Stouffer doctored some of the documents submitted to support her claim and dismissed the claim against Rowling. Comic book writer Neil Gaiman wrote The Books of Magic, which predates Harry Potter and many have pointed out its similarities with Rowling’s work. But Gaiman always points out in Rowling’s defense that he believes the similarities are a coincidence or a result of the same fantasy archetypes.
If Yolen is so convinced that Harry Potter and its vast profits belong to her, one wonders why she hasn’t pursued legal action. Perhaps she realizes how flimsy her evidence is. Or maybe she really is waiting for Rowling to “cut her a very large check”. If that’s the case, I hope she isn’t holding her breath.
Permalink
09.15.05
Posted in Scoops at 4:38 pm by RavenclawWit
by RavenclawWit
TSHIRTHELL.com is selling a pretty hysterical, but bound to be controversial T-shirt featuring a Harry Potter plot point. Warning: it’s a massive spoiler for Half-Blood Prince, so if you don’t want the book spoiled, don’t click.
I think anyone caught wearing this shirt is probably taking a chance with their own life, although I find it pretty funny myself. I have to wonder though, about copyright infringement. I can’t see Rowling or her publishers giving permission for such a shirt, seeing as it gives away the climax of Half-Blood Prince. We’ll have to see how long it lasts before they’re asked to take it down. 
Permalink
09.14.05
Posted in Meta, Theories at 12:54 pm by Michael
By now, those of us who have read and re-read all 6 books are dying to find out how it is going to end. By this I mean, how is Lord Voldemort going to be vanquished? One popular theory (which has been discussed at length) is that Harry is a horcrux and will have to sacrifice himself for the greater good.
Maybe I have faith that JK isn’t the ultimate sadist and wouldn’t do that to her fans or maybe I just don’t want to see Harry die as that would ruin the books for me and leave me feeling cheated as the reader. I also look at logic… given the prophecy says Harry must kill LV or LV kill Harry, leaving me to believe that LV dying will be the last part of his soul destroyed. What I am getting at is I do not think (and hope to hell) that the series will end with Harry’s death.
So I am curious to hear theories on what will happen. This assumes of course that Harry is not a horcrux, OR if he is one, then LV’s soul was removed, like it was with the ring.
How Harry will kill Lord Voldemort. Harry is a good wizard, but obviously he isn’t as powerful as Voldemort. We also have that nagging problem of the wands sharing a core, meaning they can’t fight each other. How will Harry win?
I feel pretty certain that two elements will come into play. Unless Olivander makes Voldemort a new wand (and this is possible) dueling will be difficult. There is another weapon that Harry could use that would be very fitting to be used by him against Slytherin’s Heir. This is of course, Gryffendor’s sword. I think the sword will play a part in the end. But there is an element that has been talked about, but not in detail. That is the power Harry has, that the dark lord knows not. This is, of course, love.
Somehow the love in Harry’s heart will be focused into a way to defeat Voldemort. We still don’t have any idea what the glimmer in Dumbledore’s eye was at the end of GoF. We also know that Lord Voldemort couldn’t touch Harry in Book 1 because of the protection of his mother’s love. We also know he couldn’t posess Harry for too long in Book 5 due to the love in Harry. What if, by using Harry’s blood to resurrect his body, Lord Voldemort now was traces of Harry’s love in him?
So it could end something like this. Armed with Wand and sword, Harry and Lord Voldemort square off. A vicious fight breaks out. Harry holds his own but is no match for LV. As LV is about to finish Harry off, he (Harry) thinks of Ginny…Ron and Hermione… The Weasley’s… The Order of the Phoenix…Sirius…Dumbledore…His parents. As he thinks of them, he feels the love for them grow in his heart. It also starts to activate in Lord Voldemort, causing him great amounts of pain. He remains distracted by it long enough for Harry to take the sword of Gryffendor and kill Voldemort with it.
Another possibility is that as LV has Harry at his mercy, he launches the killing curse. However, the love for Harry people have manifests it self out of the scar and rebounds the spell back on LV, killing him since his horcruxes are gone. After that Harry collapses but is revived by Ron and Hermione… with the scar now gone.
I like the first idea better as it is more dramatic. I for one want a long drawn out death scene for LV instead of the efficient one of the killing curse. I want him to know he is dying. But the killing curse rebounding again obviously works to bring it full circle.
So those are some of my ideas. What are yours? How will Harry vanquish Lord Voldemort. Be creative… no self sacrifice angle, since this is one of the more popular ideas.
Permalink
09.13.05
Posted in Scoops at 3:12 am by RavenclawWit
by RavenclawWit
via HPANA
The official GoF theatrical trailer is expected in theaters (shown before The Corpse Bride) and online on September 16. The trailer will be about 2 minutes, 30 seconds in running time and feature never before seen footage of the movie, including dialogue. Some highlights to look for:
- Harry spitting out his juice when he sees the Beauxbatons girls
- Harry asking Cho to the ball
- Prof. McGonagall giving dance lessons – using Ron as her partner and asking him to place his hand on her waist
- Viktor kissing Hermione’s hand
- Ron accusing Hermione of fraternizing with the enemy
- The Champion selection showing people’s reactions when Harry’s name is called
- Harry yelling at Ron, claiming he didn’t put his name in the Goblet and he doesn’t even want to be a part of the tournament
- DADA class with Mad-Eye demonstrating the killing curse on a spider
- Shots and voiceovers about the rise of the Dark Lord
- Ends with the title and Hermione’s voiceover saying everything’s going to change
Sounds super exciting. I was thinking that I wanted to see that Corpse Bride (it’s a Tim Burton flick, one of my favorite filmmakers) but now I have to see it just to see the GoF trailer.
UPDATE: Via HPANA: The trailer will premiere online at AOL’s moviefone tomorrow morning. The trailer will be available starting at 9:00 am at this link. It will be a stream, so this will only work for broadband users. I wouldn’t be surprised however if a downloadable version becomes available soon, probably on HPANA, as they seem to get their hands on that kind of thing pretty quickly.
Permalink
09.11.05
Posted in Wallpaper at 12:44 am by RavenclawWit
by RavenclawWit
I’ve been playing around with Paint Shop Pro 9 and making some Harry Potter desktop wallpapers. Here are a couple that I made recently. One uses a picture from PoA and I call it “Don’t Worry”. The other uses a picture of the trio from the upcoming GoF and it’s called “We’ll Be With You”. I’ll share more wallpapers as I make them. Click on the thumbnails to see the wallpapers. Once you get to imageshack (where they’re hosted) you’ll have to click them again to see them full-size.
Permalink
09.09.05
Posted in Scoops at 5:29 pm by Headmaster
A Harry Potter iPod, you say? Head on over to Apple.com and see for yourself.
Basically, it’s an iPod with the Hogwarts crest engraved on the back, the school motto, “Draco dormiens nunquam titillandus.” (“Never tickle a sleeping dragon.”) , and containing all six books on it’s 20GB harddrive.
Order yours today!
Permalink
09.08.05
Posted in Theories at 11:44 am by RavenclawWit
by RavenclawWit
I originally intended the following as a comment in response to Michael’s comment/good-natured challenge to the Harry Potter:Horcrux post. He issued the comment to myself and The Headmaster. The Headmaster is away on vacation, so I’m the only one around to reply. It got a little long, so I decided to make it a post instead.
First, I think you’re assuming that both the Headmaster and I have the same opinion on this. I do “believe” at this point that Harry is a horcrux. But two points I need to make. First, I put quotations around believe because of course, I can’t really know if this theory is true and I don’t have enough hubris to say with 100% certainty that my opinion is correct. Second, I believe that if Harry is a horcrux, it was unintentional on Voldemort’s part. (Therefore, I won’t address the parts of your comment that are dependent on it being an intentional act on Voldemort’s part. I’ll leave that to the Headmaster, when he gets back.)
I agree that Voldemort fully intended to kill Harry that night. However, who’s the one person he apparently, for reasons known only to himself, didn’t plan on killing? Lily. And yet he was forced to when she sacrificed herself for Harry. I don’t know what the spell for making a horcrux entails, but perhaps Voldemort’s plan was to kill Harry, and use that murder to make another horcrux. Could it be that when he murdered Lily, the horcrux spell enacted itself on the next object/person that Voldemort turned his wand to? In other words, Harry. I don’t know at what point Voldemort realised that Harry was a horcrux. I think he must know now, (hence the order to his followers not to kill Harry) but I think he only must have realised sometime after the events of GoF, if not OotP. He appeared to be ready to kill Harry in both books.
And then there is Harry’s scar. I believe that Harry’s scar is the best evidence of his being a horcrux. The curse Voldemort used (intentionally) against Harry was indeed Avada Kedavra. However, if my view is correct, then two spells were enacted against Harry that night. The first, AK, did not work, in fact rebounded on Voldemort because of Lily’s sacrifice and the love powered protection that it gave Harry. But I believe the scar comes from the second curse. The horcrux spell. What evidence can be given to the contrary? Remember, nobody had ever survived AK before so it’s not like we have any previous cases to go on. Everyone just assumed the scar was from the killing curse, because they had no idea what someone who survived it might look like. And it seems from Half-Blood Prince that precious few wizards even knew what a horcrux was, let alone what kind of marks it might leave on a person. And who’s to say that Harry isn’t the first person ever to be made into one? Dumbledore indicated that even an animal or magical creature might make a poor choice for a horcrux, so it’s likely that of the few wizards who had ever made horcruxes, none attempted to make a person a horcrux. We also know that Harry’s scar is unique. In Goblet of Fire, Fudge says “…I’ve never heard of a curse scar acting like an alarm bell before…”. Granted, Fudge is an idiot, but I think he has a basic knowledge of magic, and even Dumbledore uses the words “I believe” when he tells Fudge of the powers of Harry’s scar, because he can’t be sure, having no previous cases to go on.
As far as not being able to touch Harry in Sorcerer’s Stone, Dumbledore states that this is because of Lily’s sacrifice. Apparently this sacrifice has enough power to overcome the fact that Harry has a part of Voldemort’s soul in him. Why not? Voldemort can only touch Harry again in GoF, when he has used Harry’s own blood as an ingredient in his regenerative spell. I’m not sure what you mean by not being able to “hold control over him for a long time as in book 5″. If you mean the Imperius curse, Harry seems to possess this talent in general, not just with Voldemort. In GoF, when Moody/Barty Crouch Jr. demonstrates the Imperius curse on Harry, he is able to fight it. In fact, this may be one of the powers that Voldemort unwittingly transferred to Harry with the horcrux spell. If you mean by virtue of the visions that Harry has of Voldemort’s activities and emotions (and that of Nagini, another horcrux), I wasn’t aware that Harry was being controlled in these situations, only that Harry could see into Voldemort’s thoughts, and vice versa.
Which brings us to Nagini. Yes, I do think she is a horcrux. However, there is one other horcrux that is up in the air. That’s the “something from Ravenclaw” horcrux. Dumbledore says in HBP, that Voldemort would have wanted something from each Hogwarts house founder as a horcrux. No magical reason, that’s just how Voldemort’s mind works. (Much like a serial killer; they often take “trophies” from their victims.) Dumbledore also says that he tried to get a job at Hogwarts, maybe to get his hands on a Gryffindor artifact (the sword?). In that he was thwarted. Dumbledore also says that he had something from Slytherin, the “S” locket found in the cave. He also has a Hufflepuff cup. This, assumes Dumbledore, leaves something from Ravenclaw. I think this may be the object Voldemort intended to make into a horcrux when he killed Harry. But as I stated before, when Voldemort killed Lily, the horcrux went into Harry instead. The end of HBP indicates that Harry will pay a visit to Godric’s Hollow. Might not this object be found there? Maybe in whatever rubble is left of the Potter’s house (if any is left)? It may turn out to be something entirely different, but that does not matter. What matters is that Dumbledore didn’t know for sure about this horcrux, so it could have not been made yet when Voldemort attacked Harry.
That’s my story and I’m stickin’ to it.
Permalink
09.07.05
Posted in Theories at 10:36 pm by trickyart
by trickyart
Yep. I reckon that Harry is the horcrux. Dumbledore says that when Voldermort tried to kill him that he left something of himself behind - Harry is a powerful wizard, a parselmouth and has seen through the eyes of both Nagini and Voldermort, each supposedly being another horcrux. The silver ball thing in book five that Dumbledore has in his office shows a smoke form of a snake and another snake wrapping around it and he says something along the lines of ‘one and the same’ or something like that - I take this to have two possible meanings - firstly it may mean that it is more proof to Dumbly-dore that Voldermort has made a horcrux of Nagini, or secondly, Harold himself is Horcruxular. Also, Voldermort told Lily Potter that she didn’t ‘need’ to die when he was about to kill Harry which, to me, suggests that he had made a Horcrux of the child of the prophesy from the murder of James Potter (killing ‘tears’ the soul) just in case any weird shit happened, OR that he didn’t want to kill her because he knew what it does to the soul, so he was forced to make a makeshift Horcrux out of Harry. Also on the subject, I reckon R.A.B must be Sirius’ brother Regulus A(rmadillo?) Black, as he is mentioned a large amount throughout the last few books and to continually mention a character that has no bearing on the narrative is just AIDS on a stick.
So there.
Permalink
09.06.05
Posted in Questions at 4:11 pm by Headmaster
Obviously, my Harry Potter is a Horcrux theory is not without it’s detractors. So, in the spirit of openness, I’ve got a new poll running, which you can see below or in the sidebar of the main page.
What do you think? Am I way off base or have a I discovered the key to the seventh book and, perhaps, the series?
For those of you who want to vote on or see the results of the previos poll, please go here.
Permalink
Posted in Theories at 4:05 pm by Headmaster
This post is also cross-posted on my personal blog, but it’s definitely worth sharing here.
For the last time (two previous posts here and here), here are the pertinent details that lead to my theory that Harry Potter is the sixth and final Horcrux created by Lord Voldemort to shield his soul from death:
Facts:
1) Lord Voldemort knows the first half of the prophecy foretold by Sybil Treelawney to Dumbledore (through Peter Pettigrew [Wormtail] and Severus Snape) that Harry Potter will be a wizard of power equalling his own.
2) Lord Voldemort kills James and Lilly Potter and performs some kind of spell upon Harry, leaving him permanently scarred.
Assumptions:
1) Creating a Horcrux from a living creature has unintended consequences, such as the loss of one’s original corporeal form.
2) Alternatively, creating six Horcruxes (splitting your soul into the magically-significant 7 pieces) has unintended consequences, such as the loss of one’s original corporeal form.
Theory:
1) If Lord Voldemort only know the first half of the prophecy, it would make sense that he would try to place a part of his sole in the body of his main, upcoming rival. Then, even if that rival were to kill him, his soul would live on. It’s a sinister, evil and very effective plot.
Finale:
Given the above Facts, Assumptions and Theory, Harry Potter must be the sixth and final Horcrux. Harry is the unwitting host of the soul (part of it, at least) of the most terrible wizard ever and Lord Voldemort is reduced to some sort of ineffectual wraith, searching for a body.
I, for one, look forward to reading how JK Rowling works her way out of this situation. Book 7 should be fun.
Permalink
« Previous entries · Next entries »
