I have always thought it a little ironic that the series actually plays so well to US conservative stereotypes. Can't trust the press! Can't trust the government! All you can put your faith in is your friends in an illegal militia! The government doesn't want you to learn combat skills in school, kids - that's so they can CONTROL you. And so on.
I don't think it's Rowling's intention at all, I think she just wanted to write about teenagers fighting magical Nazis and fell into the classic YA issue of "kids in a stable safe environment don't have adventures."
Anyway, the setpieces in this one are great - the TriWizard challenges especially, and Ron's surliness, and the twist at the end pays off well. I do think not-Moody ends up rating in Harry's top 2 or 3 DaDA profs, but admittedly the pool is pretty shallow there.
The funny thing about the classic YA-ness of this novel is that it's the one that set these tropes in motion! There was no YA genre before Rowling came about! And so it's funny to see how government dystopias became such an important part of the burgeoning genre, since Rowling wrote the blueprint they all seemed to follow.
I always saw the elf subplot as a little bit of speculative fiction mindfuckery. I thought it was very clear in the books that Dunbledore would happily free and pay all the Hogwarts house elves, but they don’t want it! So then is it really slavery? Well… maybe not. But also maybe so, because the wizards presumably made the house elves to be compliant and happy with their condition! I always saw this as in line with the sentient cow that’s happy to be eaten in The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, or the issues raised by the virtual girlfriend (and, for that matter, the main character himself) in Blade Runner 2049.
Such a fun and then suddenly profound essay! (The inconsistency that never made sense to me was Harry’s glasses. Why couldn’t he just magic his eyes better?)
I have always thought it a little ironic that the series actually plays so well to US conservative stereotypes. Can't trust the press! Can't trust the government! All you can put your faith in is your friends in an illegal militia! The government doesn't want you to learn combat skills in school, kids - that's so they can CONTROL you. And so on.
I don't think it's Rowling's intention at all, I think she just wanted to write about teenagers fighting magical Nazis and fell into the classic YA issue of "kids in a stable safe environment don't have adventures."
Anyway, the setpieces in this one are great - the TriWizard challenges especially, and Ron's surliness, and the twist at the end pays off well. I do think not-Moody ends up rating in Harry's top 2 or 3 DaDA profs, but admittedly the pool is pretty shallow there.
Agreed! Which is kind of funny.
The funny thing about the classic YA-ness of this novel is that it's the one that set these tropes in motion! There was no YA genre before Rowling came about! And so it's funny to see how government dystopias became such an important part of the burgeoning genre, since Rowling wrote the blueprint they all seemed to follow.
I always saw the elf subplot as a little bit of speculative fiction mindfuckery. I thought it was very clear in the books that Dunbledore would happily free and pay all the Hogwarts house elves, but they don’t want it! So then is it really slavery? Well… maybe not. But also maybe so, because the wizards presumably made the house elves to be compliant and happy with their condition! I always saw this as in line with the sentient cow that’s happy to be eaten in The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, or the issues raised by the virtual girlfriend (and, for that matter, the main character himself) in Blade Runner 2049.
Such a fun and then suddenly profound essay! (The inconsistency that never made sense to me was Harry’s glasses. Why couldn’t he just magic his eyes better?)
Ha! A great example!
I thought I read somewhere that she wrote the very last scene in the series first, so it was a matter of getting the characters to that point.
That's possible, though the last scene to the series is an epilogue taking place 19 years later.
So it doesn't really tell us anything about what came before except, perhaps, that her protagonists survive and have children.
So I would still say that she didn't have much planned in between Harry's birth and him becoming a dad.
That’s exactly how my life went, too.
Same