(no subject)

[heidi]

Okay, how many of you feel that Dumbledore's characterization in PS/SS: The Movie would have been vastly improved if Steve Kloves or Chris Columbus had deigned to include four words from the book:

Nitwit. Blubber. Oddment. Tweak.

For me, those four words were among the elements in Book 1 that hooked me into reading the book way back in October of 1999, and they were part of Dumbledore for me. Well, that and his reaction to the twins' singing the school song, but for the sake of not adding minutes to the movie, let's just keep it to those four words.
Instead, they spent eighty seconds or so showing Hedwig flying through the snow. Wheee, lovely.

Stupid, stupid, stupid. And one of the reasons why, as alice_and_lain and cjestes can tell you, I stood up when the credits began and began stamping my feet on the floor in frustration and anger about the way the movie had been changed so much from the book* and the way the changes all felt stupid, or dangerous (Harry actively using his hands to injure/kill Quirrel, not just to protect himself and the stone).

We shouldn't have to use our imaginations to fill in the gaps about Dumbledore twinkling in the movie, and we shouldn't have to use our imaginations to fill the gaps in how Hermione finally decides she is either (a) finally actually interested in Ron as a boyfriend, or (b) finally actually willing to pursue Ron such as to have him become her boyfriend (and can we all FINALLY agree that before HBP, she was either not interested in him as a boyfriend, or had not undertaken to deem him her boyfriend? Good.).

The thing is, there are possible reasons for why she would do (a)-or-(b). The near-fatal injuries at the Ministry, or the risk of death in the woods with the centaurs would be enough to push anyone to change her perspectives on things, and I know from being-near-near-death-experiences. When I was 19, my then-best-friend and I were parking her car across the street from the townhouse just off campus where I lived, and these two guys in a van pulled up behind her, looked right at me, and grabbed her bookbag which was slung across her chest, dragging her 40 or so feet and running over her, possibly twice.

She was in and out of a coma for two days, ended up with pins in her hips and spent about two months in the hospital in traction; she's more or less fine now, fifteen years on, but watching her nearly die, and being five feet away from having been the victim myself, was enough to turn me, at 19 (ie about two years older than OotP/HBP Hermione) away from the career I'd planned to have (journalism) into law, in large part because I had been among the pack of people who'd descended like vultures after someone was seriously injured or killed in some horrific something, and I knew I couldn't do that anymore, not after having been The Witness and the only one the press could go to for said eyewitness account. And yes, that's a life-decision change. And it's entirely possible that what happened at the Ministry inspired Hermione to make a life-decision change. It seems to me to be the Moste Potente Reasone...

However, I am sure that some of you have other thoughts that explain why she did (a)-or-(b). And it's great to take your theory and fanficize it or fanart it or vid it.

But why couldn't JKR just write it? One line... just one line from Hermione when she's talking about Boys To Invite To Invite Jealousy would've done it, like one line from Dumbledore in Movie #1 would've changed his characterization to all those (and I know some of you are among them) who saw the film before reading the books (and along those lines, what did you think of Dumbledore when you saw the film versus read the books, if you did the movie first?).

I'm not a lazy reader - I can ponder a scene or a character for years, now, can't I? - but in this case, we shouldn't have to. If there was a reason, then that reason should've been in the book. If there was no reason, no inspirational moment of impact, no justification for Hermione to change her thoughts about Ron or at least her responses to him, then yes, that aspect of the book makes no sense. And what's frustrating me is that it would be *so* easy for it to make sense and be a natural progression of Hermione's character. Just. One. Line.

ETA: I wrote the above while about 24 hours behind in reading LJ, and on my first page spotted a link to this post by amanuensis1. Word, is all I can say. Incorporate all that into here; I wish I'd said it.


* Yes, I know that PoA was also changed from the book, but other than the neglect of the Department of Backstory and the stupid use of Sirius's "cleverest witch" line to Hermione, which makes no sense in the context of the film, it didn't bug me as much because the changes weren't of the degree of stupidity of the Flight of Hedwig, sigh, sigh, sigh.

Comments

[heidi8.livejournal.com]

So you did read it? I thought you were waiting for it to show up at a used book thingy?

And yes, I see the point re GoF, but for at least 18 months - more like 2 years, as she didn't do anything in this book pre-slug's xmas fete either - she wasn't interested in taking any steps to secure him as The Boyfriend. What I'm positing in this post is, why couldn't jkr give us a line about why she decided to be interested in doing so?

[chickadilly.livejournal.com]

What I'm positing in this post is, why couldn't jkr give us a line about why she decided to be interested in doing so?

Hmm ... I dunno, I suppose she didn't think it was important? I think the romance aspect is a part of the books that fandom will always disagree on, though. It works for me so I never questioned that she was interested in Ron but obviously what works for me isn't going to work for everyone and all that jazz. :)

Agree with you about DD's line "Nitwit. Blubber. Oddment. Tweak." It just says something about DD's character and I was bummed we never saw it on screen.

[prettyveela.livejournal.com]

Exactly. Some wanted Hermione to say in no certain terms that she choose Ron as a boyfriend, some of us thought that JKR gave us Hermione's interest in Ron in book 4. Some still don't see it. *shrug* You can't please everyone.

[phoenixsong]

I think Ron was still at the "ew, girls are icky," or at least foreign creatures, stage during GoF and OotP. So, JKR wrote Hermione as waiting for Ron to grow up some.

I caught on to the intended H/G and R/Hr by CoS; the trouble for me is, to this day, I still have no idea why Hermione is supposed to interested in Ron romantically. That's the missing element for me -- not Hermione's interest in Ron, but what it's supposed to be based on.

Tangentally related: Harry's perception of the H/G kiss felt weird, too. At the end of OotP, I felt like Ron was pushing for Ginny to keep saving herself, as it were, for Harry. So why does Ron seem to only grudgingly accept H/G when it happens? Or is that just Harry's perception speaking?

[themorningstarr.livejournal.com]

I think that Hermione made a similar mistake to Ron's in HBP: taking him for granted. Or at least taking his presence for granted. It's easy to be interested in someone as a boyfriend without acting on it, especially if the object of interest is one of your best friends and the possibility of "ruining the friendship" is there. Once the boy starts seeing someone else, and you (1) don't have him around all the time and (2) realize that you may have lost your chance, that in and of itself is enough to make a person want to start "taking steps to secure him as The Boyfriend." Add to that the boy nearly being poisoned after you haven't been speaking to him for some time, and you realize that not only do you not have him around all the time, but he could have died and you'd never have had him around again.

I guess I'm not sure why that needs to be spelled out with a line from Hermione. It seemed apparent to me by her actions. And who knows, maybe that one line is yet to come.

[ginsu.livejournal.com]

I've read all the spoiler chapter summaries of HBP on Wikipedia. (I'm sure that was part of why I instantly drew the conclusion that Dumbledore isn't going to stay dead, I think. Stripped of narrative, the Dragonslayer parallel just screamed at me, and I really will be astonished if she doesn't bring him back ala Ulrich.)

why couldn't jkr give us a line about why she decided to be interested in doing so?

Well, you and I have chatted about women marrying men with less intelligence and less ambition, and we surely agree about that.

However, marriage is a deliberate decision, and teen crushes so often aren't. I think Rowling is simply going with the Instant Attraction thing, which bows to no logical reasoning.

I myself, a grown man in my thirties, still have the ridiculous sexual crush on Jennifer Aniston I've always had. This, despite her demonstrated tendency to marry simpletons.

You can draw comfort from the fact that since JKR intends never to tell us what happens beyond Hogwarts, Hermione doesn't actually marry Ron. There is a pregnancy scare when she's nineteen, and Ron's immaturity, fearfulness, and goopy mugging in astonishment, when he's informed of this, tell her everything she needs to know about him as a candidate for the role of husband.

[heidi8.livejournal.com]

However, marriage is a deliberate decision, and teen crushes so often aren't. I think Rowling is simply going with the Instant Attraction thing, which bows to no logical reasoning.

So you really don't think this is going to become Their One Twu Wuv Relationship Forever? Because I truly fear that that's what is happening. I've always accepted the idea that they'd date, and that's a sensible growing-process-thingy. But mawwage? And longterm perpetuity? That I don't understand at all, but I think she's telegraphed in the interview that *that* is what's happening here. Mer.

[ginsu.livejournal.com]

So you really don't think this is going to become Their One Twu Wuv Relationship Forever?

Well, I believe Rowling when she says the Potterverse stories end for Harry after seven books; therefore, we will never know what ultimately happens to any of the characters.

I think at the end of book seven, Ron will be with Hermione, yes, and Harry will be with Ginny, yes, but... I also think they'll be eighteen and none of them will marry before The End. And certainly when I was eighteen I was not about to marry the girls I was snogging.

On the other hand, abdicating the throne of ultimate attention and praise may prove harder than Rowling thinks. If Michael Jordan could unretire himself, twice, I wouldn't be surprised to see her do it, too, and that being the case, she might well give us marriages.