I vaguely recall an old movie, set during the Olympics, where the main character is suspected of being a spy because he was sketching buildings. Does anyone remember the title?
It seemed funny at the time.
Florida seemed remarkably flat to me when I visited it. It isn't
something I'd have expected to notice, but it really gave me a sense of
not being home.
Nic @11: while avoiding alienating her more squeamish/bigoted readers (who can if necessary play the denial game, since Dumbledore's sexuality is entirely extra-textual).
I wish. I'm on an HP mailing list and those readers are whining that JKR has alienated them. I think it's more likely that she doesn't care what they think (whether she expected to gain something from the revelation, I don't know).
vito excalibur @116: Can you honestly say that if it had been dashing blond Gerda Grindelwald seducing D. to the dark side of the Force, Rita Skeeter would have been confining herself to writing about their late night owls?
It's true, there might've been better ways to handle it in the text (or it could have been the same mess that was Lupin/Tonks). On the other hand, if it had been Gerda, there would be no need to drop more hints via Rita Skeeter, because people would think it blindingly obvious that Dumbledore was in love with Gerda.
Lili @79: To me, this is the same thing: claiming that what's actually in the book is less relevant than what people say about the book.
I wouldn't go so far as to claim that the book is less relevant, but I do think that hearing what people (author included) say about the book can be interesting. It doesn't necessarily affect or replace how I view the book; it's a different kind of enjoyment. So I don't have a problem with Rowling making these statements, except that knowing the characters' jobs 20 years from now isn't what I'd call interesting (although I imagine it pleases the younger audience).
A datapoint on students wondering about teachers' sex lives: when I was 16, one of my classes took a nose-dive in quality and I remember wondering if the teacher wasn't getting any. I'd have guessed he was in his 30's, but he was probably younger. Then there was the time (same year, iirc) when we found a picture of a porn star who looked exactly like one very serious, former seminarist teacher.
Jon @27: Sorry, I thought you knew about HP's crazy pairings.
Jen @34:
Either way, he'd already *had* his chance. So to me, that's not canon -- creators don't get "do-overs".
But if there *are* two ways of reading that scene, how can it be not canon? Mind you, I'm not saying that the first option is more canon than the other. I mean that if nobody could have possibly gotten Joss's interpretation or if he was talking about a scene that was cut in the editing (like, say, Methos tossing Kronos down a well in Highlander), then I'd agree that it isn't canon, regardless of what he said.
#9 It's just unnatural, man. Not like the beautiful Draco/Giant Squid love.
#21 Whereas I started reading slash (and indeed fanfic) in the Vampire Chronicles, so not being canon was never a part of the definition. :)
My impression from other discussions is that some people say that slash meant (in its origins) or should be non-canon pairings (now that there are gay characters in canon), but that's not how the majority saw it back then or now. I don't know if there's any hard evidence, though. Possibly a case of everyone assuming that everyone else was using the same definition?
I'm only now starting to watch _Bebop_, and the opening makes me think of a James Bond theme instead of a Cowboy theme.
I don't have an opinion on Faye yet except that I don't get how she can move around comfortably wearing her jacket like that. Which I suppose is a bad sign.
Lila @2, indeed I recall comments about the "beautiful Nazi boyfriend" the weekend book 7 was released. I'd be very surprised if nobody had written it yet, although this may spark more interest.
On the subject of things I *don't* want JKR to explain, Hadrid's parents are at the top of the list.
FMA is excellent and I can't recommend it enough. My only quibble is that it has some problems which I think were created by diverging the plot from the manga.
The manga has been better in my opinion, partly because it's more consistent (so far) and partly because it's full of very cool and competent characters, with the added bonus that you don't know what to expect once it starts diverging (I don't think reading the manga first then watching the anime results in the same level of whoa!-- chapter 51 still reduces me to incoherent OMG!!1!s).
Leva @14: There's a scene involving a little girl that left me with nightmares after it. (And my stepbrother stopped watching the series at that point.)
Heh. I'm the only person I know who wasn't all that bothered by that. I was bothered by gur qnq orvat n fybccl cflpubcngu naq irel fbba nsgre nabgure penml nypurzvfg rcvfbqr gb obbg. I've heard more than one person saying that they decided to keep watching after that episode because they realized FMA wasn't pulling punches, but of course that may be a feature or a bug depending on each viewer.
cofax @73: Fanfiction.net (which is often referred to as "the Pit of Voles", although there is good stuff there): this is open to all, unfiltered, within certain constraints. This is by far the largest fanfiction site on the net, and as a result it's very hard to find quality stuff there unless you have a guide.
When I find a good story on FF.net, usually through a rec page, I check the author's favorite stories (and those other authors' favorites). They usually range from good to decent and at the very least I avoid the soul-sucking bad stuff that can be found there. I get the impression that many good stories archived at FF.net were posted before the site became the Pit of Voles.
Alex @3: José Saramago too. _Baltasar and Blimunda_ is about n gevb bs crbcyr jub ohvyq n sylvat znpuvar cbjrerq ol uhzna fbhyf.
Jen @359, thanks, I must have forgotten that detail by the time they got kidnapped.
Was Draco in the crowd during the final duel? Because he must've been kicking himself house-elf style when he heard Harry's explanation.
Pat@306 and Greg, to me the rescuer that came out of the left field was Dobby, to the point that I didn't even mind his death. I kept wondering why Dobby didn't rescue people more often and why nobody thought to call Kreacher out of Sirius' house.
At least with Neville and the snake, well, the minute Harry told him about it, I knew Neville would be the one killing Nagini, and when the Hat appeared, I knew Voldemort had underestimated it. Voldemort's idea to put everyone in Slytherin was kinda bizarre, though.
Has anyone mentioned the Snape/Lily, Spike/Buffy parallel?
Oops, Michael@284 beat me to it.
You know what I'd have liked in the epilogue? If some of the kids were really excited about being in Slytherin like Snape and the other great Slytherins that helped rebuild Hogwarts in the years after the battle. As it is, nothing really has changed.
On the subject of forgiveness, Harry also understood and forgave Kreacher's betrayal in book 5 (that I gather lead to Sirius's death. I don't recall much about books 5 and 6). At least he seems to be thinking of Kreacher in different terms after the revelation about the locket.
I wasn't entirely convinced by the line about sorting too soon. If the process was as simplistic as that implies, I'd expect Hermione "smartest witch in her generation" Granger to be in Ravenclaw, Neville in Hufflepuff and young Dumbledore either in Ravenclaw or Slytherin. Yet somehow the Hat saw that they'd fit in Gryffindor.
Kellie @279: I meant that being named after Albus Dumbledore and Severus Snape is a lot to hang on a kid.
People keep saying that, but this is Harry Potter's kid. I don't know if there would be a noticeable difference if he'd been named Billy Bob.
#184
I don't think you can use Snape tearing that picture as a demonstration of how Snape views Harry. That picture was, to Snape, the future he had lost. Looking at it would have been like looking at your true love's wedding photos.
Also, it might've been hard to watch her smiling at her baby knowing that said child had been raised for the slaughter. Snape must have liked to imagine how Lily would have praised/thanked him for helping Harry survive over the years.
I'd always thought that Snape had had a full turning point when he betrayed Voldemort the first time (I was leaning towards "disgusted by the killings" instead of "in love with Lily"). Now I wonder if he didn't complete his change until after Voldemort's return. Did he fully grasp the difference between "arrogant toerag" and "evil" that Lily explained to him, and, if so, when? I could see him not thinking too much about it during the intervening years.
G. Jules @34:
Did anyone else find themselves mentally marking down the parts there'll be fanfic about?
Young Dumbledore and Grindelwald.
Guide the cows.
Neopets has some nice games like Destructomatch. Last I checked it wasn't necessary to register to play.
Finally a thread to which I can contribute.
I suppose the Darth names can be explained by George's tin ear, but what is it with the inappropriate Portuguese names? Amidala means tonsil, Panaka is a fancy misspelling of idiot, Count Dooku sounds like Count of Asshole and Sifo-Dyas reads like f*cked (these last two were renamed in Brazil). Now that I think of it, the trend actually started with Boba "Silly Girl" Fett.
Star Wars: Teaching kids to swear in Portuguese since 1980.
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