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Welcome to the forums! I (and @Matt who’s currently off traveling) run the joint. Let me know if you need anything.
[adrotate group="5"]"He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"People I know that this is a 10:00 show but still it’s on ABC not HBO I don’t think it would go that far-
You don’t think ABC will let the show tiptoe with incest? What show do we all watch together, again? (hint: this forum is about that show) 😉
No, but my point is that there is a big difference between hinting and making allusions to and actually coming out and doing it. The siblings are almost pretty clearly in a sexual relationship. It will be talked about it when discovered but never fully shown like an HBO show would.
"He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"The’ve gotten rid of the screwdriver before, during Davison’s era. It will be back.
This I know. But still…it’s not something that should be done.
(and Davison’s era wasn’t exactly…stellar. Apart, really, from his final episode)
"He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"As usual, my thoughts are in my review but my down and dirty likes/dislikes
LIKES
–The conversation between Davros and the Doctor. While Davros may have been playing the Doctor in the end, I think there was some genuine feelings there.
–Lots of funny one-liners. “We, on the other hand, have a pointy stick…” is one of my favorites.
–Loads of Classic references.
–They explained how Missy got away from the Graveyard back in S8 (but have yet to explain how she came back in the first place…)
–Clara didn’t save the day or do anything really either than be a Dalek.
DISLIKES
–Poo-Daleks are not a thing we needed or ever need again
–Missy running off. We know this isn’t the last of her. Moffat clearly has too much fun writing her so let’s just keep her around and stop doing the “surprise! Missy is back!”
–Seeing the Doctor in Davro’s chair was fun, but I wish that bit had ended sooner so we could get to the interesting conversation between the two.
–Please tell me the Sonic isn’t gone for good. That’s a staple on the show, right there with the TARDIS herself.
"He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone: A Retrospective
“What a year it has been! Hopefully your heads are all a little fuller than they were.”
Re-reading the Harry Potter series can be difficult; because you have already read the series at least once, it is easy to want to skim the first book and get to the meatier and longer books. However, re-reading the first book has allowed us to delve deeply into themes and questions that encompass not only the entire series but the larger world. What is the nature of heroism? How does racism affect our choices? What is good? What is evil? How much free will do we have and how much does fate factor in? All these questions have been tossed around quite a bit over the past 25 forum pages and 17 chapters of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. When I take a look back at everything we’ve discussed, there is one thought that creeps up time and time again: Harry Potter is not children’s literature.
The Harry Potter series could easily be seen a children’s series. The three main characters are all under the age of 13 for a few books, and only ever briefly adults. They go to school; they learn in a classroom; they experiment with authority and power and sexuality. The trio of Harry, Hermione and Ron grow and develop from wide-eyed youths into world-weary teens who have seen too much. The Harry we met in book one is not the Harry we will know by the end of the series. In other words, the Harry Potter series has many of the hallmarks of a bildungsroman, or a coming of age story. It would be easy—too easy—to say that Harry Potter is a series for youngsters about learning how to navigate their own world, even if that world is not magical, just as the protagonist learns to find his own place in his world. The first book alone has valuable life lessons such as learning to deal with prejudices, class structure, jealousy, making decisions, managing school away from family and teamwork. All of those concepts are ones we teach children in their developmental years in order to create useful members of society. The series, then, could be seen as a didactic tool we use to educate youths with lessons that adults already know.
Here’s the rub, though: Harry Potter elevates these matters to an adult setting and does it all with a dark underpinning. There is an interview I read with JKR once where she responded to the idea that her series got much darker the more she wrote. Her answer? Her series starts off with a double homicide. How much darker could it really get? The conflicts I listed above are not just for the children, lessons they learn from smart and reasonable adults, as they move through Hogwarts. Often times they are characteristics that our adult characters still have.
Voldemort, of course, represents hatred and prejudice on a large and adult scale. His vitriol toward anyone who does not follow him, his prejudices in other words, cause devastation the world over. In our re-read, many of us have realized how disturbed we are by several of Dumbledore’s actions, be it leaving Harry on the Dursley’s doorstep or sending Harry into face Quirrell on his own, with little magical training. We’ve discussed that while Voldemort is the true face of evil, Petunia Dursley’s actions in the first novel are beyond reprehensible and re-reading with intensity has really shown us just how abusive she was to young Harry. We’ve also looked at Snape’s teaching methods and how his underwhelming approach to his students extends to more than just his hatred of Harry. It’s rather amazing that anyone passed Potions! We’ve seen Hagrid be incredibly negligent, even when it’s coupled with intense compassion. In JKR’s world the adults are not towering figures of perfection who must pass down handy dandy morals to the still developing youngsters; they are flawed, irresponsible, and sometimes a little frightening.
JKR’s world as presented in the first book is altogether magical. Staircases move, paintings talk, and ghosts eat dinner with students. But it’s also very realistic. It never feels fantastical to the point of being disconnected to our real world; instead it feels like a world that you’re being let in on for the first time in your life, as if you could really get an owl inviting you to Hogwarts. This feeling of the world being real is aided by everything I just said above; had the adults been too perfect and too stand-up, then everything would feel a little less real. We may have been young when we first sat down and read HP: SS (well, most of us) but we knew at that age that adults were flawed creatures and JKR takes plenty of opportunities to show that.
How do we characterize JKR’s first book, then? It’s not really children’s literature, and while it might be considered young adult, the themes within are darker and more cosmic than something you’d find in your typical young adult novel until recently and the rise of the distopia young adult novel, often keeps the danger or turmoil to a personal level and does not infringe on society. For example, while I love all of John Green’s works, his characters struggle internally far more than with the outside world and never face any sort of cosmic threat. The threat is to their identity and while happily ever after is not guaranteed, it is assure that the world will go on regardless of what decisions the protagonists make. With JKR, even here at the end of the first book, the world is weighted by the knowledge that Voldemort has only been delayed. Harry’s identity will be explored over the years, but it will be by facing down threats that are not only against him, but the world at large.
The first book is not without questions, of course. We’ve had many spirited debates over Dumbledore’s actions and the Sorting Hat. The latter proved very tricky to navigate because some of us still don’t think it’s the best system. There is also the matter of free will and fate and whether or not the Trio were brought together by sheer dumb luck or if something more cosmic had a hand. These questions are of a universal type; they speak to the reader and the way we each individually view the world through our rose colored (and not so rose colored) and subjective gaze. JKR sets up all these conflicts in the first book about Dumbledore and even the Hat but, unlike other children’s literature, does not seek to answer them by novel’s end. In fact, I get the feeling we’re going to be debating these exact same issues for the next six books, with no resolution.
As we move forward, more questions will arise and probably more debates. I’m still not sure how to classify Harry Potter but there’s one thing for sure; it’s a series that wants to be talked about. JKR sets up delicious and meaty questions that are not easy to answer, either for Harry or for us! The world of Harry Potter isn’t easy. But…neither is our real world. Magical though it may be, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone gives the reader to think about their own mundane world and the lives they are choosing to live.
Conversation Questions
1) How would you classify Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone?
2) Thinking about the series as a whole, where do you rank HP: SS?
3) What do you think of JKR’s writing in this first book? Does it suffer from being her first published work?
4) What surprised or shocked you the most in re-read of book 1?
"He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"More in depth thoughts later, but while I didn’t enjoy this one as much as I did week one, it was still very good. Easily a 8.5 or 8.75. Highlight was the conversation between Davros and Doctor. However, let’s never revisit Dalek poo
Here’s 903 trailer!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E819C7pxoeU
"He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"That and/or the birth of the Dark One. Possibly a rebirth for Emma?
Possibly. But…well, I’m betting they are being more literal and it’s Zelena.
"He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"Here's another little #OnceUponATime #scripttease — hope to see ya tomorrow night for the s 5 premiere! pic.twitter.com/scz5yqmWZC
— Adam Horowitz (@AdamHorowitzLA) September 26, 2015
"He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"No we do not, that theory makes me throw up a little bit in my mouth because THEY HAVE ALL OF THE UST SO THEY CAN’T BE RELATED NOPE. ?
I dunno…..I think they’re going there. The whole incest thing with the siblings makes me think it’s foreshadowing Ana and Wes learning they are mother/son after things get a little more heated between them.
"He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"Advanced Preview From SpoilerTV
"He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"
