Countdown to small gifts 5/7: Back to canon

[smallgiftsmods]

Hi, folks! If you're just joining us, we're on DAY FIVE of seven days of discussion before Small Gifts begins posting. Start off by introducing yourself (and meeting fellow participants and watchers) over here!

Day 4: Back to canon

What's your favorite book and/or movie, and why?

Comments

[museinabsentia]

So, PoA is the short answer, the easy answer, and mostly the full answer. I'll really say probably the first three, though. I love all of them, or I wouldn't be here, but the first three are when Harry and company are still young, so the books aren't as heavy. I understand that they grew with him, but I liked the lighter tone and more playful moments in between where everything wasn't just gloom, doom and everyone is going to die soon.

As for PoA specifically, I could go the easy route and say it's the book that gave us the boys, and that's true, and a large part of it. But it's also the book with the most detail about classes and exams. We get details about Hogwarts, we get introduced to Hogsmead, there's just a lot of Wizarding culture in that book. Hagrid gets to be a teacher! It just gives us a lot of the good things that help carry through the darker stuff later.

The movies? I haven't seen them. I've seen small snippets of the first three, but that's as far as that goes. I was so put off by some of the decisions made (costumes... the costumes killed me... how do you make all the Muggle clothes jokes if they wear Muggle clothes!!! A lot of the incidental humor was going to go away that way.) that I couldn't make myself sit through them. Now that I'm more patient and could probably watch and enjoy them I rarely have the time for movies anymore.

[ruinsplume]

That's so true about the clothes! Whoever chose the Muggle sweaters for the golden trio seemed to be wishing, at times, that they were actually designing Wesley Crusher's sweaters on TNG.

[museinabsentia]

One of my degrees was in costume design, I'm really picky about movie costuming. That just threw me so badly I couldn't watch them! I mean, that's half the fun of Arthur Weasley, making fun of his attempts at Muggle clothes. You lose so much of the small nuances that way.

[ruinsplume]

Oh, I can totally see how having a degree in costume design would make it hard to watch all kinds of movies! You have a fascinating backstory, MIA!

[museinabsentia]

It's funny, I can totally ignore things like historical inaccuracy, but I have s really hard time ignoring things that effect the story.

And I swear I'm not really that interesting.

[magnetic_pole]

And I swear I'm not really that interesting.

I don't believe that for a moment.

I'd never thought about it in quite the way you put it, but you're so right--the movies didn't capture a lot of the incidental humor. In some cases it just didn't translate from the page, but in others--the costumes, parituclarly, as you say--they didn't work very hard at capturing the quirky humor in the books. Thanks for pointing that out! M.

[coffeeincosmos]

I know I'm upset for the wrong reason here, but I still feel betrayed that they didn't at least go all the way and give us horrible 90s Muggle clothes.

[museinabsentia]

I mean, not wrong. I hate the Muggle clothes altogether, but if you're going to make that bad choice at least commit to it!

[magnetic_pole]

Solid life advice, generally. :) M.

[mindabbles]

LOL, that is very good life advice! I often say that aloud to other drivers.

[mindabbles]

When I was reading these to my son, I took a break after POA. I had read them before and knew I should wait until he was a little older to keep going. There is definitely a feeling of a cliff at the end of POA — stuff about to get serious. I agree about POA and the detail about the school and culture. I also love it because it introduces use to the previous genderation is such a more detailed way. The clothes really are an issue.

[museinabsentia]

You're right about that feeling of a cliff, of the rest of them getting darker. And I mean, you have to have read them all to really notice it, but the first three, the trouble the trio get into is their own. They did things that put them where they were. From there on out the trouble is something external done to them. That's a huge difference. Someone intentionally trying to hurt them rather than them just making choices that put them in dangerous situations. I mean, someone wanted to hurt Harry in both SS and CoS, but the high danger points of the books were not caused by someone else, but rather by the trio thinking they could fix it.

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