Thursday, July 21, 2005

I JUST LIKE SAYING 'MUNDUNGUS': Liesl Schillinger's review of Half-Blood Prince does a remarkable job of reviewing the book without saying a thing about what happens within it. But this is not a book that anyone need be told to read it -- they will.

As I've said for a long time on this site, the problem with contemporary reviews (film, tv, but to a less extent books) is that it's all prospective: is this worth your time and money?

Rarely, however, is there space given for the retrospective analysis: now that we've seen it, what does it all mean? In the case of HBP, I mean not merely the obvious plot questions set up by Rowling to be resolved in Book 7 (where are the []? why did [] do []? will Neville Longbottom ever get [ ]?) but the thematic questions -- what is Rowling trying to say about the war on terror? about destiny? adolescence? And do we really have to wait another two years again?

Consider this an open thread for all Harry Potter comments, including further detailed discussion of Half-Blood Prince.

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