Writing and The Half-Blood Prince

[lightofdaye]

First, this is your weekly 'waaaa! writing' post brought to you my ability to only have ideas and writing ability when I'm no where near my computer.


Secondly I've been reviewing Half-Blood Prince the way i experience Hp mostly these days: with stephen fry's audio book versions. Si I've been thinking about it again. I still think its the weakest Potter book for me. But I know others like it.

But why is it called 'Half-Blood Prince' that's never more than a subplot and it elevates snape to a position only Harry and Sirius have otherwise to be mention in a title.

Second why does it matter that Snape is the Half Blood Prince? I mean its a nice bit irony that Harry learns so much for the book and never from Snape but its not important to the plot of Deathly Hallows nor does it seem to be to be thematically important.

But I'd love to hear i'm wrong and its actually very important. Any ideas?

Comments

[nearlyconscious.livejournal.com]

Oh, interesting! I remember it to be my favourite book, although the first three are special because... You know... Childhood, discovering the universe, idk, they'll always hold a special place in my heart. The fifth book had disappointed me somehow because I had LOVED GoF and was awaiting Voldy's return in full force and... Umbridge. Whereas I felt like HBP was like ~serious business, and I enjoyed the plot and subplots. Learning more about Voldy was fascinating, I liked the teenage love drama because it was not over-the-top but fun... The end with the Inferi was so fucking chilling, too! And then Dumbledore dying o-o This book was so much. Of course the Half-Blood Prince identity intrigued me and I guess it was important in that it contributed to what we learn of Snape beyond the "he was a Death Eater but he's redeemed" limited info we have until book 5-6. It attests to the fact that Severus is tremendously talented, creative, and dangerous. Idk about the title though, I think it's more of a question of what sounds well... I mean technically who cares about the Goblet of Fire? Logic would have dictated it to be called "HP and the Triwizard Tournament", no? What would you have seen as a better fitting title for book 6?

[lightofdaye]

That's an interesting perspective. :) I like OotP but I can see what you mean about Voldemort being very low key in it. To me HBP is all about 1)setting up DH and 2) killing Dumbledore. Everything else seems more like killing time to me. Though re-reading it does make me feel more kindly to it. Especially noticing stuff like H/G foreshadowing I missed the first time.

I don't know what I'd call the book really. But at least the GoF was tied to the main plot. but you're right its probably the second least relevant title, lol. only thing i can think of would be something relating to the pensieve. but that wouldn't work since we'd already seen it plenty.

[torino10154]

Butting in here but GOF has two of the weakest things in the entire series, IMHO. #1 That "Moody" was surviving on Polyjuice for 10 months. You need to drink that every single hour. How on earth did no one pick up on this? Snape thought Harry was stealing ingredients? That's bulk supplies not a single batch. Also, just that Harry needed to be led through the entire tournament only to have him show up at the graveyard in bloody June. Once again Voldemort proves he's an idiot. Seems like there would have been a better, more efficient way to get Harry to him--especially since he did have Crouch there at Hogwarts. /rambling rant ;)

[lightofdaye]

ha! This is totally true. Voldemort fails on the 'not reading the evil overlord list'.

But for some reason it doesn't affect my enjoyment of the book that much.

[nearlyconscious.livejournal.com]

Haha absolutely. The movie makes it so much worse though, boy...
I think one of the funniest things ever in the saga to me, in retrospect, is in GoF though. The whole "I don't see how Snape could have gone thid fast anyway, unless he somehow turned into a bat" line when Crouch disappears into the forest. Lol.
But yeah, no one noticing Crouch being on Polyjuice? Major bullshit. And someone as vigilant as Moody woulf have asked people to ask him trick questions everytime they saw him tbh..

[ely-baby.livejournal.com]

Hmmm... are you trying to ruin my second favourite book of the series? LOL! Well, I do love it, after the craziness of GoF and OotP, I just love the fact that we're back to school for another almost-quiet-not-so-much-but-oh-well year, before the craziness in DH. I do think that nearlyconscious is right about the titles of the books though, "Half-Blood Prince" sounds pretty darn good to me. And probably it was a marketing choice as well, I mean: I'm sure people started wondering who the Half-Blood Prince the moment the title was revealed. I know I did.

What would you have it called, daye?

[lightofdaye]

well i wasn't trying to talk anyone out of liking it if they wanted to!

as a name it does sound pretty good. like poetic/epic like. I just was thinking it doesn't seem to mean much.

as as i said to nearly, i don't that i can think of a better title myself. lol.

[ely-baby.livejournal.com]

Yes, it is quite epic.

Speaking about something different, are you watching "The Casual Vacancy"? I know it's out tonight in the UK and I'm looking forward to watching it tomorrow when I can find it online..

[lightofdaye]

I didn't even know it was being dramatised. Oops.

Trying and failing to get some writing done this evening. So behind my deadline. :S

[ely-baby.livejournal.com]

Oh my, Happpppyyyyy Writing then! :D :D :D xx

[torino10154]

Obviously you know I'm a big Snape fan but I'm going to try and be "impartial" LOL when I explain why I think it matters within the series. Also, there may end up being tangents I go on--hopefully I'll get back on track eventually.

In HBP Dumbledore shows Harry things about Voldemort, both for the purpose of defeating him but also humanizing him. He was a boy once, just like you. Then he made some really poor choices and look where he is today--also with him especially, how early he was already a sociopath. At the same time, Harry learns about this mystery person who he really identifies with and thinks is terribly clever. He, too, though ends up being not quite what Harry thinks, even before Harry learns who it is.

Like Harry and Voldemort, Snape is half-blood which, being a Slytherin, is well, unusual considering how they seem to see things. So for Snape to have been a DE when his father was a Muggle is just another one of those things that muddies the waters, I think. Shades of grey not B&W.

I do know that JKR had planned to put some of the themes of HBP in COS but that it was "too soon" to know them and I've always thought Snape being a half-blood was going to be it. But it needed to be put off because otherwise one would be suspicious about Lily (think of OotP if we already knew his dad was Muggle).

Also, I'd personally argue he's definitely worthy of a book title since he's such an important character in the series. And in that book it starts with his apparent promise to be a loyal DE and ends with him killing DD so the book really is about him and his (false) loyalty. So here Harry sees him do terrible things, thinks he's a horrible villain but there was a time, Snape really was a boy a lot like him (that also continues from the Pensieve scenes in OotP).

People have said HBP reads like part one of DH. The way it sets everything up, leaves on a cliffhanger. Doesn't feel quite as complete as some. That's one reason I know some people don't care for it.

But I do also agree that it has to sound good. Specifically, is the fact that Snape is the Prince important? Not in the strictest, literal sense. We could have learned about him and his past in a different way. Do I think the book really is about Snape and Voldie and Harry and the different paths they each take? Yeah, I do. As Harry says in DH, they are the abandoned boys.

Er, anyway, yeah, that's all over the place. /o\ Sorry.

[lightofdaye]

Don't apologise. This post is more exactly what I was asking. :) I was thinking about you three abandoned boys icon when i wrote the post. the snape is half-blood thing is probably bigger than i give it credit for.

I was thinking 'now ootp and the end of dh is where we really find out about snape.' not really counting that snape being half-blood really as big deal.

thanks so much for writing this.

[mayorhaggar.livejournal.com]

'Harry Potter and the Raging Chest Monster' just doesn't have the same ring to it, I guess.

[lightofdaye]

thank goodness!