{"id":335,"date":"2011-05-16T07:00:06","date_gmt":"2011-05-16T14:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/?p=335"},"modified":"2011-05-14T13:13:57","modified_gmt":"2011-05-14T20:13:57","slug":"mark-re-reads-harry-potter-and-the-sorcerers-stone-chapter-8","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/2011\/05\/mark-re-reads-harry-potter-and-the-sorcerers-stone-chapter-8\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Re-Reads &#8216;Harry Potter and the Sorcerer&#8217;s Stone&#8217;: Chapter 8"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><!-- p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Georgia} span.s1 {letter-spacing: 0.0px} -->In the eighth chapter of <em>Harry Potter and the Sorcerer\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Stone<\/em>, Harry experiences his first disorienting day inside Hogwarts, where Filch and Mrs. Norris are super annoying and <strong>snaaaaaaappppppppeeeeeeeeee<\/strong>. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to re-read <em>Harry Potter<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong><!--more-->CH. 8: THE POTIONS MASTER<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Oh, Harry Potter. How I have missed you! As we take the time to spend a few chapters in this world, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s such a neat thing to be re-reading this with the context and knowledge of the entire series. Hell, <em>especially<\/em> this chapter, which contained so many clues to the end reveal of this book and the series as a whole. Also: SNAPE. Oh, we are going to have a <em>conversation<\/em> about Snape. WE MUST.<\/p>\n<p>It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s neat that there are hints to the whispering celebrity issue that comes up in <em>Chamber of Secrets<\/em>, that who Harry is, is going to be used against him in the near future. But it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just one of <em>many<\/em> things that distract, terrify, and disorient Harry on that first day of classes at Hogwarts. WHERE IS MY HOGWARTS LETTER, BTW.<\/p>\n<p>Since my initial review completely missed all the clue-dropping and foreshadowing present here because <em>I was so beautifully ignorant in those days<\/em>, I focused on the absurdity of all of this. The school itself no longer feels that way, as I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve come to understand that it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s almost a living entity in a sense, that corridors can change at will and that no one will ever quite understand what the building\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s actual layout is. (Dumbledore got pretty close. And now I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m thinking of the Room of Requirement and wondering when Rowling will first drop a hint of it.)<\/p>\n<p>But reading back through this again, I love how just <em>fucking weird it is<\/em>. Rowling\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s matter-of-fact tone throughout all of this feels like she was writing this and had a DEAL WITH IT look on her face. One hundred and forty-two staircases? Doors that are pretending to be doors? Ghosts that would drop wastebaskets on your head? A cat named Mrs. Norris? It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s all so <em>magical<\/em> and I know that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a silly word to use, but it really is. While I commend the fact that Rowling does capture the strangeness and the unfamiliarity of the first day at a new school incredibly well, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m more interested in how she uses this chapter to continue to build the magical world, especially around the outside in this case. While Harry has experience later with students who come from Muggle families, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not nearly the same thing because the very specific context of <em>where<\/em> Harry has come from.<\/p>\n<p>It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s nice to cycle through all of the teachers as well, from the adorable Professor Sprout, to the inevitably boring Professor Binns. I mean\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6.reading this again made me laugh:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Professor Binns had been very old indeed when he had fallen asleep in front of the staff room fire and got up next morning to teach, leaving his body behind him.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>CAN WE DISCUSS THIS. Ok, the way this is worded\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6.did he <em>discover<\/em> the staff room fire and just go MEH WHATEVER and <em>fall asleep right there in front of it?<\/em> Or is this an instance of him falling asleep in the staff room and <em>then<\/em> it caught on fire? Actually, it almost doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even matter which one it is, because the result of such an act is even more hilarious: He woke up, <em>completely dead<\/em>, and decided that there was nothing he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d like to do more for the remainder of eternity than <em>bore the fuck out of students at Hogwarts<\/em>. That is some fucking <em>dedication<\/em> to boredom. My god, Professor Binns is now the best character in the whole book.<\/p>\n<p>There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s an entire paragraph that is <em>RIDICULOUS<\/em> in terms of how foreshadow-y it is of Quirrell\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s true identity and I laugh at the fact that I did not catch a single detail regarding it at the time I first read this. His turban story is obviously fake since he doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t seem to want to tell the story of how he got it and his class is full of garlic to block out the smell of FUCKING VOLDEMORT, who is smelling up the back of his head. I mean&#8230;IT\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S RIGHT THERE. <em>HOW DID I NOT SEE THIS<\/em>. Oh, to be so blissfully unaware again.<\/p>\n<p>Actually, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m glad I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve read this whole series because now I can finally begin to openly talk about Snape. I never really wrote a huge piece about what I thought about him after I finished the series. And look, I can admit to being so absurdly foolish about hating him and thinking he was clearly the <em>worst villain<\/em> <em>ever<\/em>. But that also made the reveal of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Prince\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Tale\u00e2\u20ac\u009d much more powerful to me. But seriously, I was pretty committed to the idea that he was completely and totally evil. Given that, and given what I now know about his whole story, this chapter is just\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6.weird. Fascinating, but really, really weird.<\/p>\n<p>I suppose that it all has to involve some imagining on our parts to put the pieces together. But I think about Snape seeing Harry that first time in the Great Hall, and I imagine that there must have been a rush of memories, of emotions, thoughts of what he wanted with Lily but couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t ever have, of knowing that she was dead inherently because of what he had done years ago, and now <em>this<\/em> boy waltzes into that hall as a physical reminder of it all. Harry\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s existence is <em>because<\/em> of Lily\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s love for him, and now Snape has to see him. So what does a man in this situation do?<\/p>\n<p>He lashes out. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not comfortable excusing Snape\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s actions, but I want to make sure I <em>understand<\/em> them. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s like Harry is a trigger for Snape\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s rather traumatic past, and it doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t help that there are probably a few things that remind Snape about James Potter, either. I guess that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s why I ultimately think that of everyone in the <em>Harry Potter<\/em> series, Snape gets the best story. He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a man tortured by his conscience, of the memory of what never was, and he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s forced to protect a child that reminds him of how <em>fucking unbearably depressing his life is<\/em>. Again, this does not excuse the way that Snape bullies Harry, and it most <em>certainly<\/em> does not excuse the way he enables Draco Malfoy to do the same. Draco\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s character doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get the depth that Snape has until the sixth book and even then, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not enough for me to care. Sorry, I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t like Draco and he doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t redeem himself in my eyes. THERE I SAID IT, <em>BRING IT DRACO STANS<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>I suppose, though, that it would be so much <em>easier<\/em> to like Snape had he not come off as a presumptive asshole in this first true introduction to him, and I do understand why I was so averse to liking him. As much as I get that Snape is just unhappy with the way things have turned out for himself, he has no idea what life has been like for Harry at the Dursleys, that he has <em>not<\/em> lived a life of entitlement in the years he lived away from his parents after their death. Wait until <em>The Order of the Phoenix<\/em>, Snape, and <em>then<\/em> you will have plenty of time to whine about Harry\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s entitled attitude. FOR REAL.<\/p>\n<p>But here, in that first Potions lesson, Snape purposely picks on Harry, singles him out to answer questions that he knows Harry won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know the answers to, and punishes his entire house for these things. Was he trying to get <em>others<\/em> to dislike Harry, too? Either way, I elaborated on this idea during Mark Reads <em>Harry Potter<\/em> that I am not one to love figures of authority abusing their power as Snape has done here. Of course, this is nowhere near as bad as what Dolores Umbridge does (AAAAAGGGGGGHHHHHHH JUST THE NAME <strong>SENDS ME INTO A RAGE<\/strong>), but half of my experience in junior high school and high school involved teachers, counselors, and even a vice principal either picking on me purposely or enabling said bullying to happen. So that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s part of the reason I side eye Snape really, really hard while also understanding the traumatic motivation he has for his actions. On top of all of that, he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s incredibly hard on Neville during this first lesson and <strong>you do not pick on my Neville Longbottom without serious consequences<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>On a completely unserious note, I love that Hermione is already begging to be be chosen to answer a question. COULD I BE HER ANYMORE THAN I ALREADY AM.<\/p>\n<p>The seeds of the wonderful friendship that Harry, Ron, and Hermione have with Hagrid is all built right here, too. Obviously, since Hagrid was the first source of sorcery that Harry ever saw, and because Hagrid \u00e2\u20ac\u0153saved\u00e2\u20ac\u009d him from the Dursleys, I never doubted that Hagrid would always be a staple to Harry\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s life. But it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s great to know that so early on, Hagrid was sending Harry sweet little notes to join him for tea. Hagrid\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s an outsider, too, unable to perform magic, kind of a bit rubbish as a teacher, and an easy target for a lot of the school\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s more shittier student population, so there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a part of me that believes Hagrid doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want Harry to go through the same thing. He knows that Harry is also never going to get a post from his owl that originates from the Dursley residence, so it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s pretty fantastic that he takes it upon himself to send what he can to Harry.<\/p>\n<p>Hagrid\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s painfully dodgy and not-concealed-well knowledge of outside information is displayed in all its beautiful glory here in chapter eight as well. It almost seems like Rowling has this unspoken joke that runs throughout the entire series that involves the trio going to Hagrid to learn whatever they need to about that book\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s events because Hagrid is really shit at keeping a secret. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s clear he knew way more about Snape than he let on, and that whatever was in the vault had to do with the Gringotts break-in. (Did Dumbledore tell Hagrid about Snape\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s allegiance? I honestly can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t remember. I mean&#8230;did Dumbledore tell <em>anyone<\/em> else or did everyone just trust Dumbledore\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s judgment?)<\/p>\n<p>Chapter eight ends on that sort of note. You\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re intrigued by the concept of it all, but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s still not <em>quite<\/em> enough to send you into overdrive. SOON THOUGH.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the eighth chapter of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Stone, Harry experiences his first disorienting day inside Hogwarts, where Filch and Mrs. Norris are super annoying and snaaaaaaappppppppeeeeeeeeee. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to re-read Harry Potter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[9,8,23,7],"class_list":["post-335","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-harry-potter","tag-harry-potter-and-the-sorcerers-stone","tag-jk-rowling","tag-mark-reads","tag-mark-reads-harry-potter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=335"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=335"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=335"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=335"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<!-- WP Super Cache is installed but broken. 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