Though She Be But Little, She Is Fierce

By the by, there SHOULD be a dash between “half” and “blood”, no matter how difficult it is to press that little dash button instead of the space bar.

Last night I went to see Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince after work. I got my ticket the night before because I knew it was going to sell out quickly. I definitely did not want to go to a midnight showing because I knew I would be too tired to really pay attention to the movie. So I went at 6:00 last night and was fully awake.

I enjoyed myself thoroughly. I think that the directing, screenwriting, and acting were all much more sure-footed than they were in previous films. The story was altered from the books, but a different medium calls for a different approach. The story had to be streamlined, and I think in this instance it was made into a cohesive story more effectively than the previous movies. There was rising action and a climax, and it was built up fairly well. I must admit some of the teenage antics got in the way a little bit, but honestly they were hilarious and handled well, so I won’t complain.

I was disappointed that one of my favorite scenes was removed–Dumbledore meeting with the Dursleys. Nothing in particular happens in that scene, so I know why it was cut, but I just adore the interaction between Dumbledore and the Dursleys, who he absolutely dominates. I think it would have been more effective than the scene in the Underground, which I thought was a little strange, to be honest.

I didn’t reread the book before going to the movie, which is probably the best way to do it. If you’ve just read the book, you’ll just sit there and take a mental inventory of what was and wasn’t included. As it was, I only noticed a few things while watching the movie (and many more later) that were changed. Obviously, the attack on the Burrow was an obvious addition, and the battle at the end was an obvious omission. I could have done without the attack on the Burrow, and I would have liked to see more action at the end (but more on that later).

The acting was much better. Ron–I mean Rupert–is fantastic. He’s good at being goofy. My only problem is not so much with Ron/Rupert as with the treatment he’s given in the film, a product of the writing and directing. He has mostly been nothing but the comic relief for most of the series. J.K. Rowling gave him much more depth and personality than that. In this movie, he was also separated from the others, physically and otherwise. The whole Lavender thing was the main cause, of course, and I suppose it was foreshadowing (I hope it was) of the brief split in the seventh book. But at the very end, I thought it was exceptionally weird that Harry and Hermione were standing there talking while Ron sat behind them, just listening. It was an odd physical placement.

But, back to acting. Emma Watson as Hermoine was less cringe-worthy than before. Of all the kids, I think she was the one whose acting I liked least. She just doesn’t seem at all like the Hermione from the books. Maybe she’s just too pretty (she’s a gorgeous girl). In any case, she did a very good job this time around; I think the only vaguely-cringe-worthy moment was when she said she had to go vomit. Somehow that line made me want to go vomit.

I’m definitely liking Daniel Radcliffe as Harry. He does a decent job. He definitely did a good job playing it for laughs when he was under the influence of Felix Felicis. He also did a decent job in the Astronomy Tower scene.

Tom Felton was really a revelation as Draco Malfoy. Previously, he’d done nothing much more than sneer a little, but he got to really develop the character a lot. I honestly felt bad for him, especially when Harry–ooops!–used Sectumsepra on him.

Of course, the adult actors are top notch, the cream of the British acting crop. Dumbledore was good, though I really really would have liked to see Michael Gambdon infuse the humor that is so evident in the books. I see Dumbledore smiling wryly and speaking in an ironic tone most of the time. I wished for a little more in the cave scene, as well, but overall I couldn’t have asked for much more. Alan Rickman is, of course, awesome. Thinking back, I’m disappointed that they didn’t give him the big freak-out after the death of Dumbledore. In the book he yells and screams at Harry. In the movie, it’s played down. Though to be honest, the movies have played down his nastiness, which is fair enough I suppose. Slughorn was perfectly played by Jim Broadbent. I think he hit the mark exactly.

So. The ending.

I really wanted so much more! The cave scene felt a little rushed (the Inferi were really really creepy and gross, though). I wanted it to be much eerier and scarier. I wanted it to be really really intense, with Harry desperately trying to help Dumbledore. I didn’t get a lot of the intensity and desperation I was hoping for. I didn’t mind that the Harry was hidden under the floor instead of his invisibility cloak (although several times in the movie, I thought, ”HE HAS AN INVISIBILITY CLOAK, USE IT GOD DAMN IT!”). And Snape popping up behind him and shushing him was okay, but still Harry would have screamed or done something.

The interaction between Malfoy/Dumbledore/Snape was well done, as was the fall from the Astronomy Tower. After that, I was disappointed. I wanted everything to bust loose into chaos. I love Helena Bonham Carter as the crazy-ass Bellatrix, but it wasn’t enough. I wanted all hell to break loose once Dumbledore was dead, just like it did in the book. It would have definitely seemed fitting.

And the confrontation between Harry and Snape was not intense enough. Harry screams at him to fight back, but he never attempts the Cruciatus Curse (that was actually set up in the fourth movie! they could have done that!). The half-dozen Death Eaters just kind of run away.

I did kind of like the wands in the air at the end, but again, I wanted more. I don’t cry at movies or books, but I definitely snivelled during Dumbledore’s funeral because J.K. Rowling brought back all the characters and impressed upon us how much Dumbledore meant to everyone.

The last scene was intersting to say the least. I already mentioned the physical separation of Ron from Harry and Hermione. We see the locket and learn that it’s fake–you know, R.A.B. But it reminded me that WE DIDN’T GET ANY CLUES AT ALL ABOUT ANY OF THE OTHER HORCRUXES! Only two memories were explored (sure, it’s hard to slip into a bunch of flashbacks, but they’re the core of this book), and neither of them set up Harry to be able to find the other Horcruxes. In fact, we don’t even learn what the locket is. I can only assume that this is yet another hole (plot-wise) that they will have to dig themselves out of in the last two films.

I probably sound negative, but overall I loved the movie and I think it was probably the best of the series so far. I thin it might have been worth the $12 ticket . . . maybe . . . I put a very very high value on money . . .

I know I’m not the only one out there hurting. I’m in desperate need of work. I will take just about anything. I’m one of the approximately 10% without a job.

I graduated at one of the worst times in the past thirty years. That 90% who have a job are holding on to it tenaciously. There seem to be very few jobs open. I had the bad luck to graduate college at a time when the economy has sunk very low indeed. Right into the crapper.

I’m currently selling off some of my more valuable and expendable belongings. It’s really a shame, but I can’t for the life of me find a job. I had two interviews earlier this week. I only need a summer job, but since summer is half over, I was forced to lie through my teeth and tell them I needed a job while I awaited a real career job.

I’m one of the lucky ones, I suppose. I actually have a bank account with money in it. However, every cent of that (and a lot more besides) is bespoken. I’m going to graduate school. Like many other people I graduated with, I’ve decided to try to ride out this storm by spending another year in school. Sure, I will be in debt now (I had no undergraduate debt), but I will have a master’s degree and I will have another year for the economy to straighten itself out. By next fall, the prospects may be much, much better. It’s a terrifying prospect, to eat through all of my life’s savings and then some.

But I want to do it and I’m taking the chance. I’m going to be going back to England for a year-long MA program in Publishing at Kingston University, just outside London. I first saw their program about a year ago and daydreamed about it. I didn’t think it would actually happen. A year on and it’s come to fruition. I’m working on getting my visa at the moment. I need to change my flight and I need to gather together the funds (you have to prove that you have a certain amount of money in order to get a visa).

I leave September 15 or 16th. Back to the U.K. I can only hope that I love it as much this time as I did two years ago (God, two years ago!).

And after a year of hard work getting my master’s degree, then what? Only time will tell. My hope is to get a job there at least for a few years. I may even try to stick around long enough for the 2012 Olympics. Of course, the career I’m going into is not very lucrative, but I’ll have to get by the best I can. I will make sacrifices to be able to watch the Olympics in person. Of course I’m going to return to the U.S. sometime. I may even find that I have trouble making ends meet in London, in which case it’s back to the good old U.S. of A., getting a publishing job somewhere stateside. That is my ultimate plan; I want to work my way up and be an agent and locate myself anywhere I choose. Maybe I will locate myself right back here in Cecil County. I do love this place!

So, does this qualify as t.m.i.?

As some around these parts will know, I am an avid writer. I’ve been writing creatively ever since I learned how to spell. I always felt the compunction to express myself by creating stories. My main motive in writing is the enjoyment I get out of it, but my end goal is to become published. It’s an extremely difficult thing to do–the selection process is extremely rigorous and has as much to do with luck as with skill. Still, I believe my work is good enough to be published, especially considering some of the crap that gets published.

I’m part of a creative writing message board, particularly the “historical writing” corner of it. Generally, I like it there; I’ve learned a ton from reading the posts, asking questions, and posting my work for critique. Like with all things, you have to balance all the critiques.

But right now, I’m extremely irritated about a series of posts. I posted a few hundred words for some critique. The first few posters did a line-by-line and were very helpful. Then someone posted that they didn’t think the voice was authentic for my time and place. I rolled my eyes. What the hell does this person know about it? So I posted a polite reply.

I know the time period while she, by her own admission, didn’t. She asked what time it was, but came up with approximately the right time period anyway. I have researched that time period. I have read plenty of the words spoken (actually WRITTEN–there’s a big difference between what people write and what they would say) directly by these people, even some of the words spoken by this exact person. My main character was a real person and she left some of her own voice in the form of trial briefs. The problem is that these were written by a lawyer, so her voice is diluted. Further complicating things, everyone in my story would have spoken in French. I have to approximate what they said in English.

I did this in several ways. Nicole was a relatively uneducated young woman, impetuous and flippant. She believes herself to be rather dumb though she isn’t. She was also a prostitute. I’ve read the trial briefs and tried to decipher how much of it was Nicole and how much of it was her lawyer. The result is a relatively simple cadence and diction. Of course the people critting my work haven’t read all of it, but other characters speak in very different voices. 

It seems that because she doesn’t speak like a Victorian lady, her voice is not authentic and “too 21st-century”. What the hell? No one in the 21st century speaks like she does, not even me, and I’m weird! By the way, I’m the same age now that she was in the story (and in reality) in 1784.

I can be right all I want, but it doesn’t matter if people perceive it as wrong. Well, only this one person, as far as I can tell, has this opinion. A few other people posted “helpful suggestions” like “Read Dickens”, but they were just jumping on the bandwagon. I’ve read plenty of Victorian literature (though, oddly enough, no Dickens) and can approximate a fair facsimile of their speech. In fact, when writing this story from other perspectives, I used very strong voices with very strongly Victorian cadences. But this is not Nicole’s world and not her manner of speech. I made a decision on how her voice would sound, and it’s a simple, decidedly NOT Victorian voice, as it should not be.

I’ve found before that on this board, the historical people, while generally very kind and helpful, love to peck at you. They pick out one thing from whatever work you post and tell you how wrong and misguided it is, generally on the premise that it isn’t historical. This without–generally–knowing too much about the period but believeing that they do. With other iterations of my particular work, I’ve been taken to task for things they pooh-poohed as unhistorical–but those things were lifted right out of the first-hand account of the character in question!

I can’t believe every reader is like that. I attempt to be extremely accurate and I don’t appreciate people proving how damn smart they are by pointing out anything they believe might be WRONG OH MY GOD! Most readers don’t have the ability or the desire to call me out. Hopefully they’ll give me the benefit of the doubt because I do know what I’m writing about.

This guy is fantastically hilarious. At about 2:00 he does a summary of the first episode of Make It or Break It, and it’s one of the funniest things I have ever seen. This guy really knows about gymnastics–cowboyed knees, tucked Tsukahara, the extreme danger of moving the vault board. Anyway, it’s HILARIOUS. Warning, though, the entire video may NOT BE APPROPRIATE. In fact, er, it’s entirely inappropriate. The part about Make It or Break It isn’t too bad.

My cat, Callie, had a regular checkup at the veterinarian on Saturday. I had to do the unenviable work of shoving her into the pet taxi–which she absolutely hates to no end. She fights and scratches and acts as though I’ve betrayed her in the worst way. I managed to get her into her box and into the vet by 9:00. She got her shots and I came home with flea medicine and some pills for her. On the way home, I let her out of the pet taxi and she climbed all over me. She liked to stay on my lap (as I drove) and put her feet on the door to look out the window. The movement of the car threw her easily, but she was draped over my arm so I held her steady. It was very cute. As soon as I let her out of the car at home, though, she ran off. She usually does that because she’s just that angry about being taken to the vet.

In the morning, I found her laying down outside on a rug that my brother had lain out on the basement doors. I gave her a little whistle to come inside and get her milk and breakfast, but she wouldn’t move. So I went to pick her up and bring her in, and she yowled horribly. I set her back down and realized she had a large wound on her haunches, right at the base of her tail (she probably got in a fight with some other critter). She didn’t want to move at all and she barely wanted me to look at the wound, no less try to move the hair out of the way or clean it. She had some milk, but then she disappeared again and didn’t come back until the evening. She was walking very gingerly and was sitting down like an old lady. She was also oozing puss from the wound on her back end. It was pretty ugly.

I let it be for the next day. She stayed outside, mostly, because I didn’t really want to carry her inside (and because she was still oozing quite a bit of puss). By the end of the day, however, she was acting very very weak and she hadn’t had anything to eat of drink in two days except for a little milk and a little cheese. I was (maybe unduly) worried about her, but there was nothing I could do to help her. She wouldn’t let me touch her. She wouldn’t eat anything.

So at about 9:00 p.m., I got very worried about her, so worried I felt that I needed to take her to the vet right away. I was worried about waiting until the morning. In retrospect, she probably would have been fine until the morning. But I called all the local vets and finally ended up having to go a 24-hour place about twenty minutes away. I wrapped up the cat in a towel and put her int he car. This wouldn’t have worked if she weren’t so weak. I carried her in in the towel, too. She was dripping pus and it got all over me. Very gross.

I had to wait and wait and wait. They  wouldn’t let me be with her, which I really regret. She must have been so scared, scared out of her wits. She has a very strong bond of trust with me and would have been far happier with me nearby. Finally, at around 10:30, I got her back. It turns out if cost $350! I just about had a heart attack. I cried a little when I got home because I don’t have that kind of money. But as it was, I couldn’t do anything. I’d made the choice to get her taken care of right away. They cleaned the wound, gave her antibiotics and a shot of fluids because she hadn’t eaten of drank much for two days. When she was finally handed back to me, she was utterly traumatized, poor thing. I felt awful for putting her through the ordeal. I felt awful about the money.

She stayed in all night (an unusual occurrence) and seemed much better in the morning. This was yesterday. She seemed to have much more energy and vigor and the wound seemed better. She’s been steadily improving ever since. I just had to give her the pills from the vet a few days ago PLUS the antibiotic pill. She is still a little pissed at me for shoving two and half pills down her throat. But, she’ll get over it. The wound is still healing, but she’s improving quickly and is more and more her normal, talkative, rambunctious self.

Okay, that’s not a “sordid” tale, but a tale nonetheless.