Snape, Snape, Severus Snape

I read 'Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince' today. I'm seeing the film tomorrow morning, and although I'd claimed that I had no time to read it, and that it might be fun to watch the film first (and therefore enjoy it as a film, without knowing all the twists and turns beforehand), a whole host of youtube reviews was enough to change my mind. The conclusion seems to be that the film, despite some of the best acting and most stylish directing in the franchise, leaves out a number of fairly crucial plot elements (such as the explanation of horcruxes), and continues to not allow room for much character develepment. Slightly worried that I might get to the film only to not understand it, I plunged into the book with a day to go.

As it was, it really didn't take me long to read. All credit to J. K Rowling - it was a really gripping novel, I havn't read like that for a long time. I think it may be my favourite so far - I know a lot of people see it as a 'filler' book without much going on until the last few chapters, but I like it when there's a bit more space to enjoy Hogwarts for the wonderful place that it is, and to watch all those teenage personalities clash and change. It was great to see Draco become a more complex character, and it's got to the point when all the 'minor' Hogwarts students seem to be real people too. Dumbledore was as mysterious, charming and heart-breaking as ever. And I continue to be totally fascinated by Tom Riddle. My favourite part of the series is probably the Voldermort back-story, and I still have a strong attachment to the 'Chamber of Secrets' (even the film), so I've been excited about this one ever since I heard what it was about. If J.K. ever does more spin-offs some extra Tom Riddle would be much appreciated, thank you. Her writing style also seems a world away from the first novel - I'd always seen her as a fantastic storyteller, but perhaps not a great writer, but I loved the way she wrote this book.

Then, of course, there was Snape. Here it is probably best to explain that I have a complicated relationship with the Harry Potter series. I went to the type of faith school where one or two teachers were strongly against the books and that meant that very few of us read them - as a phenomena it largely passed us by. We were aware that a lot of people were talking about them, but Hogwarts hysteria didn't grip our school like it did almost every other. I didn't pick up the first book, therefore, until my youngest brother and sister (then nine, now thirteen) became obsessed with them. I'm struggling to remember if I saw the first few films before the books or afterwards - I think it was all roughly in the same couple of months. And I really like them. But having missed out on them at the age when they would have been really influential, because I'm the type of girl who does get swept up into these worlds, and because I'm from the generation who grew up at the same time that Harry, Ron and Hermione did, it's always been a little bittersweet for me. I've never had that level of devotion to them, I've always started reading the novel knowing 90% of what was going to happen, and the people I see in my head as I read are the actors in the films.

Which makes analysing characters like Snape in this book so difficult. I love Snape. He is probably my favaourite character. But I worry that a lot of this is because he is played by Alan Rickman in the films, and I love Alan Rickman. I'm also concerned that a lot of how I felt in this book was affected by how much I knew about the next one. I liked Snape in HPB, I felt his pain, sympathised with his predicament, and found myself increasingly frustrated at Harry for being totally oblivious. But for readers at the time, those who had queued up all night to get the book on its day of release, who then read it within 24 hours, did they feel like this? J.K. seems to spell it out, but does she really? Would I have found it 'obvious' from the first chapter if I didn't already know how it all ends? Would I, like Harry, have felt furious and betrayed by Snape? I wonder. Oh the confusion of The Girl Who Got Left Behind. :)

On Haruki Murakami

Much of today was spent finishing 'The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle' by Haruki Murakami. Like every Murakami book, it has probably crept into my mental Top Ten Books list. Sometimes I worry that one day my whole list will be Murakami. He is widely regarded as one of the world's greatest living authors after all. Luckily his books are also so strange, surreal and unexpected, and so infrequently have a plot that can be explained in less words than the book itself, that within a week I'll have forgotten almost everything about it. Within two weeks I'll be wondering what I ever saw in it in the first place. And so there isn't a single Murakami novel in my actual Top Ten Books list after all.

It's difficult to explain, because Murakami is an author unlike any other I've come across. Admittedly I've read a lot more children's and YA fiction than books aimed at adults, and he's the only Japanese writer I've ever heard of. Perhaps there's loads of other people out there writing in his odd style, and I just havn't read enough books. Still, with Murakami it feels less like you're reading a book, and more like you're feeling around a labyrinth in the dark. I never have any idea what will happen next. I know that can be said about many well-written books, that twists and turns are often exactly what makes a novel so enjoyable, but rarely can you say it and mean it literally. In most books there is a plot that can at least be vaguely set up on the blurb on the cover. Four children and dog discover treasure in a cave. A murdered girl looks down from her heaven and narrates her family's experiences. A family of girls long to find suitable husbands. Not so for Murakami. In Murakami books things just happen, often with seemingly little relevance to the 'main plot', if such thing exists in his book at all.

Take 'The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle'. The blurb tells almost nothing. A man's cat disappears, this unsettles his wife, then his everyday life unravels as a series of strange things happen. An odd summary for a book which is over 600pages long. But to tell anything else really does give the plot away, because there does not appear to be an over-arching plot, at least not until the end, so every little thing that happens is the plot. The 'start' of the mystery at the heart of the story doesn't occur really until 200pages in, so even referring to that would be giving too much away. Characters come and go - soothsayer sisters, elderly generals, evil politicians, complicated teenagers, insightful fashion designers and their mute assistants - and much of the book is made up of their letters and long accounts of their life-stories. At the same time, it doesn't feel like he's writing these things at random, just that the meaning of them is just beyond our grasp.

Somehow this never feels frustrating or overly-intellectual though. Yes, there probably are deeper meanings to these books that I don't understand, but they are so beautiful, detailed and imaginative that it hardly matters. They can be followed because what he says on that very page is so enthralling that you don't necessarily think about what lies in the chapters before and ahead, you just go with his flow. Yes, the sex and violence are explicit, and these aren't novels that I'd recommend to everybody, but he does have a way with words.

One of his books that has been very near the top of the beloved Top Ten ever since I first picked it up is a collection of his short stories - 'Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman'. The random seems less random in short story form, and therefore is less of a distraction. Not only will you remember these 'plots', but they will gently inprint themselves on your mind. Man-eating cats, stone paperweights that move themselves, people who talk to themselves as if reciting poetry - he makes the surreal seem everyday and the everyday surreal. I'd reccommend 'Blind Willow', and his other short story collection 'The Elephant Vanishes', to anyone interested in trying a Murakami book for the first time. If you're wanting to plunge straight into the novels I'd suggest 'Norweigan Wood' (his first novel, which is probably slightly more 'mainstream' than most. He seems to get more surreal with age), or 'Dance, Dance, Dance', which is typical 'strange' Murakami, but is so obviously like that from the outset that it doesn't feel so peculiar.

I hope this didn't put you off. Murakami is a wonderful experience, but a difficult one to explain. I'm yet to meet a person who hasn't declared him to be one of their favourite authors after reading one of his books. He's internationally adored and, as far as I'm concerned, the literary genius of our times.

He also has a stunning website with incredible music.

Tomorrow will be an entirely diferent type of book - I'm hoping to read the whole of Harry Potter 6 in 24 hours. I was planning to see the film first, but then I cahnged my mind . . . and I'm meant to be seeing the film on Thursday. Oh well.

A blogging challenge . . .

It's decided. Unless I'm away, I'm going to blog every day for the rest of the summer. Why? Because I'm terrible at keeping a diary, and it would be nice to remember what I actually got up to over the summer break. And I like blogging, I just always forget to do it. So here goes . . .

This summer so far has been fun. Actually, the fun part is pretty much over . . . I went to Skye for a week with the family, which was great. I was then home or a day before getting a train down to Brighton (a very long trip, I read almost all of David Mitchell's 'Black Swan Green', which is an incredible, imaginative, moving book. It was the second time I'd read it and, like all Mitchell's books, I'd totally forgotten how good it was) for a church conference. That was good, plus there was the beach and plenty of graffiti photography opportunities which always make me happy. On the way back I stopped off in the Lake Districy for a long weekend with some friends from the sixth-form days, which was fantastic. It's weird how those two years of 'transition' at college, which most people overlook and leave behind pretty quickly, got me the only bunch of friends that I've really kept in contact with. It's insane that it was ive years ago when we first started Ridge. Madness. It really doesn't feel like that long ago at all. Despite me being he only one who took a gap year several of the rest are on four year/ foundation/ graduate courses, so hopefully we won't have too many people disappearing on us yet.

So now I'm back, and writing obituaries (my summer job. Unusual I know. But it's really interesting, if a little sad), and thinking about my dissertation . . . . I should hopefully get back to Manchester for a couple of weekends at some point, and one or two people are planning on visiting me up here in Glasgow, so fingers crossed the next couple of months shouldn't be toooo boring. Plus I came up with a list of '100 things to do this summer' (but could only think of 90). So far I've completed:

1. Write cards for old friends (postcards ftw!)
3. Start a creative writing journal (an actual notebook, not online as most other things in my life. Though I might start an online one too eventually)
25. Buy replacement flower-power bracelets (me and the sisters had matching flower bracelets, but they all broke this year. So we've got new new beaded ones instead).
47. Sign up for the organ donor register (after all those years of saying I would it took approx. 3 minutes)
58. Get back into a retro computer game (Tony Hawks 3 on the Playstation, oh yes :D)
59. Play a retro board game (The Game of Life. Twice.)

And so far that's it. Quite a few to go then. Some of them I'm looking at and already thinking that they're not going to work out. The heat-wave was very short-lived, so majorly out-doorsy plans may have to be scrapped . . . but it's waving off the boredom anyway.

In other news . . whilst I was away Dan (my youngest brother) did something to my laptop that made it go back to factory settings . . . or maybe he didn't and it just happened like he said. It's not the greatest of computers so it could probably have happened to anyone. But as it is, it happened whilst I was away, and a combination of guilt, a recent inheritance and my approaching disseration means the parents have very kindly ordered a new one. It has about six times the memory of this one, it's purple, and it has a built-in camera. Oh yes. Which means after all those years of saying I wanted to vlog I might actually do so . . . be afraid.

End of term

Stale cornflakes really are not pleasant. But once you’ve put milk on them there’s not much you can do but go ahead and carry on eating. There’s a lot of strange stuff you have to eat when it’s the end of term and you don’t like wasting food. Today’s menu: Four crumpets, baked beans, 2 yoghurts, a third of a jar of pesto, 3 oranges, half a pint of milk. Yum yum yum. And then there’s the sorting of the notes into folders from their scattered places around my room and dotted between various notebooks, the finding the right library books and battles with the librarians to take them out a few days early, the washing of clothes, the trying to fit everything into one suitcase. Fun times. And then off on a train at 12.12, pulling into Stockport at 16.25 for family, funerals and friends who I havn’t seen in 18months or more. And then back to Glasgow to sleep.

Wonderland

Here's a thought . . . isn’t it strange how movies that you watch as a kid can completely change their meaning when you see them again as an adult? Take Alice in Wonderland, the Disney version. I think I always found it a little creepy, but now . . . it’s like some hallucinogenic daydream. One which you can’t get out of. I mean, I love it, but it is so weird. But a lot of the Disney classics are, I don’t think they’re allowed to show Pinnochio in full now because of the kids who smoke cigars and drink beer before they turn into donkeys. In Snow White there’s that terrifying Queen, in Bambi the mother gets shot, The Rescuers is about child abduction and exploitation, in Sleeping Beauty she loses everyone. Does this just wash over us when we are little? They certainly don’t make them like they used to. It’s a shame. I always liked the children’s stories that were dark, scary and a little bit depressing. But I was a weird kid. The most gothicly off-beat kids film that I’ve seen in recent years is ‘Monster House’, and that wasn’t exactly mainstream. Bring back the gloom Disney. You can have the happy ending, but give me a good dose of nightmares first.

And yes, Pogo’s ‘Alice’ remix has been pulsing through my head all day, which might be where this sudden Disney nostalgia comes from . . .

Ten ways to avoid coursework

Christmas was great. Really great. I think as I get older Christmas actually gets better, which is probably not normal, but I've been heading backwards in maturity for the last couple years now :) The food was amazing, the company wonderful (it took one Christmas away from home for me to appreciate how much more fun I have with them than without them), the TV entertaining (Wallace and Gromit, Doctor Who AND Strictly? Perfect). The presents could almost be overlooked, despite the two hour present opening ceremony (the result of eight people taking turns to slowly open presents as everyone else 'ooohs' and 'ahhhhs' over what they got) but were still very lovely. Actually, they seem to get better every year too, despite the credit crunch. Perhaps we are all just getting better at shopping for well-thought-out bargains. And we did all make some effort to remember what it is all meant to be about, even if it was mainly just a lot of sleepy 'Happy Birthday Jesus' mumbles.

But Christmas shopping is over, and Christmas Eve is over, and so is Christmas Day and Boxing Day, and now there are really no more excuses . . . COURSEWORK! Yes, the same coursework I was reading for half the summer,and then took the extra week at uni to finish off. It's still rather . .. incomplete. And to avoid pointless procrastinaion whilst still avoiding work, here are Ruth's top legitimate coursework-avoiding acivities:

1. Freaking out about terrible laptop keyboard. Yes, it is truly awful, I am having to go back and correct the spelling of 50% of words today.

2. Entering (or thinking about entering)writing competitions to win money. Because I should write more. And I'm broke.

3. Thinking of ways to stop being broke :(

4. Watching some of the gazillion hours worth of history shows my mum has taped me off the tv.

5. Playing games with the siblings . . . family time and all that.

6. Making cups of tea for everyone :-s

7. Vaguely offering to help with the cooking, and then standing in the kitchen talking instead.

8. Leaving people nice messages on facebook (clearly not pointless procrastination)

9. Tidying my bedroom. Again.

10. If in doubt . . . News 24.

Oh, and sleeping. Very important.
The frustrating thing is that I've put a lot of time and effort into researching this daft piece, I just seem to have hit a bit of a brick wall on how to write it. Oh well, hopefully it'll all come together .. .

Films, films, films . . .

For a blog called 'Ruthlovesmovies' I very rarely (if ever) actually talk about films . . . so I thought I'd tell you about two I've seen in the last fortnight or so.

Firstly, 'Changeling'. A lot better than I thought it was going to be, a brilliant film in fact, but more than a little traumatic (not one to take the mother to!) I'm not sure whether it was the blatant lies of the corrupt police force, the terror of a woman thrown into an institute for disagreeing with the men around her, or what was really happening to the children . . . but this wasn't one for the faint-hearted. Wouldn't be suprised if Angelina Jolie gets the Oscar, and she would almost deserve it for this. And Clint Eastwood's direction was near flawless, though I still think I prefer 'Mystic River'.

More importantly, though, 'Waltz with Bashir'. Wow, what a film. I went in with high expectations, and they were totally surpassed. The 'Haunted Sea' scene (see picture above), which everything revolves around, is one of the most breathtaking, spine-tingling thirty or so seconds of animation and music that I have ever seen. It is a totally new slant on animation, documentary and portayals of war in general, and I hope it wins every award going. Probably my film of the year, I really want to see it again. I must say, very graphic and explicit in places (it gets it's 18 certificate for a good few reasons), and certainly wouldn't be everyone's cup of tea, but it is a very original film, the type that gives you hope for the movie industry :) And the soundtrack is INCREDIBLE.