English version below
Bøger og litteratur er nok den naturligste, mest indgroede interesse, jeg h
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Losing my Harry Potter virginity #4: The Goblet of Fire
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“Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire” by J. K. Rowling. Published by Bloomsbury in 2013 (originally 2000).
English version below
Under min blogmæssige dry spell, slugte jeg Harry P. nummer fire og fem på ingen tid. Der var rigeligt stress over læseriet, da lillesøs pressede på for at vi skulle se filmene sammen – men så måtte bøgerne jo ligesom læses først. Og det er altså to tykke sataner, de tykkeste i serien vist nok. Så lemme give ya mine umiddelbare tanker om nummer fire, “The Goblet of Fire”. Med lad mig også advare for spoilers, store spoilers, med det samme. De vil forekomme og er efterhånden ikke til at undgå så langt inde i forløbet, synes jeg.
The Quidditch World Cup og The Triwizard Tournament og S.P.E.W. og death eaters og Moody og nye skoler, nye elever, nye inspektører! Denne bog er spækket med guf. Fortællingen om det år turneringen blev genindført, og the goblet for første gang nogensinde udvalgte fire i stedet for tre deltagere. I filmversionerne var denne altid min afgjorte yndling, og i bogform holder den utvivlsomt sin føring! Jeg finder forløbet decideret sjovt og fascinerende på en helt anden måde end nogle af de andre bøger, jeg har læst indtil nu. Nysgerrigheden omkring de ukendte, anderledes skoler, spændingen omkring turneringens forskelligartede udfordringer og mystikken omkring de mange gådefulde, uforklarlige hændelser er dragende. Det spiller totalt, hvis I spørger mig!
Hvad der ikke spiller (og jeg gentager, slet ikke spiller!) er det kæmpe plothul som konstant prikker mig i øjet og nægter at blive set bort fra. Jeg elsker rammen, og jeg elsker stemningen, og jeg elsker forløbet. Men jeg elsker ikke at sidde tilbage med en fornemmelse af, at Rowling har lagt en storslået plan for bogen om troldmandsturneringer og drager, havfolk og labyrinter og så set sig nødsaget til greje noget Voldemort-værk ind i den sammenhæng. Misforstå mig ikke, jeg er ovenud begejstret for det Voldemort-værk, hun kommer disker op med – jeg kan bare ikke se gennem fingre med hendes halvhjertede forsøg på at sammenvæve Triwizard-turneringen og Volde-far. Jamen hvad er problemet? Hvor er jeg glad for, du spørger!
Rowling gør et stort nummer ud af, op til the Quidditch World Cup, at portkeys kan være alt. I grunden kan der blive en portkey ud af alle objekter, man kan komme i tanke om – men jo mere ubetydelige ting, jo bedre, får vi også at vide! Derfor er det også fuldstændig usansynligt, at Barty Crouch Junior (I forklædning som Alastor Moody) skulle ty til så omfattende og skrøbelig en plan, som at tvinge Harry ind i turneringen. Han kunne i princippet have lavet en portkey ud af en kop og budt Harry på te, og fluks ville Harry have stået på gravpladsen uden en masse planlægningshurlumhej. Just saying.
Det holder bare ikke hundrede. Det holder måske femogfirs, fordi resten er både gennemført og underholdende. Men det er også okay. Det er først helt galt, når det holder nul, hvilket desværre er tilfældet for femmeren – mere om det inden længe. So long!
During my blogging dry spell, I swallowed Harry P. number four and five in no time. It was stressful reading since my little sister pressed for watching the movies together – but then I had to get throught he books first. And they’re two long bastards, the longest in the series I believe. So lemme give ya my main thoughts on number four, “The Goblet of Fire”. But let me also begin by announcing a big spoiler alert. Spoilers will occur and are, so far into course, hard to avoid, I think.
The Quidditch World Cup and The Triwizard Tournament and S.P.E.W. and death eaters and Moody and new schools, new students, new headmasters/-mistresses! This book is packed with goodies. The tale of the year the tournament was reinstated, and the goblet for the first time ever selected four instead of three participants. In the film versions this was unquestionably always my favorite, and in book form it undoubtedly keeps its lead! I find the course of the book distinctly fun and fascinating in a way that I haven’t found in any of the other books I have read so far. Curiosity about the foreign, different schools, the excitement surrounding the diverse tournament tasks and mystique around the many puzzling, unexplained events is alluring. It completely works, if you ask me!
What does not work (and I repeat, does not work!) is the giant plot hole that is constantly poking me in the eye and refuses to be ignored. I love the frame for the story, and I love the atmosphere and I love the course. But I do not like to sit back with a feeling that Rowling has put a magnificent blueprint for the book about the wizarding tournaments and dragons, merpeople and mazes and then been forced to fiddle some Voldemort-regarding-stuff into the context. Don’t misunderstand me, I am extremely excited about the Voldemort-regarding-stuff, she comes up with – I just cannot condone her half-hearted attempt to weave together the Triwizard Tournament and Volde. Why? I’m glad you asked!
Around the Quidditch World Cup, Rowling makes a big deal of pointing out that portkeys can be anything. Basically you can make a portkey of any objects, you can think of – but we’re also told that the more insignificant the object, the better! This is why it is completely unlikely for Barty Crouch Junior (disguised as Alastor Moody) to resort to the most extensive and fragile a plan that entering Harry into the tournament is. Basically he could simply have made a portkey out of a cup and offered Harry some tea, and Harry would have been at the cemetery in a jiff – without a lot of planning hullabaloo. Just saying.
It’s not a hundred percent. It’s maybe like eighty-five, because the rest is both thorough and entertaining. But it’s also okay. It’s never really bad before it drops to zero, which unfortunately is the case for book no. five – more on that shortly. So long!
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