Tiny questions that don't matter but I'm asking anyway

[packerbackerhe…]

I was wondering if anyone would know: WILL the Harry Potter series be released in eBook format?  I have LOTR & Twilight series but would LOVE to have HP in eBook too! Is there any word that JKR will sign for it to happen?/! Please email me with your reply Thank You!

[Psychee]

This is the most up-to-date note about it that I've seen on the web.  All it says is that JKR is actively looking for the right ebook format.  :

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/31/harry-potter-ebooks-at-la_n_595382.html

[packerbackerhe…]

Thanks for the info..I also posted it to my facebook to share with other Harry Potter fans..Now if someone can make a decision that would be great...I am all ready to download the books to read again..Also i am patiently awaiting the part 1 movie of the last book to come out in November..It is slowly coming..Along with fall

[Jules934]

What's the matter with reading a real book?

[Psychee]

---

Jules934 wrote:

What's the matter with reading a real book?

---

Good question!   One could presume that she read actual books the first time around.  Why not do that again?  We must be missing something...

I don't think I would ever want to read HP books in e-reader format unless I had no other option.

[Kat-NE]

So, I was thinking as I was driving to work the other day (I know, driving and thinking at the same time!) about HP for some reason and this occurred to me.  The issue of Muggles and Muggle borns is discussed alot throughout the series (book wise), especially DH, but I can't really recall it being mentioned much in the movies, except for CoS.  Do you guys think it will be incorporated much in the last movies?  I think it would be a little weird to push all that info on people who haven't read the books into the movies.  My mom, who has only seen the movies, didn't know what a Muggle was! (We were watching The Big Bang Theory for any other fans out there.)

[Psychee]

Hmmm... Aside from Hagrid's initial introduction to the concept to Harry in the first movie, I can think of several movie moments --

-- Molly Weasley mentioned Muggles at the train station in the first book.

-- when Hermione was called "mudblood", the issue was discussed by Hagrid with the trio.

-- The flying car incident, when Snape told Harry and Ron that muggles saw them.

--  When Harry blew up his aunt, Fudge talked about erasing the memories of Muggles.

-- I think there was mention of Muggles when the staff was talking about the Sirius Black incident that put him away in Azkaban.

-- A big deal was made at Harry's hearing (in movie 5) about his having done magic in front of Muggles.

--  In the sixth movie, Slughorn mentioned Muggle-borns several times. 

I'm sure there were more...   In any case, I don't think there is any way to leave out the whole issue of blood-purity from the last movies, as this is one of the central tenets of Voldemort's "religion", it is what distinguishes the good guys from the bad guys, and I'm certain that Umbridge, in particular, will be preaching the party line.

The movie-goers will understand it.  Heck, somehow they were able to understand the last few movies that in my opinion left out MOST of the explanatory material!   

[Jules934]

Those are mentions of the word "muggle", so we can expect that movie-only types will be familiar with it.  But the question is, "Are they familiar enuf with the Pureblood Supremacy issue?".

Of course, it will still be interesting to see how far the movies  push the resemblance to the concepts and techniques of the Nazis and their rise.  Warner Brother$ is very con$ciou$ of ticket $ale$, and there are a lot of movie-goers in Germany. 

By the way, Umbridge was psychotic, but not a Voldemort Follower at any level.  She pushed the pureblood line, but only because it was the MoM line du jour, and she was a high ranking official within it.  Evil, yes, but Death-eater, no. 

Hmmmm, wonder just how pure her blood actually was.  That Selwyn lie was a bit fishy.

[Psychee]

Jules, the overwhelming majority of Germans feel the same way about Nazis that we do.  They regard them as a criminal aberration, so I don't think anyone has to worry about ticket sales there!  

I agree that Umbridge wasn't a Death Eater, but I think that she (like the Black family) had always believed that pure bloods were better than anyone else and that Muggle borns were inferior.   She was a real Slytherin at heart-- remember how all her Inquisitional Squad students were from Slytherin?  The takeover of the Ministry just allowed her the freedom to act on her long-held beliefs, which was why she was so happy. 

Also, I think the word you used to describe her is inaccurate.  She wasn't psychotic, as she did not suffer from hallucinations or delusions or loss of orientation to time, place, or person-- she was, rather, sociopathic, that is, lacking in conscience and putting her own needs above everyone else's.   She was very much like Voldemort in that sense, only she, at least, had made attempts to rise within the system as opposed to fighting against it.

[booksntea]

First off Kat-ne, you're awesome for watching Big Bang Theory and reading HP 

But anyways, about the muggle-born mentions, I think they've done just enough mentioning that it will make sense by the end of the series. In SS of course you learn the basics and I think something that helps is Draco's hatred for Harry and how, besides being jealous of Harry, he also doesn't discriminate against people and that relationship is something that carries on throughout the movies. Second movie of course it's obvious, after that it's not so much an issue in the next couple movies, but I think by the 5th and 6th as things start getting more dangerous it becomes obvious who's being targeted by the Death Eaters. And for people who haven't read the books I think when they lay out the situation in DH they'll be smart enough to get it. I'm thinking of my mother who, bless her heart, gets confused easily with this kind of stuff and she seems to understand haha

[Jules934]

---

Psychee wrote:

Jules, the overwhelming majority of Germans feel the same way about Nazis that we do.  They regard them as a criminal aberration, so I don't think anyone has to worry about ticket sales there!  

I agree that Umbridge wasn't a Death Eater, but I think that she (like the Black family) had always believed that pure bloods were better than anyone else and that Muggle borns were inferior.   She was a real Slytherin at heart-- remember how all her Inquisitional Squad students were from Slytherin?  The takeover of the Ministry just allowed her the freedom to act on her long-held beliefs, which was why she was so happy. 

Also, I think the word you used to describe her is inaccurate.  She wasn't psychotic, as she did not suffer from hallucinations or delusions or loss of orientation to time, place, or person-- she was, rather, sociopathic, that is, lacking in conscience and putting her own needs above everyone else's.   She was very much like Voldemort in that sense, only she, at least, had made attempts to rise within the system as opposed to fighting against it.

---

LoL

[Kat-NE]

---

booksntea wrote:

First off Kat-ne, you're awesome for watching Big Bang Theory and reading HP 

---

Thanks!  I do what I can.

Hmm...

Maybe it's just been so long since I've seen the movies and I forgot all the muggle mud slinging going on.  Very possible.

[Jules934]

Idon't recall mud-slinging either, except for the m-b reference by Draco and the explanation in Hagrid's hut.  the rest of the time, "muggle" is just the term for non-magical folks.

[Dan21]

Why do they have to change almost everything in the movies besides they can't fit it all.

[Dan21]

I don't think of Harry Potter as a children's book, do y'all. 

[Jillian12]

I absolutely wouldn't place it in a children's category.  The first couple of books may have qualified for the teen audience, but as the books progressed, I believe the themes addressed and the content revealed moved up the scale. 

[agnijay]

OK, so I have two questions:

1) Was there any significance to Harry's scar being a lightning bolt?

2) Hedwig coculd easily find Sirius, right? So why (in PoA) couldn't the Ministry just use an owl to find Sirius and then secretly track that owl to find him? Same with any other criminal...

[Jules934]

Hmmm  don't recall any inferance/referance.

As far as Q2 goes, well, that's sortta like asking why Huck and Jim didn't land the raft in Illinois.............................................................................................

[Kreacherteacher]

---

agnijay wrote:

OK, so I have two questions:

1) Was there any significance to Harry's scar being a lightning bolt?

2) Hedwig coculd easily find Sirius, right? So why (in PoA) couldn't the Ministry just use an owl to find Sirius and then secretly track that owl to find him? Same with any other criminal...

---

1. Hmm, I suppose you could infer many things here. I'm not sure that Rowling ever discussed the lightning bolt, so there may not be a whole lot of significance to it beyond the fact that Harry was hit with a horrible curse - just a simple plot device. However, we know Rowling was greatly influenced by literature, myths especially, so I don't think it's a big stretch that Voldemort would think that he was comparable to Zeus. He wanted to be the end all when it came to wizards. He saw himself as godlike, in control of his own soul and those of others, capable of taking life away.

It's also interesting to think of Prometheus, who stole fire from Hephaestus, and that could lead you even further to Mary Shelley's Frankentein; or, The Modern Prometheus. Frankenstein, the doctor, steals fire (electricity/power) from God, and bestows life to a monster. Voldemort does essentially the same, but to himself. He loses his body and eventually becomes the monster.

The lightning bolt could have also been a plot device meant to show that Voldemort would be punished in the end by Harry, that Harry was the carrier of the fire, the power, that would eventually be unleashed upon Voldemort. Harry was given, by God/gods, the power to undo the wrongs of Voldemort.

2. You would think the ministry would have many ways of finding Sirius, but he was probably using many of the same methods (untraceable methods) to remain hidden as the trio did in DH. As far as Hedwig finding Sirius, Sirius would have kept in touch with Harry to let him know how to contact him should he need anything.

[Dan21]

I don't know how to start up these disscusion like Tiny questions that don't matter but I'm asking anyway. Could one of you pllllllllleeeeeeeaaaaaaaassssseeeeee tell me??????