Hello, fellow students and friends. If you in a position similar to my own, you are tired but proud, after a semester’s worth of hard work. If you are in a position dissimilar to my own, you probably just thought, “Nope! Not I!” And if you are in a position neither similar nor dissimilar to my own, I will be ignoring you.
Today was the last day of classes for me, and my last day
at my ONE Campaign internship. On my
last day of classes: thank you, Calculus, for giving me the chance to read a
couple chapters of Name of the Wind. On my last day at ONE: great internship,
great opportunities—but, now that it’s over, I can at least look forward to
sleeping in.
In fact, the entire semester is wrapping up faster than a
dementor gliding toward the person who sees their reflection in the mirror of
Erised (forgive me, Derek, for reusing that analogy). Never fear, that will not be the last Potter
homage in this paragraph. I have a final
on Wednesday, a final on Thursday, a final on Friday, and a final on Saturday. I have a 9.75 hour train trip on Sunday at
3:15 AM to Middlebury. That train trip
is getting me through finals week, a la Hogwarts Express helping Harry survive
his summers with the Dursleys.
Now is an auspicious time to provide a rundown of my semester. I have not been posting particularly
substantive things recently.
January:
Blogged-about things—2013 inauguration, newly-sheered hair, started ONE
internship, experienced the beginning of what was to be a cold D.C.
winter. Re-read HP books 4-6, compiling
“H-Ron” and Dumbly quotes along the way.
Not
sure if I talked about this—I went to Town, a gay bar, for the first time.
It was an incredibly fun night, full of dancing with some of my best
friends. I love dancing and I love
friends. Happiness ensued.
February: Blogged-about
things—Adventure through D.C. with random SoCal natives (mom’s coworker’s son
and his friends, as well as my friend Lindsey on her birthday), compiled a list
of summer aspirations, posted “Soapboxes and Cigarettes” fiction. Finished re-reading the HP series.
Something
you might not know—February was a literarily virile month for me. I wrote a creative essay, four pieces of
fiction, and one poem (on Valentine’s Day, no less).
 |
| Training for backpacking. My hair= gone. |
Something
you may not have noticed—Apparently I only blogged once in the month of March. How loserly.
April: Blogged-about
things—I posted the fiction piece “My Plain Name,” to accolades from three of
the people I admire most on this planet, I won the NOAA Hollings scholarship, I
edited the blog background which has since been revamped by Jason. I am training for backpacking in the
Shenendoah and cut even more of my hair off.
Why
you love me—Yes, I am reading Name of the
Wind. No, let’s be real: I am
devouring NoTW. I am on chapter thirty,
which is saying a lot, since it is not summer and I started it 4.5 days ago.
Overview:
This was my best semester yet. I strengthened several relationships into
firm friendships that I will carry on through my college career. I wrote over 6000 words of creative essays,
poetry and fiction that helped me reflect on my place in the world. My ONE internship exposed me to the
intricacies of nonprofitdom, and the two blogs I wrote for them have over 150
social media shares, which is exciting.
My International Environmental Politics class has been simultaneously
the most riveting, terrifying, and important class I’ve ever taken. I’m sort of in shape now, between the running
and hiking I’ve been doing to train for backpacking in the Shenendoah. I got a little, Desi, in APO, who I really
admire—she’s a BioChem lady who always strikes a balance between deadpan humor,
charm and sass. I finished rereading
Harry Potter, which was magical, to say the least. I watched innumerable movies, pursued
innumerable adventures and listened to innumerable songs of questionable
quality with the lovely Eleanor. I went
home for spring break and spent time with my family.
The less good stuff: I overbooked myself. I knew going in that in. Treasurer of APO (6-8 hours/week), a Green
Eagle sustainability intern (5 hours/week), an intern (~19 hours a week with
transportation time), and taking four classes (12 hours in-class plus
homework/week) was too much. I know that
this shocks you. The real life of it
all: overbooking myself has been a defense mechanism I’ve employed for a long
time, and I’m glad that I’ve gotten over that need. If anyone wants more information into the
wonderful world of Rachael’s Baggage,
it’s a multivolume set available on Amazon.
Har har.
Harry Potter
rankings
Derek’s post left me breathless, thankfully not
literally. I will not be doing a
thorough outline of why each book gets the ranking it does, partly because of
Derek’s magnificence and partly because I wrote my reasoning before he posted
his, so it feels natural the way it is.
I will also include an H-Ron quote or two. For those of you who have forgotten (how
could you?), H-Ron quotes are the nicknames for the out-of-context book
excerpts that suggest that Harry and Ron have an illicit sexual relationship.
From worst to best, here are your rankings.
Chamber of Secrets:
Not a bad book. Like the third, it
fails to compete with the later books that captivate me. Good parts: sword of Gryffindor, Fawkes’s
tears, intro to Horcruxes. Bad parts: I
feel like I can sum this book up in two sentences and pretty much do it
justice, which is not generally a sign of quality fiction. Ginny emerges as the relatively flat
character she will continue to be. I
wish Rowling had done more with her.
H-Ron quote: 74: “Ron let out a low, despairing groan.
‘Are you okay?”
Harry said urgently.
‘My wand,’ said
Ron, in a shaky voice. ‘Look at my wand—’
It had snapped, almost in two;
the tip was dangling limply.”
Prisoner of Azkaban:
This was fighting with CoS for the last spot, but it was saved by some high
points. I agree with my predecessors
that this was a book that was noticeably lacking Voldemort. Good parts: Sirius/Buckbeak adventure
entertained me—Time Turners were fun to fathom as a kid, even though they do
leave us with some major plot holes; the Hermione-Draco punch is always good
for a laugh. Bad parts: Not a plot heavy
book. PoA and CoS gave the kids space to
mature slightly, have mini-adventures, and wait for the exciting shit to start
happening.
276: “Hermione kept shooting suspicious looks down the table at him
[Harry], but he avoided her eye and was careful to let her see him walking back
up the marble staircase in the entrance hall as everybody else proceeded to the
front doors.
‘’Bye!’ Harry
called to Ron. ‘See you when you get back!’
Ron grinned and
winked.”
Order of the Phoenix:
This would be a contender for last place, sheerly because of Harry’s shitty
attitude (blah blah, powerful dark wizard in your head, stop complaining). But this book, despite my misgivings, has
much more to offer than CoS and PoA.
Rowling really delves in to the dark side of government censorship, in a
fair and persuasive way that kids can understand—young readers can understand
why it’s nice to deny bad news (feeling safe! rainbows!), but most (if not all)
of us will ultimately side with the story’s hero and Harry Potter. In the words of said hero, at the end of GoF:
“You have to make a choice between what is right and what is easy,” (very
Atticus Finch-y, who, as I’ve discussed before, can’t hit me the way Dumbly
does, because Finch is perfect). And
yes, I did just call Dumbledore the story’s hero. But you already know how I feel for him. Good parts: I have a soft spot for secret societies,
and they couldn’t have chosen a better name.
I liked finding out everyone’s patronuses. Umbridge was an incredible villain, as Derek
pointed out. Bad parts: Occlumency could
have gone further—yeah, we learned about Snape, but Rowling could’ve delved
more into Harry’s side of things.
Somehow a subject that is impossible for him to master in OotP becomes
nearly effortless and even a last-minute weapon in the seventh book, which
annoys me. [Where this idea comes from:
p. 478 of Deathly Hallows, right
after Dobby dies, “[Harry’s] scar burned, but he was master of the pain; he
felt it, yet was apart from it. He had
learned control at last, learned to shut his mind to Voldemort, the very thing
that Dumbldeore had wanted him to learn from Snape.”]
209: “‘Ow kunnit nofe skusin danger ifzat?’ said Ron.
His mouth was so full Harry thought it was quite an achievement for him to make any noise at all.”
His mouth was so full Harry thought it was quite an achievement for him to make any noise at all.”
---Oh devil computer, when you freeze and delete my
precious Harry Potter analysis I want to kill you.---
Sorceror’s Stone:
It’s sort of like the George Washington of “Who’s your favorite president?”. The first!
The predecessor! Where would we
be without it?!?! But that doesn’t make
it the best. Good & bad parts: its
childish, lighthearted kids-book nature limits its emotional range, which is
what draws me into books 6 & 7.
However, it’s an awesome book.
Rowling shows off her ability to create another world. I remember being awed as a kindergartener at
the talking portraits especially.
No gay quotes,
because I didn’t collect until CoS.
Goblet of Fire: If
this is within the laws of magical capability, I believe GoF delves into the
wonders of the wizarding world even more than SS. TriWizard Tournament! Quidditch World Cup! These fricking awesome occurrences balance
well with Voldemort’s return at the end to make this a dark-but-still-cheerful
predecessor to the dark-but-really-dark OotP.
The kids are finally growing up—we see an introduction to sexuality via
Harry’s attraction to Cho and Ron and Hermione’s burgeoning romance (or… unburgeoning,
since it doesn’t burgeon for another two books.
But you catch my drift.). Speaking
of which, I don’t think Rowling did a great job in the romance department. But these musings are for another post.
Ch 16: Ron: “‘bet
he gets people fawning over him all the time... Where d’you reckon they’re
going to sleep? We could offer him a space in our dormitory, Harry... I
wouldn’t mind giving him my bed.’”
Half Blood Prince: It pains me to put this here. Dumbledore is so featured in this book, I can’t
believe I’m ranking it second. As I’ve
discussed before, Rowling makes you fall in love with him before snatching him
away. It’s heartbreaking, it’s
effective, it’s real life. Finally,
Harry has to take center stage and show us that he can stand on his own two
feet. Good parts: It’s complicated! It’s suspenseful! It’s exciting! Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore is
featured as the bad ass he is. The death
scene makes me tear up without fail. Bad
parts: Harry pretty much suddenly stops
being a douche in this book, and I’m not complaining, but it doesn’t make sense
with book 5 to me. Ginny is still
totally flat… why does Harry love her? I
don’t say that in a jealous fangirl way, because I am not attracted to him at
all. She is just a totally
underdeveloped character. I think she
was just an easy way to make Harry a Weasley.
It is convenient.
386: [Harry]:
“‘Look, hurry up, will you, there something I want to do…’
Perplexed, Ron followed Harry
back to the Gryffindor common room at a run.”
Deathly Hallows: Rowling
takes advantage of our emotions a bit in this book, but I buy into it. Epilogue blows, but as a whole the book
delivers a poignant end to the series.
Good parts: Innumerable, but here goes: Harry and Hermione relationship
development (their intimacy is much more relatable than any sexually-charged
Rowling tries to pull off), Godric’s Hollow graveyard scene, learning Dumbly
isn’t perfect, learning Snape is perfect-er, Harry dying. Bad parts: Epilogue is flat, Ginny still
doesn’t work for me, some convenient plot twists to wrap the series up last
minute.
Extra H-Ron quotes because I don’t think these were
shared here.
167: “Ron struggled
for moment before managing to extract his wand from his pocket.
‘It’s no wonder I can’t get it
out, Hermione, you packed my old jeans, they’re tight.’”
285: “[Harry]
panted, clutching the stitch in his side. ‘Wouldn’t… come.’
Their expressions of
consternation and disappointment made Harry feel ashamed.”
415: Ron: “‘I’ve
got an unbeatable wand, come and have a go if you think you’re hard enough.’”
523: “‘There,’ said
Hermione, ‘how does he look, Harry?’
It was just possible to discern
Ron under his disguise, but only, Harry thought, because he knew him so
well. Ron’s hair was now long and wavy;
he had a thick brown beard and moustache, no freckles, a short, broad nose, and
heavy eyebrows.
‘Well, he’s not my type, but
he’ll do,’ said Harry.”
There it is, folks.
I have more to say, but this has been a several hour effort already.
Oh, Name of the
Wind. I will say this before I go: it
is good. Rothfuss is a little conceited
on his blog about how great he is, but he is truly incredible so it’s okay. I can already tell that every minute detail
will have significance later, and I can’t wait to see it all come together.
Good night.
Rachael
Yay Name of the Wind!
ReplyDelete