{"id":5069,"date":"2006-07-01T07:54:54","date_gmt":"2006-07-01T11:54:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=5069"},"modified":"2015-05-10T09:21:51","modified_gmt":"2015-05-10T13:21:51","slug":"the-books-harry-potter-and-the-chamber-of-secrets-j-k-rowling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=5069","title":{"rendered":"The Books: \u201cHarry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets\u201d (J.K. Rowling)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Daily Book Excerpt: YA\/children’s books:<\/p>\n

\"chamber_of_secrets.jpg\"Next book on the shelf is Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Book 2)<\/a>\"\"<\/i> by J.K. Rowling.<\/p>\n

The books are so episodic that I found it hard to pick out an excerpt. Like – we have the flying car which leads to the Whomping Willow. But – once that’s over, it’s over – and onto the next thing. (I find parts of the books tedious for that reason – It ends up reading like: “And then THIS happened and then THIS happened and then THIS happened …” and eventually I’m like: “So?” I get bored with the episodic nature of the books sometimes. The main PLOT-LINE of each book – the ARC, if you will – is there in the titles. The final battle, or stand-off – is always in the title – but I feel like some of the episodes included are extraneous and could have been chopped earlier along in the process.) All of this is to say I flipped through the book, reminiscing about my favorite parts – I love the ridiculousness of Lockhart – He is such a funny character. I love how the Weasleys come and save Harry in the beginning of the book. This is our first introduction to The Burrow, and what a cozy chaotic happy place it is. You just love being there, and you’re happy for Harry to have such good friends.<\/p>\n

Anyway, I decided – as an excerpt – to go with the Deathday Party (or at least part of it). I just found some of the images really arresting, and cool – and I also love Rowlings cleverness and wit here. The books are funny – that’s one of the reasons I am so hooked on them. Like – the group of “gloomy nuns” at the party … It’s just such a funny random image. I love that detail.<\/p>\n

Also, I am SURE that Rowling was subtly referencing Miss Havisham’s decaying wedding feast in this section. Can’t be a coincidence.<\/p>\n

Also, please. I love Ron so much I frankly do not know what to do with myself.<\/p>\n


\nExcerpt from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Book 2)<\/a>\"\"<\/i> by J.K. Rowling. <\/b><\/p>\n

The passageway leading to Nearly Headless Nick’s party had been lined with candles, too, though the effect was far from cheerful. These were long, thin, jet-black tapers, all bursting bright-blue, casting a dim, ghostly light even over their own living faces. The temperature dropped with every step they took. As Harry shivered and drew his robes tightly around him, he heard what sounded like a thousand fingernails scraping an enormous blackboard.<\/p>\n

“Is that supposed to be music<\/i>?” Ron whispered. They turned a corner and saw Nearly Headless Nick standing at a doorway hung with black velvet drapes.<\/p>\n

“My dear friends,” he said mournfululy, ‘Welcome, welcome … so pleased you could come …”<\/p>\n

He swept off his plumed hat and bowed them inside.<\/p>\n

It was an incredible sight. The dungeon was full of hundreds of pearly-white, translucent people, mostly drifting around a crowded dance floor, waltzing to the dreadful, quavering sound of thirty musical saws, played by an orchestra on a raised, black-draped platform. A chandelier overhead blazed midnight-blue with a thousand more black candles. Their breath rose in a mist before them; it was like stepping into a freezer.<\/p>\n

“Shall we have a look around?” Harry suggested, wanting to warm up his feet.<\/p>\n

“Careful not to walk through anyone,” said Ron nervously, and they set off around the edge of the dance floor. They passed a group of gloomy nuns, a ragged man wearing chains, and the Fat Friar, a cheerful Hufflepuff ghost, who was talking to a knight with an arrow sticking out of his forehead. Harry wasn’t surprised to see that the Bloody Baron, a gaunt, staring Slytherin ghost covered in silver bloodstains, was being given a wide berth by the other ghosts.<\/p>\n

“Oh, no,” said Hermione, stopping abruptly. “Turn back, turn back, I don’t want to talk to Moaning Myrtle –”<\/p>\n

“Who?” said Harry as they backtracked quickly.<\/p>\n

“She haunts one of the toilets in the girls’ bathroom on the first floor,” said Hermione.<\/p>\n

“She haunts a toilet<\/i>?”<\/p>\n

“Yes. It’s been out of order all year because she keeps having tantrums and flooding the place. I never went in there anyway if I could avoid it; it’s awful trying to have a pee with her wailing at you –”<\/p>\n

“Look, food!” said Ron.<\/p>\n

On the other side of the dungeon was a long table, also covered in black velvet. They approached it eagerly but next moment had stopped in their tracks, horrified. The smell was quite disgusting. Large, rotten fish were laid on handsome silver platters; cakes, burned charcoal-black, were heaped on salvers; there was a great maggoty haggis, a slab of cheese covered in furry green mold and in pride of place, an enormous gray cake in the shape of a tombstone, with tar-like icing forming the words.<\/p>\n

SIR NICHOLAS DE MIMSY-PORPINGTON
\nDIED 31ST OCTOBER 1492<\/p>\n

Harry watched, amazed, as a porly ghost approached the table, crouched low, and walked through it, his mouth held wide so that it passed through one of the stinking salmon.<\/p>\n

“Can you taste it if you walk through it?” Harry asked him.<\/p>\n

“Almost,” said the ghost sadly and he drifted away.<\/p>\n

“I expect they’ve let it rot to give it a stronger flavor,” said Hermione knowledgably, pinching her nose and leaning closer to look at the putrid haggis.<\/p>\n

“Can we move? I feel sick,” said Ron.<\/p>\n