More HP spoilers

[mamadeb]

With Sirius' death, Harry now probably owns that house. (And the shrewish portait and possibly the Elf) and whatever money Sirius had in his Gringott's vault.

Okay, sure, from some povs, it should be for Remus, but that's not how things work.

A house. More money. This is major in a world where seventeen is adulthood.



In other news, I just got a phone call from my mother, who is visiting my brother and his family. My nephew is eight. He's a bright kid and a good reader.

He's reading GoF. His parents haven't read it first. And I suspect they'll ignore my advice and let him read OotP without reading it first, either. Since, you know.

They're kid's books. Which means that A. adults shouldn't read them and B. they're safe.

Then again, I'm not sure about Debby's reading level.

Comments

Re: Weighing In

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

Franziska, allow me to introduce you to American fairy tales.

I've read a number of versions of Snow White. I've never seen that ending. I've seen the Evil Queen killed, or kill herself (or move in with them, but that was a sitcom)but not with those shoes.

Re: Weighing In

[ratcreature]

Huh. You people are weird. ;)

Seriously, I never found that ending particularly gruesome or anything, it's not like it's described in horrifying detail. There's stuff like that in nearly every fairy tale, like Rumpelstilzchen tearing himself into two parts in his rage (and that was even depicted in my favorite fairy tale book), or the witch being burned to death in the oven in Hänsel und Gretel, or the evil sisters hacking off part of their feet in Cinderella, not to mention that one with the serial killer husband who hid the bodies in a chamber (Bluebeard? or something like that) etc.

Fairy tales

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

Now, *those* endings we see - the witch in Hansel and Gretel and the ending of Rumpelstiltsken. And, usually, Red Riding Hood and her grandmother survive the wolf, who does not survive himself. However, I've seen many versions of the Cinderella story, and while some *do* have the hacking of the feet, others just have it so the feet don't fit. And some have the birds pecking out the stepsisters' eyes.

Um. When I told it, and I didn't often spare details, I had them moving into the palace with Cinderella and the prince and waiting, *waiting*, WAITING for her to get back at them... :)

In commonly told US versions of Rapunzel and Sleeping Beauty, they do not have children, which I'm told is normal in the European versions.

Re: Fairy tales

[ratcreature]

For Rapunzel the older version really makes sense, because in it the Rapunzel is thrown out because the old woman discovers she's pregnant, when the (obviously clueless) Rapunzel asks her why her clothes won't fit anymore *snort*, and Rapunzel is banished into the wilderness where she has her twins, and the blinded prince finds them there later. However the newer version sort of glosses over the pregnancy out of wedlock part, and the old woman just discovers that Rapunzel has been seeing the prince because Rapunzel blabs. She still has the twins though (I've actually never seen a version where she doesn't), so they had sex as well, it just makes less sense that the woman is so angry with the prince.

Though in the versions of Sleeping Beauty I know she doesn't have children, at least I don't remember any.

Re: Fairy tales

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

Perhaps I'm confusing the two stories, but I think there is one version of Sleeping Beauty where the prince does more than kiss her - and she *doesn't* wake up.

In fact, I think this was exploited in Neil Gaiman's Sandman series.

Re: Fairy tales

[ratcreature]

I did a quick online search and there are really variants that go as you say. There's an Italian one written down by Giambattista Basile, where a king who's passing through decides to have sex with her because she's so beautiful but she doesn't wake up, has twins, and finally awakes because one day her twins suckle on her finger instead of on her breasts and remove the hemp thread whose sting had put her to sleep.