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juushikaIn bulk again, to prevent spamming again. And I'm still not caught up! I've been reading a lot, but more than that I've had a lot to say—about The Witcher, because I'm so invested in Ciri and her family and because I've watched Devon play the games and so we've had a lot to discuss about adaptation; about The Cursed Child, not because it's remotely good but because there's some great character dynamics and Snape's cameo engages all my feelings about his character; about every other thing lassmichrein has been consuming because she's been working through some of my absolute favorite narratives and authors. I've been excited about the media input and media-related output, and "excited about" is not something I often feel—a welcome remedy to the birthday-related angst.
Title: The Purple Cloud
Author: M.P. Shiel
Published: Project Gutenberg, 2004 (1901)
Rating: 2 of 5
Page Count: ~250 of 450
Total Page Count: 202,135
Text Number: 596
Read Because: interest in Weird fiction, ebook obtained though Project Gutenberg
Review: A vast purple cloud sweeps the globe, leaving only one survivor. An early example of a "last man" novel and apocalyptic genre, this is at best a desolate, sweeping landscape, haunted—even by its sole survivor and his struggle to find purpose—and surreal. But the book is dated, with many slow sections (some of which are literal itemized lists) and repetitive pacing. I DNF'd this somewhere past the 50% mark, which I regret because when I was immersed I loved this for its bleak, profound beauty and for place in genre history. But I couldn't push past the weaknesses, and I wouldn't recommend it.
Title: Blood of Elves (The Witcher Book 3)
Author: Andrzej Sapkowski
Translator: Danusia Stok
Published: London: Orbit, 2009 (1994)
Rating: 5 of 5
Page Count: 400
Total Page Count: 202,535
Text Number: 597
Read Because: continuing the series, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review:
The story of Ciri's childhood, raised by witchers at Kaer Morhen and then taught magic by Yennefer, and of the prophecies and politics that surround this remarkable girl. The folklore-as-worldbuilding of the short stories is largely absent, and I hope it returns in the sequels; the sexism-as-worldbuilding is also absent and good riddance, but the cast of fantastic female characters persists. Politics and the larger plot occur piecemeal, which keeps them from flooding the book but also makes this a prelude rather than a narrative entire. Instead, Blood of Elves is an extended training montage, focusing on Ciri's interactions with taciturn and devoted Geralt and Yennefer who begins as an unforgiving tutor and becomes a mother, and on the imperfect ties that bind this strange family—and it's phenomenal, full of flawed characters and small moments of rewarding emotional transparency.
I have a love/hate relationship with the game series and short stories, and so I'm blown away by my unreserved love of this book, which is everything perfect about Ciri's presence in The Witcher 3, but more indulgent and more cogent. I look forward to continuing the series, but treasure this book in particular and highly recommend it.
Some feels and rants about the process of reading Blood of Elves on my Tumblr: 1, 2, 3. Copied below for safekeeping:
The most important takeaway from the first real Witcher novel, Blood of Elves:
Imagine that the flashback tutorial chapter of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt were a third of a book. Imagine 90 pages of adolescent Ciri growing up among a coarse band of witchers at Kaer Morhen, before and after Triss intervening to teach them how to raise a child and interact with a young woman; imagine an extended training montage exploring how each of these prickly broken men try and fail and learn how to raise a precocious, talented girl. Imagine that the most taciturn but sincere is Geralt; imagine "I did it! I really did it! I managed it! Praise me, Geralt!" "Well done, Ciri. Well done, girl."
Imagine Ciri's PTSD, and that learning to fight helps her to cope without magically fixing it. Imagine clunky but well-intended attempts to address her gender, insisting that it doesn't weaken her or make her less competent in battle.
Imagine Ciri idolizing Geralt; imagine that when she's very young and afraid, he makes her feel safe. Imagine her taking his love for granted as she grows up and grows rebellious, and imagine Geralt—who has little patience and pretends to have no empathy—taking much of what she does in stride.
—and you still can't imagine my feels. This is everything I ever wanted from the series, because nothing in the world of the Witcher is as authentic and pure and realistically complicated—without the overblown or toxic emotions that taint most other interpersonal relationships—as Geralt's love of Ciri as his daughter. This series is consistently about Geralt believing or pretending he's not human and the narrative forcing him to acknowledge that he is, and nothing does that better than his relationship with Ciri. And while Ciri has always been the best of this story, but I didn't know how best. She's magical and strong and I love her.
#I am so invested in Ciri and Yen and Geralt's family dynamic and nothing summarizes it better than this #that Ciri destroys boundaries between Yen and Geralt (and within Yen) while at the same time highlighting them #these narratives in absentia; relationships defined as much by absence (and shared history and loss) as interaction #but that interaction is so fulfilling: restrained explicit prickly tender in just the right degrees #like Yen's reciprocal complete honesty and Geralt's 'well done girl' #'brought us together and separated us' my heart & my actual tears
3: False equivalencies
Title: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child—Parts One and Two (Harry Potter Book 8)
Author: J.K. Rowling, John Tiffany, Jack Thorne
Published: New York: Arthur A. Levine Books, 2016
Rating: 2 of 5
Page Count: 330
Total Page Count: 202,865
Text Number: 598
Read Because: Harry Potter fan, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: Nineteen years after the end of the book series, Harry and Draco's sons set off to Hogwarts, to become best friends and get in all sorts of trouble. The Cursed Child suffers a bad case of sequelitis, borrowing fanfiction tropes and characterization, and relying on the emotional appeal of numerous cameo appearances. The plot's a mess of predictable tropes, and the emotional messages—especially revolving around cameo characters—grow trite. But seeing familiar characters and Slytherin house in a new light provides interesting insight, and Scorpius and Albus are the play's saving grace: they're well-characterized and engaging, and their relationship is fantastic—despite the compulsory heterosexuality that looms over what's obviously a romance. Come to this for the characters, not the plot, and lower your expectations to allow for reiteration and artless indulgence, and it's not awful. But—like the questionable content of the Pottermore extended universe—it's not a must-read, even for fans.
Liveblogging notes and immediate reactions, including an essay about Snape's scene, on my Tumblr: part one and part two. Crossposted below for posterity:
My Harry Potter and the Cursed Child hold came in and so, ages behind everyone else, I give you my read-along thoughts:
my expectations are super low
PART ONE
Coming in to this late means I've been warned of a) licensed fanfiction and b) queerbaiting. And it feels a lot like fanfic, even perpetuating some Next Generation fic tropes and characterization (except that Teddy Lupin is thusfar MIA, which never happens in fic). I legitimately love black sheep Albus and over-honest Scorpius. Their dynamic is overly delineated and they don't always read as their ages, but honestly it's endearing, it has lovely indulgent intimacy and good chemistry, not counting future forced heteronormativity, and I dig the tropes at play. I don't like any other characters; Harry's realistic, I guess, but reprehensible; the intentionally inconsistent characterization elsewhere is just a mess. Time travel plots are chronically predictable, this especially so. tl;dr: I like what I like, but have read better written and plotted un-published un-licensed fanfiction.
Liveblogging notes follow, vaguely edited:
ACT ONE
This dialog is extremely stiff I tell you what.
Except Scorpious's dialog, which is exaggerated but still so endearing. (That said: "father-son issues, I have them," says the eleven-year-old to someone he's known for five minutes—the way emotions and intimacy translate into dialog is ... frequently awful.)
The idea that Voldemort would procreate is ridiculous to me esp. after so many discussions in Witch, Please about Voldemort's effete presentation and how he views all reproduction as miscegenation.
When in doubt, fridge a mom, it builds character.
Reliving the "yer a wizard, Harry" scene is gratuitous and redundant, even if it makes room for later dream scenes that do more than just reiterate canon.
I actually really like these kids?? I like a child complicating Harry's savior complex, unprettifying it—but dang, some of his interactions with Albus would have scarred me for life. I love disarming, blundering, honest Scorpius. I feel like I've seen these exact versions of these characters in fanfic, but they're still great. (But why are they in Slytherin? Scorpius reads like a Hufflepuff, not enough active self-interest; Albus I suppose reads as a self-repressed Slytherin; Slytherdor, sometimes.)
"I'm going to do this, Scorpius. I need to do this. And you know as well as I do, I'll entirely mess it up if you don't come with me. Come on."
("Albus, no." "Albus, YES.") Great dynamic, though: preemptively clean up my messes because without you I'm half a person and twice as dumb; there's no one I'd rather have beside me while I do something stupid.
Ron is wildly out of character as the joke-shop-owning weird uncle.
STOP EVERYTHING why did a 14-year-old kid polyjuiced into his uncle kiss his aunt, "Let's have another baby"??? this is incredibly gross and wildly out of character this is not something someone this age would do on the fly or at all because it's disgusting oh my godddddd
I love the imagery of the animated, dangerous library. But I don't know why Hermione would put clues for finding the time turner (she's not going to forget), and I 100% cannot buy that Hermione would make her library unusable even to make it a hiding place; you know she consults it a dozen times a day.
ACT TWO
What narrative explanation is there for Harry's prophetic dreams? This canon dreams were meaningful b/c direct link to Voldemort, so I'm sure that's exactly why—but it feels so plot devicy rn.
Ron's entire character is comedy relief trash. Ron henpecked with a son he hates is especially awful trash. I get that someone needs to be evidence of the changes caused by time travel, and I get that Ron is an especially disposable character, but I'm disappointed on his behalf and that's how awful this is.
Seriously, what Harry is doing to his son is disgusting. I'm not comfortable picking it apart for personal reasons but it is beyond the pale.
The Scorpius/Albus dynamic is really fantastic and knowing how it'll end up makes me preemptively angry. The way they talk doesn't read at all like their ages, but it's honest and emotional and imperfect and endearing and gayyyyyyykjlk
Fr srs tho: I like seeing what Scorpius gets out of the dynamic, which usually seems to exist for Albus's benefit—his "you were all I ever wanted," but also him insisting, "you must value my emotional labor and also me."
I've less to say about Act Two b/c a) more plot, hella predictable in the way that time travel is often predictable (everything that can go wrong, will; ripple effect; comic inversions made to previous timeline; tragic inversions made to same; trying to correct things makes them worse; blah blah blah) so I legit don't care about it, b) most nitpicks re: characters and style already established.
How many more canon cameos do you think they can possibly fit in. Lots, the answer is lots. So many.
I finished Cursed Child, not with a bang but a whimper.
PART TWO
I find myself of mixed feels. Dystopia!Potterland doesn't quite work for me, but the third iteration of the cast made me reconsider their second iterations—everything Ron is still a tragedy, but I grew to love the different versions of Hermione and the glimpse of complicit, privileged alternate-universe Scorpius. Snape's cameo blindsided me with feels, with which I argue but am engaged. But the fourth act is a mess. Time travel fairs better having exhausted its most predictable tropes, but everything Delphi is awful and I take issue with the way the Albus/Harry relationship resolves. The hetero ending is predictable but disgusting.
Overall: Yes characters, sometimes mostly; yes intercharacter dynamics unless it's about parenthood; yay for Slytherin representation. No plot; no plot, a lot, as well no to predictable heteronormativity and unremitting sequelitis.
A CURSED CHILD SNAPE MINI-ESSAY
TOO IMPORTANT TO CONSIGN TO LIVEBLOGGING NOTES
"Listen to me, Scorpius. Think about Albus. You're giving up your kingdom for Albus, right?
"One person. All it takes is one person. I couldn't save Harry for Lily. So now I give my allegiance to the cause she believed in. And it's possible—that along the way I started believing in it myself."
I don't agree with this major thesis of Snape's cameo. Snape's motives are purely selfish, and that he doesn't internalize much of their greater context is fundamental; it's equally important that he accomplishes incredible things with these motives. He's a character defined by that combination of capability and limitation.
The emotional content of Snape's cameo feels good, but it's satisfying because it provides the self-awareness that Snape never had in canon. I think his voice is spot-on, and I love that he approaches his death with dry sarcasm and complete awareness—brilliant and shielded, until the end, so very Snape. But while his scenes revive all my feels*, engaging everything memorable about him, they do so in a way that misses the point. Snape theses aren't supposed to feel good; they should be discomforting and perpetually unresolved because he's a great man and an awful man.
* Snape is one of my favorite characters and most Me characters, my induction to Slytherin house, and I'm invested in him as problematic not despite problematic.
Liveblogging notes follow, approximately edited:
ACT THREE
I think that dystopias should be obviously problematic, and I love making a sympathetic character complicit in them—proof that problematic systems aren't something "other" people engage in, that normal and likable people contribute to institutional harm. But I take issue with exaggerating dystopias esp. when they'red analogues for real-world prejudice—systematic harm isn't awkward-funny exaggerated mustache-twirling "Blood Ball" evil, it's mundane and societal.
But I like evil universe Draco, love evil universe Hermione, and we can all pretend Ron doesn't exist. What these parallel instances of characters are saying about themselves is actually fascinating.
But then who cares because Snape!!!, thoughts on which have been excised from here and turned into an essay above.
Here's a thing people don't actually do: use the names of modern figures as profanity, "thank Dumbledore we're here in time" etc.—there is no real-world equivalent for this that doesn't read as either literal or hugely sarcastic. (I get the intent to preserve an in-universe scope and avoid cursing, but please stop forever, it sounds ridiculous.)
Delphi is awful/things this narrative didn't need: an explicit antagonist/well that's a ridiculously literal and precise prophecy(/polite of her to leave a note on the wall to remind herself of her evil plans), or: this plot is dumb.
ACT FOUR
I am Here for Harry's righteous anger with Dumbledore, but I don't love Harry's arc. It's realistic but reprehensible: having reasons for your bad behavior doesn't excuse it, esp. within the power structure of a parent/child relationship. (And the cameos and explicit emotional resolutions has grown so repetitive that the resolution to the Harry and Dumbledore scene feels trite.)
Draco "mainly I wanted to be happy" Malfoy. "It's exceptionally lonely being Draco Malfoy." Bless. I've always been fond of post-canon "Draco has a lot to recover from, but takes remarkably well to boring daily life because for a while it's all he's wanted (Harry, meanwhile, flounders without a Quest)" fanfic and this hits those feels.
"As pleasurable as it would be to hide in a hole with you for the next forty years—" "If I had to choose a companion to be at the return of eternal darkness with, I'd chose you—" but no homo! no homo, you guys. Srsly, Scorpius's conversations with Snape make a direct parallel: if this were a male/female dynamic, it would be romantic; but because they're both male, that's inexplicably off the table.
Human transfiguration is supposed to be WAY harder than this, the plot is still dumb, who cares. (When do the boys get their wands back, is that a plothole, who cares.)
???!!!?/!
Bellatrix's daughter? no?? no. Voldemort wouldn't have reproduced with anyone but esp. not Bellatrix, he left her desire intentionally unrequited (even unacknowledged), that was part of the power dynamic, his disregard of her feelings, and his universal views of reproduction. No.
Witnessing Voldemort's attack is gratuitous, but Harry's responses are surprisingly well-rendered.
I hate the Harry/Albus dynamic, reprise: your child is never a dumping ground for your insecurity, trauma, personal issues, I don't care—even if it's a step up from being victim to those issues. Maybe I'm super biased b/c these themes hit too close to home, but, while I am all for complicated, unidealized characters & interpersonal dynamics, I am uncomfortable with this narrative.
lassmichrein has been consuming because she's been working through some of my absolute favorite narratives and authors. I've been excited about the media input and media-related output, and "excited about" is not something I often feel—a welcome remedy to the birthday-related angst.Title: The Purple Cloud
Author: M.P. Shiel
Published: Project Gutenberg, 2004 (1901)
Rating: 2 of 5
Page Count: ~250 of 450
Total Page Count: 202,135
Text Number: 596
Read Because: interest in Weird fiction, ebook obtained though Project Gutenberg
Review: A vast purple cloud sweeps the globe, leaving only one survivor. An early example of a "last man" novel and apocalyptic genre, this is at best a desolate, sweeping landscape, haunted—even by its sole survivor and his struggle to find purpose—and surreal. But the book is dated, with many slow sections (some of which are literal itemized lists) and repetitive pacing. I DNF'd this somewhere past the 50% mark, which I regret because when I was immersed I loved this for its bleak, profound beauty and for place in genre history. But I couldn't push past the weaknesses, and I wouldn't recommend it.
Title: Blood of Elves (The Witcher Book 3)
Author: Andrzej Sapkowski
Translator: Danusia Stok
Published: London: Orbit, 2009 (1994)
Rating: 5 of 5
Page Count: 400
Total Page Count: 202,535
Text Number: 597
Read Because: continuing the series, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review:
The story of Ciri's childhood, raised by witchers at Kaer Morhen and then taught magic by Yennefer, and of the prophecies and politics that surround this remarkable girl. The folklore-as-worldbuilding of the short stories is largely absent, and I hope it returns in the sequels; the sexism-as-worldbuilding is also absent and good riddance, but the cast of fantastic female characters persists. Politics and the larger plot occur piecemeal, which keeps them from flooding the book but also makes this a prelude rather than a narrative entire. Instead, Blood of Elves is an extended training montage, focusing on Ciri's interactions with taciturn and devoted Geralt and Yennefer who begins as an unforgiving tutor and becomes a mother, and on the imperfect ties that bind this strange family—and it's phenomenal, full of flawed characters and small moments of rewarding emotional transparency.
I have a love/hate relationship with the game series and short stories, and so I'm blown away by my unreserved love of this book, which is everything perfect about Ciri's presence in The Witcher 3, but more indulgent and more cogent. I look forward to continuing the series, but treasure this book in particular and highly recommend it.
Some feels and rants about the process of reading Blood of Elves on my Tumblr: 1, 2, 3. Copied below for safekeeping:
The most important takeaway from the first real Witcher novel, Blood of Elves:
Imagine that the flashback tutorial chapter of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt were a third of a book. Imagine 90 pages of adolescent Ciri growing up among a coarse band of witchers at Kaer Morhen, before and after Triss intervening to teach them how to raise a child and interact with a young woman; imagine an extended training montage exploring how each of these prickly broken men try and fail and learn how to raise a precocious, talented girl. Imagine that the most taciturn but sincere is Geralt; imagine "I did it! I really did it! I managed it! Praise me, Geralt!" "Well done, Ciri. Well done, girl."
Imagine Ciri's PTSD, and that learning to fight helps her to cope without magically fixing it. Imagine clunky but well-intended attempts to address her gender, insisting that it doesn't weaken her or make her less competent in battle.
Imagine Ciri idolizing Geralt; imagine that when she's very young and afraid, he makes her feel safe. Imagine her taking his love for granted as she grows up and grows rebellious, and imagine Geralt—who has little patience and pretends to have no empathy—taking much of what she does in stride.
—and you still can't imagine my feels. This is everything I ever wanted from the series, because nothing in the world of the Witcher is as authentic and pure and realistically complicated—without the overblown or toxic emotions that taint most other interpersonal relationships—as Geralt's love of Ciri as his daughter. This series is consistently about Geralt believing or pretending he's not human and the narrative forcing him to acknowledge that he is, and nothing does that better than his relationship with Ciri. And while Ciri has always been the best of this story, but I didn't know how best. She's magical and strong and I love her.
"And the girl?" Yarpen indicated Ciri with his head as she wriggled under the sheepskin. "Yours?"
"Mine," he replied without thinking. "Mine, Zigrin."
That laughter, thought Ciri watching swarms of black birds flying eastwards, that laughter, shared and sincere, really brought us together, her and me. We understood—both she and I—that we can laugh and talk together about him. About Geralt. Suddenly we became close, although I knew perfect well Geralt both brought us together and separated us, and that that's how it would always be.
#I am so invested in Ciri and Yen and Geralt's family dynamic and nothing summarizes it better than this #that Ciri destroys boundaries between Yen and Geralt (and within Yen) while at the same time highlighting them #these narratives in absentia; relationships defined as much by absence (and shared history and loss) as interaction #but that interaction is so fulfilling: restrained explicit prickly tender in just the right degrees #like Yen's reciprocal complete honesty and Geralt's 'well done girl' #'brought us together and separated us' my heart & my actual tears
3: False equivalencies
Title: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child—Parts One and Two (Harry Potter Book 8)
Author: J.K. Rowling, John Tiffany, Jack Thorne
Published: New York: Arthur A. Levine Books, 2016
Rating: 2 of 5
Page Count: 330
Total Page Count: 202,865
Text Number: 598
Read Because: Harry Potter fan, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: Nineteen years after the end of the book series, Harry and Draco's sons set off to Hogwarts, to become best friends and get in all sorts of trouble. The Cursed Child suffers a bad case of sequelitis, borrowing fanfiction tropes and characterization, and relying on the emotional appeal of numerous cameo appearances. The plot's a mess of predictable tropes, and the emotional messages—especially revolving around cameo characters—grow trite. But seeing familiar characters and Slytherin house in a new light provides interesting insight, and Scorpius and Albus are the play's saving grace: they're well-characterized and engaging, and their relationship is fantastic—despite the compulsory heterosexuality that looms over what's obviously a romance. Come to this for the characters, not the plot, and lower your expectations to allow for reiteration and artless indulgence, and it's not awful. But—like the questionable content of the Pottermore extended universe—it's not a must-read, even for fans.
Liveblogging notes and immediate reactions, including an essay about Snape's scene, on my Tumblr: part one and part two. Crossposted below for posterity:
My Harry Potter and the Cursed Child hold came in and so, ages behind everyone else, I give you my read-along thoughts:
my expectations are super low
PART ONE
Coming in to this late means I've been warned of a) licensed fanfiction and b) queerbaiting. And it feels a lot like fanfic, even perpetuating some Next Generation fic tropes and characterization (except that Teddy Lupin is thusfar MIA, which never happens in fic). I legitimately love black sheep Albus and over-honest Scorpius. Their dynamic is overly delineated and they don't always read as their ages, but honestly it's endearing, it has lovely indulgent intimacy and good chemistry, not counting future forced heteronormativity, and I dig the tropes at play. I don't like any other characters; Harry's realistic, I guess, but reprehensible; the intentionally inconsistent characterization elsewhere is just a mess. Time travel plots are chronically predictable, this especially so. tl;dr: I like what I like, but have read better written and plotted un-published un-licensed fanfiction.
Liveblogging notes follow, vaguely edited:
ACT ONE
This dialog is extremely stiff I tell you what.
Except Scorpious's dialog, which is exaggerated but still so endearing. (That said: "father-son issues, I have them," says the eleven-year-old to someone he's known for five minutes—the way emotions and intimacy translate into dialog is ... frequently awful.)
The idea that Voldemort would procreate is ridiculous to me esp. after so many discussions in Witch, Please about Voldemort's effete presentation and how he views all reproduction as miscegenation.
There's a silence.
A perfect, profound silence.
One that sits low, twists a bit, and has damage within it.
When in doubt, fridge a mom, it builds character.
Reliving the "yer a wizard, Harry" scene is gratuitous and redundant, even if it makes room for later dream scenes that do more than just reiterate canon.
I actually really like these kids?? I like a child complicating Harry's savior complex, unprettifying it—but dang, some of his interactions with Albus would have scarred me for life. I love disarming, blundering, honest Scorpius. I feel like I've seen these exact versions of these characters in fanfic, but they're still great. (But why are they in Slytherin? Scorpius reads like a Hufflepuff, not enough active self-interest; Albus I suppose reads as a self-repressed Slytherin; Slytherdor, sometimes.)
"I'm going to do this, Scorpius. I need to do this. And you know as well as I do, I'll entirely mess it up if you don't come with me. Come on."
("Albus, no." "Albus, YES.") Great dynamic, though: preemptively clean up my messes because without you I'm half a person and twice as dumb; there's no one I'd rather have beside me while I do something stupid.
Ron is wildly out of character as the joke-shop-owning weird uncle.
STOP EVERYTHING why did a 14-year-old kid polyjuiced into his uncle kiss his aunt, "Let's have another baby"??? this is incredibly gross and wildly out of character this is not something someone this age would do on the fly or at all because it's disgusting oh my godddddd
I love the imagery of the animated, dangerous library. But I don't know why Hermione would put clues for finding the time turner (she's not going to forget), and I 100% cannot buy that Hermione would make her library unusable even to make it a hiding place; you know she consults it a dozen times a day.
ACT TWO
What narrative explanation is there for Harry's prophetic dreams? This canon dreams were meaningful b/c direct link to Voldemort, so I'm sure that's exactly why—but it feels so plot devicy rn.
Ron's entire character is comedy relief trash. Ron henpecked with a son he hates is especially awful trash. I get that someone needs to be evidence of the changes caused by time travel, and I get that Ron is an especially disposable character, but I'm disappointed on his behalf and that's how awful this is.
Seriously, what Harry is doing to his son is disgusting. I'm not comfortable picking it apart for personal reasons but it is beyond the pale.
The Scorpius/Albus dynamic is really fantastic and knowing how it'll end up makes me preemptively angry. The way they talk doesn't read at all like their ages, but it's honest and emotional and imperfect and endearing and gayyyyyyykjlk
Fr srs tho: I like seeing what Scorpius gets out of the dynamic, which usually seems to exist for Albus's benefit—his "you were all I ever wanted," but also him insisting, "you must value my emotional labor and also me."
I've less to say about Act Two b/c a) more plot, hella predictable in the way that time travel is often predictable (everything that can go wrong, will; ripple effect; comic inversions made to previous timeline; tragic inversions made to same; trying to correct things makes them worse; blah blah blah) so I legit don't care about it, b) most nitpicks re: characters and style already established.
How many more canon cameos do you think they can possibly fit in. Lots, the answer is lots. So many.
I finished Cursed Child, not with a bang but a whimper.
PART TWO
I find myself of mixed feels. Dystopia!Potterland doesn't quite work for me, but the third iteration of the cast made me reconsider their second iterations—everything Ron is still a tragedy, but I grew to love the different versions of Hermione and the glimpse of complicit, privileged alternate-universe Scorpius. Snape's cameo blindsided me with feels, with which I argue but am engaged. But the fourth act is a mess. Time travel fairs better having exhausted its most predictable tropes, but everything Delphi is awful and I take issue with the way the Albus/Harry relationship resolves. The hetero ending is predictable but disgusting.
Overall: Yes characters, sometimes mostly; yes intercharacter dynamics unless it's about parenthood; yay for Slytherin representation. No plot; no plot, a lot, as well no to predictable heteronormativity and unremitting sequelitis.
A CURSED CHILD SNAPE MINI-ESSAY
TOO IMPORTANT TO CONSIGN TO LIVEBLOGGING NOTES
"Listen to me, Scorpius. Think about Albus. You're giving up your kingdom for Albus, right?
"One person. All it takes is one person. I couldn't save Harry for Lily. So now I give my allegiance to the cause she believed in. And it's possible—that along the way I started believing in it myself."
I don't agree with this major thesis of Snape's cameo. Snape's motives are purely selfish, and that he doesn't internalize much of their greater context is fundamental; it's equally important that he accomplishes incredible things with these motives. He's a character defined by that combination of capability and limitation.
The emotional content of Snape's cameo feels good, but it's satisfying because it provides the self-awareness that Snape never had in canon. I think his voice is spot-on, and I love that he approaches his death with dry sarcasm and complete awareness—brilliant and shielded, until the end, so very Snape. But while his scenes revive all my feels*, engaging everything memorable about him, they do so in a way that misses the point. Snape theses aren't supposed to feel good; they should be discomforting and perpetually unresolved because he's a great man and an awful man.
* Snape is one of my favorite characters and most Me characters, my induction to Slytherin house, and I'm invested in him as problematic not despite problematic.
Liveblogging notes follow, approximately edited:
ACT THREE
I think that dystopias should be obviously problematic, and I love making a sympathetic character complicit in them—proof that problematic systems aren't something "other" people engage in, that normal and likable people contribute to institutional harm. But I take issue with exaggerating dystopias esp. when they'red analogues for real-world prejudice—systematic harm isn't awkward-funny exaggerated mustache-twirling "Blood Ball" evil, it's mundane and societal.
But I like evil universe Draco, love evil universe Hermione, and we can all pretend Ron doesn't exist. What these parallel instances of characters are saying about themselves is actually fascinating.
But then who cares because Snape!!!, thoughts on which have been excised from here and turned into an essay above.
Here's a thing people don't actually do: use the names of modern figures as profanity, "thank Dumbledore we're here in time" etc.—there is no real-world equivalent for this that doesn't read as either literal or hugely sarcastic. (I get the intent to preserve an in-universe scope and avoid cursing, but please stop forever, it sounds ridiculous.)
Delphi is awful/things this narrative didn't need: an explicit antagonist/well that's a ridiculously literal and precise prophecy(/polite of her to leave a note on the wall to remind herself of her evil plans), or: this plot is dumb.
ACT FOUR
I am Here for Harry's righteous anger with Dumbledore, but I don't love Harry's arc. It's realistic but reprehensible: having reasons for your bad behavior doesn't excuse it, esp. within the power structure of a parent/child relationship. (And the cameos and explicit emotional resolutions has grown so repetitive that the resolution to the Harry and Dumbledore scene feels trite.)
Draco "mainly I wanted to be happy" Malfoy. "It's exceptionally lonely being Draco Malfoy." Bless. I've always been fond of post-canon "Draco has a lot to recover from, but takes remarkably well to boring daily life because for a while it's all he's wanted (Harry, meanwhile, flounders without a Quest)" fanfic and this hits those feels.
"As pleasurable as it would be to hide in a hole with you for the next forty years—" "If I had to choose a companion to be at the return of eternal darkness with, I'd chose you—" but no homo! no homo, you guys. Srsly, Scorpius's conversations with Snape make a direct parallel: if this were a male/female dynamic, it would be romantic; but because they're both male, that's inexplicably off the table.
Human transfiguration is supposed to be WAY harder than this, the plot is still dumb, who cares. (When do the boys get their wands back, is that a plothole, who cares.)
Draco: Hermione Granger, I'm being bossed around by Hermione Granger. (She turns towards him. He smiles.) And I'm mildly enjoying it.
???!!!?/!
Bellatrix's daughter? no?? no. Voldemort wouldn't have reproduced with anyone but esp. not Bellatrix, he left her desire intentionally unrequited (even unacknowledged), that was part of the power dynamic, his disregard of her feelings, and his universal views of reproduction. No.
Witnessing Voldemort's attack is gratuitous, but Harry's responses are surprisingly well-rendered.
I hate the Harry/Albus dynamic, reprise: your child is never a dumping ground for your insecurity, trauma, personal issues, I don't care—even if it's a step up from being victim to those issues. Maybe I'm super biased b/c these themes hit too close to home, but, while I am all for complicated, unidealized characters & interpersonal dynamics, I am uncomfortable with this narrative.
