André in Zuid-Afrika
|
Harry PotterIt's getting close....
|
Liz
|
Re: Harry Potter | André in Zuid-Afrika wrote: | It's getting close....
|
I can hardly wait...but I'll have to wait for a while...if I don't want to watch the dubbed version. 
|
Tiorthan
|
You have dubbed versions of the book? 
|
Liz
|
| Tiorthan wrote: | | You have dubbed versions of the book? |
Sorry...I thought about the movie because it is coming, too... 
The book is coming, too? I didn't know it but I can't afford to buy it - especially not the English version. Yes, we have a dubbed version of the book - called The Hungarian Translation.
|
David
|
Man, I can't wait. TWO more days!
|
Uriel
|
You know what's amusing? We have completely different cover art in the US.
|
Loic
|
Nine years ago when I was 14, I innocuously bumped into the first two Harry Potter books at Carrefour. Back then, the Potter phenomenon was virtually an unknown entity in Singapore and what caught my attention was really the striking and colourful cover illustrations of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. I bought the first two books and waited for the third.....and the fourth....and the fifth....and the sixth.
Honestly, I disapprove of the turn which the books have taken. I think it is unrealistic that the squabbling feuds between Hermione Granger and Ronald Weasley could blossom into romance overnight; I nearly became sick when Harry snogged his best friend's sister, Ginny. What next? Professor Snape caught in a compromising position with Professor McGonagall by Nearly Headless Nick?
I hope Harry dies - if only because I detest cliched endings where good triumph over evil.
|
Joanne
|
Wow. It's been a while since I've been in Langcafé. Sorry, guys  It's been a challenging couple of months, to say the least!
Anyway, about an hour ago, I bought my reserved copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows at my local Borders Books (which is a five-minute walk from my home). Borders started selling the book at 12:01 am, and it was pande-f***ing-monium, I swear. Surprisingly, there weren't nearly as many young children as I thought there would be. Most were adults and teenagers.
I'm afraid I haven't got the energy to stay up all night and attack the book, though. I'm an old, old lady of 28 years, after all... 
|
Uriel
|
Well, take your Geritol and suck it up, young lady! 
Why would kissing your best friend's sister be a social problem? You aren't related.
|
Loic
|
Bloody hell! I couldn't resist and finally succumbed to temptation by reading the synopsis of the final Harry Potter installment at Wikipedia. I am crushed at the plot development; I am crushed that I have deprived myself of endless hours of amusement now that I roughly know what has transpired.
So ends my 9 year romance with JK Rowling. I was still wearing shorts when I read the Philosopher's Stone and the Chamber of Secrets. I was only so high back then. How time flies.
PS: Uriel, kissing your best friend's sister is taboo. Think about it: she shares the same genetic makeup as your best friend. Kissing her is very much akin to making out with your friend and if that isn't gross enough, I don't know what is.
|
Uriel
|
Can't imagine why kissing your best friend would even be a problem. I've done it. Didn't gross me out. And since many people claim to have married their best friends....or count brothers- or sisters-in-law as their best buddies....that argument hardly holds up.
Your best friend's siblings are completely different people. You may have any kind of relationship with them -- you may love them, hate them, be completely indifferent to them, and anything in between. There is nothing about your relationship with their sibling that necessarily colors your relationship with other members of their family.
|
Benjamin [inactive]
|
| Uriel wrote: | | Can't imagine why kissing your best friend would even be a problem. I've done it. Didn't gross me out. |
I agree — I've kissed someone whom I had previously thought of as just a friend... before he told me that he was gay.
|
Liz
|
| Loic wrote: | | PS: Uriel, kissing your best friend's sister is taboo. Think about it: she shares the same genetic makeup as your best friend. Kissing her is very much akin to making out with your friend and if that isn't gross enough, I don't know what is. |
Interesting. I've never heard that one before. I thought the best friend's girlfriend / boyfriend was taboo, but the sister... I know losts of couples where that's the case and I don't think there is anything wrong with or strange about it.
|
Uriel
|
Well, maybe it's taboo in Singapore, but it certainly isn't around here!
Just saw the Order of the Phoenix -- not bad! Umbridge was perfectly realized -- right down to the fuzzy pink outfits and the kittens mewing on the wall. Sadly, the book is so long and dense that they really can't get much more than the highlights on the screen, but I think we're all resigned to that by now -- it was still a butt-numbing experience. What is sort of a shame is that every one of these movies has sort of turned into a public works project to keep British actors employed, yet although there are so many good actors playing wnderful parts, they barely get more than a cameo appearance on screen. Still, they usually make the most of it. Wish they had been able to explore Snape's flashbacks to his bullying and humiliation by Harry's father, and the subsequent blow to Harry's idealization (and idolization) of his father. Snape is one of the most interesting characters in the books, because he is such a tantalizing enigma.
|
Loic
|
It's not about it being taboo or not - it's just me. I can't envision snogging my best mate's sister and looking at him in the eye, thinking that I had just made out with him vicariously.
Speaking of Harry Potter, Daniel Radcliffe turned 18 a few days back and he celebrated it by conducting an interview over Test Match Special and going to Lord's for India v England.....only to see England denied victory by the almighty rain.
With Jonathan Agnew, TMS commentator at Lord's. No, not named after Lord Voldemort but Thomas Lord.
|
Uriel
|
My copy of the last book arrived today from Amazon -- haven't cracked it open yet, because I know once I do, I won't put that sucker down!
|
Josh Lalonde
|
I just finished it today, after a two-hundred page marathon this morning. Nicely done, J.K. Rowling. I've still only seen the first two movies, so maybe I'll try to catch up with those.
|
Deborah
|
A few days ago several neighborhoods in San Francisco had a series of power outages for quite awhile, and we couldn't use the computers at work. One of my co-workers lamented that he hadn't brought Harry Potter with him that day. He mentioned this to someone who'd been outside on a break when it happened and couldn't use the elevator. Seems she'd been lamenting the fact that she hadn't brought her book with her on her break. She told him where it was, and he was then able to use the down time productively!
|
Joanne
|
| Uriel wrote: | | My copy of the last book arrived today from Amazon -- haven't cracked it open yet, because I know once I do, I won't put that sucker down! |
I couldn't put it down. I killed it on a flight to Vancouver last Monday! Funny thing was that two people behind me, one person in my row, and I think three people in the rows in front of me were all reading it, too. When we boarded, we all gave each other these sheepish half-smirks of camaraderie...
|
Uriel
|
I love all the hype about the fact that someone important was supposed to die in the last book. Seriously, by the time I got to the end, I was about to take bets on who was still gonna be alive by the last page. Ol' J.K got downright bloodthirsty in there! I heard she wanted to end the whole series by the last planned book, and I guess she decided the best way to ensure that there'd be no backsliding was to kill off half the cast! I mean jeez, it was like reading Macbeth or Hamlet....
|
KSa
|
How is the English of "Harry Potter"? Would it be feasible to digest it by non-native speakers (like me) with imperfect command of English?
|
Josh Lalonde
|
| Quote: | | I love all the hype about the fact that someone important was supposed to die in the last book. Seriously, by the time I got to the end, I was about to take bets on who was still gonna be alive by the last page. Ol' J.K got downright bloodthirsty in there! I heard she wanted to end the whole series by the last planned book, and I guess she decided the best way to ensure that there'd be no backsliding was to kill off half the cast! I mean jeez, it was like reading Macbeth or Hamlet.... |
I thought she handled the deaths pretty well actually. They were all likable characters, so it show just how evil Voldemort really is, but none of them were too important, like Dumbledore in the 6th one. I thought she was going to kill Harry off though: just to make sure they wouldn't pressure her into writing another.
|
Liz
|
| KSa wrote: | | How is the English of "Harry Potter"? Would it be feasible to digest it by non-native speakers (like me) with imperfect command of English? |
I've only read the first book, but, as a non-native speaker, I can tell you that it reads well. (At least, it wasn't very hard for me to understand.) Although I don't know about the other books (unfortunately), they aren't very likely to be different in style. Are they?
PS: You have an excellent command of the English language (as far as I can judge), so no worries!
|
André in Zuid-Afrika
|
|
Joanne
|
LOL André
I wonder how Deathly Hallows is going to look like as a movie. I mean, a lot of people die, and it's much more violent than The Order of the Phoenix, and that's PG-13.  I also feel sorry for the poor director who has to coax romantic chemistry from Emma Watson (Hermione) and Rupert Grint (Ron).
|
Uriel
|
My dad's wife read some of the books to work on her English, and hers is nowhere near as good as yours, KSa.
|
|
|
