Chapter by Chapter: Philosopher's Stone (Chapter 5: Diagon Alley)

XDMorsmordreXD

Seeing as people are liking the idea, I guess we'll go through.
Seeing as a lot of us have school, myself included, we'll have a week to read the chapter.
Discussions will come afterwards. :D


Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

Liz

I'm game, Morse :D

Festax0333

yeah!

Martin1

I'd be up for that

Richard

cool

Tiina

Im in morse! :D

Wolf_Potter

Cool!!

XDMorsmordreXD

Nice! I credit Ry for coming up with this in another thread!
Anyway, we should start it soon then.

Joshie

Hey I thought about this a while back. I didn't mention it tho. :D

Pensieve Seeker

Fine with me.

XDMorsmordreXD

Let the reading...commence!
:D
Post whenever you finish Chapter One.

Firefly

Can we at least call the book by its proper name please?

XDMorsmordreXD

Can we at least call the book by its proper name please?

Sure.

Toini01

Great idea. Finaly an awesome book debate.

Firefly

Can we at least call the book by its proper name please?

Sure.

I was expecting an argument. Thanks very much!
:D

XDMorsmordreXD

Great idea. Finaly an awesome book debate.

:D

Joshie

This chapter is amazing, I have no problems with it whatsoever, and that's that, and NO HARM DONE.

Liz

aaron

Opening passage is awkward, as most of them are when not told from Harry's perspective. It jumps perspectives and is very different from the rest of the book. Nonetheless, a rather thrilling insight into the world of Harry Potter and our first glimpse into Rowling's fascinating way of storytelling.

chester

Can this be a official thread?

Phineas

Ooh, this thread is a nice idea. We should make it an announcement thread.

Phineas

Aaaaand it's now an announcement thread. YUS!

Ash

:-B

RyGuy

I absolutely LOVE this!!! Thank you Morse :)

Okay everyone, lets gear up and have this read by Thursday of Friday night? Could we do a once a week due date where we begin talking about the next chapter? What is everyones thought on this here?

Martin1

I absolutely LOVE this!!! Thank you Morse :)

Okay everyone, lets gear up and have this read by Thursday of Friday night? Could we do a once a week due date where we begin talking about the next chapter? What is everyones thought on this here?

My only thought is that I'm really hungry right now.

But yeah thats grand.

Liz

I absolutely LOVE this!!! Thank you Morse :)

Okay everyone, lets gear up and have this read by Thursday of Friday night? Could we do a once a week due date where we begin talking about the next chapter? What is everyones thought on this here?

sounds good to me :)

RyGuy

Yessss! :D I hope everyone likes this. I think it would be nice to analyze certain background objects, happenings and whatnot. It's almost like Maximum Book Mode, instead of movie mode hahaha XD

aaron

Sounds great. I'll be gone for the next few chapters apart from The Boy Who Lived, but oh well. :-S

RyGuy

Sounds great. I'll be gone for the next few chapters apart from The Boy Who Lived, but oh well. :-S

:( But hey at least you get to enjoy your break in somewhere awesome :D How about you do a catch up post once your back? :D

chester

Sounds great. I'll be gone for the next few chapters apart from The Boy Who Lived, but oh well. :-S

:( But hey at least you get to enjoy your break in somewhere awesome :D How about you do a catch up post once your back? :D

What's that awesome place he goes to?

RyGuy

Sounds great. I'll be gone for the next few chapters apart from The Boy Who Lived, but oh well. :-S

:( But hey at least you get to enjoy your break in somewhere awesome :D How about you do a catch up post once your back? :D

What's that awesome place he goes to?

India :D

XDMorsmordreXD

I absolutely LOVE this!!! Thank you Morse :)

Okay everyone, lets gear up and have this read by Thursday of Friday night? Could we do a once a week due date where we begin talking about the next chapter? What is everyones thought on this here?

Sounds good!
Thank you really! You brought it up the other day.

HorcruxWanderer

This is the best thread in a long time, awesome idea

kaileyelisabeth

Wish I could participate, but all my HP books are in boxes until at least March :(

RyGuy

Wish I could participate, but all my HP books are in boxes until at least March :(

:O :O Hmm...lemme lookie around online for something ;)

Pottergoose

I'm definitely in :D

tomnom94

I'm in! Sounds like an awesome idea :D

chester

I'm in too. But i won't post my review of the first chapter till next week. I have exams right now. Are we going to use a standard layout for our little reviews?

My idea of a layout:
"
The good:
(say what you liked in this chapter)
The bad:
(say what you didn't like in this chapter)
Overall:
(What did you think of this Chapter)
Trivia:
(Post trivia about this chapter here)
Movie-version:
(What do you think about the movie-adaption of this chapter/scene?)
"
Is this a good layout for you guys?

XDMorsmordreXD

I'm in too. But i won't post my review of the first chapter till next week. I have exams right now. Are we going to use a standard layout for our little reviews?

My idea of a layout:
"
The good:
(say what you liked in this chapter)
The bad:
(say what you didn't like in this chapter)
Overall:
(What did you think of this Chapter)
Trivia:
(Post trivia about this chapter here)
Movie-version:
(What do you think about the movie-adaption of this chapter/scene?)
"
Is this a good layout for you guys?

If you'd like, surely.

chester

I'd like it because it has a structure so it wouldn't be a mess.

XDMorsmordreXD

Is tomorrow 'ok' to start discussions?

Firefly

I don't like Jo's style of writing in this book. It's very simple and child-friendly compared to the other books.

However, the opening line is perfect:

Mr and Mrs Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much.

This is effective because we instantly imagine a stuck-up middle-class family who like to keep to themselves:



It is an interesting start to the story, we are told very little, as though we are expected to know what is going on already. There is a lot of intrigue, as well of dread, on Vernon's part. These strange people keep mentioning the Potters, who the Dursleys will not associate with.

What is even more interesting, is at this point in the story, James and Lily Potter are already dead:







And that an attempt has been made on Harry's life:



Vernon is unaware of any of this.

Minerva McGonagall has been sat on Privet Drive all day, Vernon swears he saw a cat looking at a map:

Nothing like this man had ever been seen in Privet Drive. He was tall, thin and very old, judging by the silver of his hair and beard, which were both long enough to tuck into his belt. He was wearing long robes, a purple cloak which swept the ground and high-heeled, buckled boots. His blue eyes were light, bright and sparkling behind half-moon spectacles and his nose was very long and broken, as though it had been broken at least twice*. This man's name was Albus Dumbledore.

*broken by Aberforth Dumbledore.



The Deluminator, which Albus leaves to Ronald Weasley in his will:

"Fancy seeing you here, Professor McGonagall"

What is important is that even though McGonagall says that every child will know Harry's name, Dumbledore already realises this. It would be more healthier for Harry to grow up in Hogwarts, or with some magical family; but Dumbledore realises that Harry needs to be away from the wizarding world. It would be too much for him to grow up around people who are aware of what has happened to him, without Harry understanding why he is famous.

"You think it - wise - to trust Hagrid with something as important as this?"

This is fantastic foreshadowing for the rest of the series. Hagrid is Harry's first mentor, his first real father figure. Who takes him temporarily out of the magical world [reluctantly] and then brings him back into it again ten years later.

It is an interesting parallel, Hagrid carrying the vulnerable baby Harry in his arms and then sixteen years later carrying what he believes to be a "dead" Harry:

"Good luck, Harry."

Toini01

WoW Firefly what an awesome comment!!

marques18

Oh I wish I had my books right now! I'll get them soon though :D Great review Firefly! One thing I remember I love in this chapter is when Hagrid says he borrowed the motorbike from Sirius! Some years ago when I started to read PS again I did not remember any of these little details so when I read that part I was like "wow Jo had already thought of Sirius by this time" :P

TheDoctor

I hate it when people are all "i tried to read harry potter but i was like 5 pages in and it was boring". I agree that the first chapter isn't the most exciting thing in the world, but I never find the first few chapters in any books that good because you're still getting a taste for the plot/characters.

chester

Indeed but the writing style is so weird in the first chapter.

marques18

I hate it when people are all "i tried to read harry potter but i was like 5 pages in and it was boring". I agree that the first chapter isn't the most exciting thing in the world, but I never find the first few chapters in any books that good because you're still getting a taste for the plot/characters.

Yep, I agree with you, but on the other hand, I believe that if a person doesn't have a great will to read the first chapters have to be really good. I love to read and sometimes I just want to stop reading a book, but I don't because I know that if I keep reading it, it can lead to a wonderful and awesome journey!

But then again, not everyone loves to read...

Pensieve Seeker

When I first read that Dumbledore was wearing high-heeled buckled boots, I began to wonder if he was gay or not. I also like the foreshadowing in there about the scar above his knee being a map of the London Underground because this is where Kings Cross is, which is where Harry met him after having been "killed" by Voldemort.

Owl

I absolutely adore the idea of this thread, brilliant idea. :P

Anyway, yes
The first chapter is quite disjointed for it jumps around a bit, with the erratic placing and introduction of the characters and their perspectives.
Though I do like the way in which Rowling had woven through each character, giving fair time to each without damaging the pacing of the introduction to not the characters, but the story around the characters.

I do admire how the story is opened for children in the way that Rowling’s writing is not looming or over intimidating for young kids, also her sense of wit and colourful humours notes to the characters in her opening descriptions of each of them, equally, is a joy to read.

The thing I like most about the first chapter is that - you know how J.K had always said that she’d taken time to note out and plan the entire series carefully from the beginning, is that you can see it, you can see all her planning from the very first chapter of the very first book, it's all there, through little hints.
Lily and James’s murder, Tom Riddle’s downfall etc. and of course, a thing I absolutely love, the quick sly sliding mention of Sirius.
There is something so brilliant and (as a fan) heart-warming about looking back to the beginning, after all the books have been released and the characters stories have been told, and seeing these mentions, seeing these starts.

Also it’s interesting that it’s here in this first chapter that the differences between the muggle world and the wizarding world are already pulled up with Vernon’s judgements on the people in the.. 'strange clothes' and such.

MadBella

in wooooo

chester

When is the second chapter?