Terms of Matrimony
(my comments on “Terms of Matrimony” by Galad Estel)
First of all, this story has broken link on Fanfiction.net, so
I have had to look up and down all over the Internet to find that
only working copy known to me is at ff2ebook.com link shown
above. Even the dump on archive.org is incomplete and plain text
only. Thank you fflai on Reddit for pointing in the right
direction.
This is obvious another example why serial writing is quite
problematic. It seems to me that the author after writing
introduction (first 23 chapters or so) lost interest and the end
is stitched together with a very very hot needle (Czech saying)
and it shows.
Having said that, the setup of the story is really nice. It is
one of the most persuasive stories of Petunia-Snape relationship.
It is dramatic (not like crazily talkative and generally absurd
“A magical love affair”) and generally persuasive: one Death
Eater (Macnair) uses Imperium Curse on Vernon Dursley to try to
get to Harry (who is then six) and kill him. However, Vernon is
stopped in the attempt by the magical protection by Harry’s
mother and he kills himself (still under the influence of the
curse, in order to cover tracks). Petunie with kids is on the run
and she must hide in the magical world. However, her status as
a single Muggle mother is very uncertain in the Magical world, so
Dumbledore decides and manipulates her and Snape into a marriage
to get her some standing.
Petunia and kids are hiding for a month at Weasley’s and while
staying there she decides in the end to take a little bit of
control over her life and (charmingly with the help of ten-year
old Percy Weasley) drafts eponymous marriage contract, which she
sends to Dumbledore, so she accedes to the pressure but still
keeps some of her dignity and autonomy. What follows is nice and
quite persuasive but already a bit brief struggle of all involved
to find their role in the new situation: Petunia is forced to be
suddenly real mother and wife, Snape has to learn how to care
about somebody else, Dudley suddenly has a father who strictly
requires following orders, and Harry has somebody who cares about
it.
Unfortunately, in this moment, when one would say that it is well
prepared for nice story (how could at least reasonably working
family containing one very smart wizard face the challenge of the
Dark Lord and how could they resist the machinations of Albus
Dumbledore? etc.), so when a reader looks forward start of nice
story, it ends abruptly with Remus ex machina showing up and
discovering immediately that the rat is Peter, and we get brief
collaboration of two former enemies, just to be interrupted by
the evil Veela (interesting concept, but why not?) sent by Lucius
Malfoy, who immediately kills Pettigrew in order to protect the
mystery and keep Sirius in Azkaban. Next chapter, whole family (&
Remus) runs away to America. End of the story.
It’s a pity, it really has a foundation of good novel, but it
never fulfills this promise. I would suggest reading it at least
for the exposition, but be prepared to dream about continuation.
comments
Ad “A magical love affair”
(my comments on “A magical love affair” by charmed9292)
I have to admit reading of this story was an exercise in
frustration for me. I think the general idea of Petunia and
Severus crying over one another’s shoulder is a great. Both of
them are nicely complicated and somehow …
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Dudley has a witch as a daughter
(review of Must Have Changed A Lot)
This certainly works as a one-shot, but as many (most?) fanfics
it is necessary to distinguish between exposition and story.
There are zillion fanfics with at least interesting exposition
(OK, so not only "what if Harry was a girl/has a sister"), but …
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O panu Drahošovi a ozbrojení obyvatelstva
(komentář k diskusi na Facebooku k včerejší diskusi
prezidentských kandidátů panů Drahoše a Zemana)
Byl jsem z té včerejší diskuse upřímně nešťastný (tedy z pěti
minut, které jsem vydržel sledovat).
Ne, proto, že by novinář Primy byl neschopný minimální novinářské
práce a jenom se snažil přivést diváctvo co nejvíce do …
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On Lying
(a comment to the blogpost by Robert O’Callahan)
I think the truthfulness among Christians is overrated. Here,
I said it.
OK, before saying anything else, I have to say that it is very
important, and I know what I am talking about. I had my brush
with an addiction …
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Podpora kandidátů na prezidenta
(z emailové diskuse)
K obavám z roztříštěnosti:
Pokud v prvním kole bude mít Zeman více než 50% hlasů, bude
zvolen. Pak je úplně jedno, kolik hlasů dostane Drahoš
a Fišer. Pokud v prvním kole nedostane více než 50%,
a předpokládejme, že do druhého kola se dostane, pak záleží na
kandidátovi …
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Review of “Escape” and “Mr and Mrs Percy Weasley”
There is a biblical verse from Galatians 3:3: “Are you so
foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected
by the flesh?” What I mean is that “Escape” and “Mr and Mrs
Percy Weasley” started as one of the best fanfictions I found
anywhere. Obviously, from …
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Re: High-level Problems with Git and How to Fix Them
(originally written as a comment on the blogpost by Gregory
Szorc)
Some comments:
- I like your ideas about the improved documentation and better
sounding options (yes, git commit --cached is stupid). Did
you file them as RFE to git@vger.kernel.org? I don’t think
they are that controversial …
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vim v. IDE for Python programming
(somebody asked me in email about my opinions on vim v. IDE for
Python programming, I think it could be worthy of being available
to others as well)
Obviously you are interested in Python and Vim. Therefore I'd
like to ask you whether you use a Python IDE. If so …
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On The Third Way or the Reply to Dave
(Comment to the article by Dave Schmelzer on a Christian and
politics)
Hi, Dave,
let me add couple of comments from this side of The Pond.
First of all, of course, I blame completely confused American
terminology, especially in the political matters. Here Socialists
are not afraid to call themselves …
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EconTalk, Future of Cars and Telecommuting
(This has been comment on the episode of EconTalk)
It seems to me that however this interview was awesome (and it
was) it is still in the danger of being the same kind as the
prediction about colourful faxes.
I think we are standing on the edge of the end …
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Yet another on the infallibility in the Church
(written originally as yet another comment to the blogpost “How Many
Theologians Does it Take To Define Infallibility?” by Melinda Selyms)
First of all: thank you, these are very good questions, which actually made me
think (doesn’t happen that often on blog comments).
Certainly, some rules are necessary even …
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The Holy Protestant Tradition?
(written originally as a comment to the blogpost “How Many
Theologians Does it Take To Define Infallibility?” by Melinda
Selyms)
I am a Protestant, so I am not entitled to bring much to this
discussion, but we were yesterday with my wife in Wittenberg, so
I cannot resist to add …
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On “A Painfully Familiar Reason for Using NFP”
Record of my comment to another nice article by Melinda Selmys.
This is one of those sad places where I am afraid my voice will
be completely ignored, because exactly the people who will most
dogmatically insist on NFP will be the ones who will be the least
likely to …
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Review of Aftershocks
Some thoughts on the fan fiction Aftershocks.
We need to know without a shadow of a doubt that Padma did not
kill Parvati before we can move on.
I am extremely confused about this whole work. On the one hand
there are some parts which are really trully excellent. Whole …
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What We Were Made For: Gratitude For Normal
(unfortunately, FanFiction.net allows only one review per
chapter, so I was not able to add this to my review of
chapter 90 of The Missing Moments by Ash-and-Vine).
When I was something like fourteen I was in hospital for surgery
which made me for a week unable to move …
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The Problem of Neil Gaiman
So, it happened. I read “The problem of Susan” by Neil Gaiman and
I am completely disgusted by it. Not because Aslan did the White
Witch proper, or because he ate all those lovely little
children. Serves them well, and it is certainly the author’s
prerogative to decide that …
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Láska nebo strach. Vyberte si.
Dan Drápal napsal do dnešních (7. února) Lidových novin velice
hezký článek „Co chybí Junckerovým scénářům.“ V zásadě mi
nezbývá, nežli s ním souhlasit, ale přece jenom bych rád přičinil
několik poznámek na jeho okraj.
Jednak je asi třeba zdůraznit, že je velice dobře, že nějaká Bílá
kniha vůbec vznikla …
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Post-Communist Conservatism
While listening to the episode 30 of the Eastern Border
podcast (a very touching one, thank you, Kristaps), I was touched
by his notion of the post-Communist conservatism. The idea is
that many nations in the former Eastern block seem to be a way
more conservative than people in the …
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P. Halík na cestě ke zradě?
(původně komentář k článku P. Halíka k americkým prezidentským volbám)
Pane profesore, jakkoli si Vás velice vážím a jakkoli jsem
naprosto znechucen vítězstvím pana Trumpa v amerických
prezidentských volbách, a jakkoli zbytek příspěvku je naprosto
přesný, přesto Vás musím opravit v jednom bodě. Pan Trump sice
doslova řekl, že miluje …
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Stages of grief
I am just reading an interesting blog post by my Melinda Selmys
reflecting on her reaction to the Mr. Trump’s victory in the US
elections.
I am Czech, so I have a little experience with the similar
situation, which I would like to share. Since 2013, Mr. Miloš
Zeman …
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Uncle Abner and Mr. Trump
(originally started as a comment on the article on First
Things).
Yours country used to be found on principles “to the end it may be
a government of laws and not of men”, and now the biggest concern of
everybody is which of the nine unelected guys (or gals) will …
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Tož tu Evropu už máme, teď potřebujeme ještě nějaké Evropany
V tomto okamžiku to vypadá, že absolutně všichni obyvatelé planety Země,
zejména pokud žijí někde v blízkosti Evropy, cítí potřebu se vyslovit
k příčinám, následkům a všemu možnému ohledně vystoupení Spojeného
(zatím :)) Království z Evropské unie. Vzhledem k tomu, že jsem sám
spíše zmaten nežli co jiného z celé situace …
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On Natural Law
(written as a comment on the blogpost by Melinda Selmys, “10 Reasons
Why Homosexuality is Not a Natural Law Issue”)
First of all, yes, the title of the blogpost is wrong. However, who of you
(especially a parent of couple of months old baby) never wrote a title, and
then …
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Stating the Obvious
(originally posted as a comment on the blogpost “Few quick thoughts on
Brexit” by Chris Arnade)
I am still confused by the book “Status Anxiety” by Alain de Botton.
Either it is just a stupid banality stating the obvious, or Douglas
Adams is right and “It is a rare mind …
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