This is MJ. I'm an author, I'm an artist, I'm an analyzer. You can find all my work at MJMunoz.com and I am recording an impromptu
casual book chat for Mining Leaves or aka Mining Leaves episodes for a story over everything.
I am marathoning for some reason the Harry Potter books by JK Rowling and I just finished
book two which is the Chamber of Secrets and I want to share some of my thoughts on it in a casual manner and
if people like these casual book chats and then demand that I do
an in-depth book chat or discussion or review analysis of books, I'd be happy to do that. I just need to have the numbers on it.
So let me know and we can circle back to anything that I touched on in these casual book chats where I'm just
skimming leaves as opposed to mining for gold in them leaves. So anyway, so I like
this book better than the Chamber of Secrets. I think
because it's a series and I got introduced to everybody in Philosopher's Stone, and I like them all there,
getting to see more of them and getting to see them go in different directions is interesting.
We're past Harry being the wide-eyed wonder kid who is
completely wowed by everything he sees in the wizarding world and we're on to him
learning how to
be content with who he is and
having to grapple with who he is as well as there are some questions of identity brought up here and
I don't want to get too spoilery, but basically
there's an accusation made. I'll just put it this way, broadly. There are accusations made that the people who are being hurt or
petrified really at Hogwarts are
being attacked at the behest of Slytherin's heir and
Slytherin's heir has a queue key features and traits that Harry shares, so there's an accusation that he is
Slytherin's heir. Harry thinks that can't be true. He thinks somebody like Malfoy or a Slytherin must be
Slytherin's heir and must be the one involved in these attacks going on and
he kind of has a crisis where people start to hate him and he gets
he's very much on the back foot for, I don't know, a good half of the book
if not a third and it's really interesting because he has this great struggle and
it puts him in a really interesting position because he was the hero and he was the boy who lived in the first book and now it's
well, okay, well, why did you live? Is it because you have some sort of secret extra evil power that you're, you know, like the
you're the granddaddy of all evil wizards and that's why you were able to beat Voldemort?
I think that's a really interesting twist and it's something really interesting that gets played with and
there's even a bit where Hermione and Ron are questioning him or at least wondering exactly what's going on with him because
they're seeing in him things that they never thought they would see. They're seeing in him things that they thought would be traits of only a Voldemort or
perhaps, you know, Slytherin himself. I can't remember the guy, the original Slytherin, the guy who was the
I can't remember the guy, the original Slytherin, the founder of the Hogwarts house, his name, but that's really interesting.
There's a lot more and there's a lot more spoilery type stuff I can get into but I'm not going to at this point.
Instead I'm going to talk about the fact that I really liked seeing how Harry interacted with the Weasley family because he got to
have a lot more one-on-one time with them. We got away from the Dursleys much more quickly in this book.
Thank God, because they're terrible.
But they are not the only terrible characters in this book, which is probably good because you need a lot of conflict and a lot of
a lot of interesting people to have a dynamic interaction with and we sure get that in the person of somebody who I won't name quite yet.
And if you read the book, you know he's insufferable and that one word should be the only clue you need to know exactly who it is that I'm talking about.
So Rowling does something really interesting where she really plays with things. She pulls Hermione out of play for a large part of the book and
it ends up being dramatic and it also creates some great humorous moments down the line or you know towards the end of the book.
So that's really interesting but it puts Ron and Harry into a really... you get to see their relationship develop more quickly which is really nice.
Before I talk about the Harry-Ron relationship, I want to talk about Hermione real quick as a non-romantic interest.
And I think it's good on multiple levels. These kids are 12 years old. I think that's way too early for you know considerations of romance, especially in today's society and culture.
And she's kind of just one of the guys or she thinks of them as just one of the girls because there's a weird thing.
I don't know if Rowling intended this as a pun or not but when it comes down to it, I think there's a solid pun in the fact that the book is called the Chamber of Secrets.
They are questing and looking for the titular Chamber of Secrets and spoilers, the Chamber of Secrets turns out to be located on Hogwarts grounds in a place where you would find a porcelain throne.
If you don't get that, well you should I think, and if you do then you'll understand that it's hilarious that it's called the Chamber of Secrets especially because people used to have chamber pots for this exact purpose in their own bedrooms.
And later on that got dedicated to its own specific room. Anyway, there's not potty humor I would say but there is talking about using the toilet or the toilet itself.
It kind of features, you know, at one point they go into a girl's toilet to find Hermione.
There's nobody there because it's an abandoned broken down one and they talk to her in there and they feel weird about going into the girl's toilet at first and eventually they become okay with it and it becomes not a hangout spot but it becomes somewhere where it's necessary for them to go because of the plot.
And there's like a cool lack, like it's just uncomfortable because it's the girl's bathroom and you don't go in the girl's bathroom. That's weird and that's like nuclear, it's toxic, you stay away from a girl's bathroom if you're a boy.
If you're with your mom at the store she makes you go into the women's bathroom with her, it kind of stinks. I mean you don't like, nothing about smells or no smells, it's just, it's not where you want to be and it's a little upsetting that you have to go in there.
And yeah, so coming from that perspective that was kind of interesting that she played with that and I don't know, she's got, Rowling's got kids, I don't know if she's got girls, boys, boys, any girls, what she has.
So I don't know if she experienced that firsthand being a mother, being a mum, having to take her wee chap into the bathroom with her and having the kids say, no, ma, I don't want to go with you into the loo, you know, because that's for girls or what.
But there's a little bit of that and it's kind of cool but I'm more stressing the point that it's interesting that Hermione doesn't have an issue. There's no qualm, it's just, she talks about the bathroom and being in there and she talks about, or she invites the guys in there and it's like just very matter of fact about it.
And we don't get an opportunity to see if she would kind of hesitate going into a boy's bathroom or not but she certainly doesn't hesitate to invite the guys in with her and you know it all makes sense and it's all you know on the level.
So that's kind of a fun thing but yeah, there's like a, there's like a, you know, a sexless or like, you know, romance and anything like that isn't really a concern for these kids.
Beyond the fact that they're on a quest and adventure, they're too young for that, and I appreciate that for sure. And I don't know how things develop later on and there's a joke about one of the girls one of the first years being Harry's girlfriend, but that's just mean, you know, school yard bully type, you know, fair that you would expect or that you know, it's not shocking to encounter anyway but Hermione definitely isn't a love interest for anybody.
And I think that's good. And there's nothing weird in the relationship between her Ron and Harry. There's no triangle or unrequited love or anything like that which is a lot of fun but then eventually when she gets taken out of the narrative for a decent chunk of it.
She just found the, the male friendship between Ron and Harry to be very endearing. And what makes it more interesting is that Hermione is so on the ball. She had the answer she knew the solution she knew what to do.
And she was taking out of place so from a dramatic perspective alone. That's really cool that our friend who were sad is petrified has the solution she if she if one of us was petrified and said she'd save us. No problem.
But what are we going to do that her she's the sharpest of us.
So Hermione is like a big power player, but they take her out of your rallying takes her out of the action, and then the guys have to make up and make on without her. And it's a clever bit of writing I think and it again makes it more dramatic, and then you get to see this.
This emphasis, or the strengthening and the relationship of Harry and Ron, and just like they have to rely on each other and their third person who they both kind of relied on in a lot of circumstances is gone she's been taken off the board, and they have to
operate without her and of course she's their friend and they love her.
But now they just have to rely on each other and it's interesting and it doesn't make for like undo tension between them. It just makes for a different mix and a different dynamic especially as they go into the final crisis or the final challenge at the end of the book, kind of like at
the end of the philosopher's stone the all three of them Hermione Ron and Harry went in together.
They don't have her to go they have a third wheel, but they're not strictly an ally, they're a third wheel, who goes with them to help them through the issue through the crisis. So, that's pretty interesting.
I think I failed to mention earlier that I love how Rowling gives Harry, a good loving family to be a part of, even in a surrogate way. And you know Fred and George are his brothers, Ron is his brother, you know Mr and Mrs Weasley act like an aunt and uncle to them to him basically,
but a good aunt and uncle, you know, more like a mom and a dad than the evil beat you kind of lock you away in the closet and uncle that we see in the Dursley's. So that's really interesting it's really warm and loving and wonderful and you even get to see
Mrs Weasley sends a howler to Ron which is this all the envelopes that they get at Hogwarts are yellow envelopes but this one's red and it opens up and it's, you know, got a spell or whatever, you know magical mumbo jumbo in it, so that she basically sends a message to him yelling at him at Ron,
and she mentions Harry in there too. And it's just like a fun moment and it's very, I don't know very family.
You know I don't want mom to know what I did I don't want to get in trouble for my parents, that kind of thing. And it's really neat and interestingly enough, the Weasley family ends up becoming like coming right into the line of fire of Slytherin's heir in the book,
and you know there are other Slytherin or Voldemort allies who are helping to really do them harm, and that's super interesting and they now reading as an adult. I honestly kind of hated Ron.
I liked Hermione because she was so capable I like Harry because he was the hero and I felt like Ron was just a fool and a chump, and like the third wheel, but reading the books again.
I really like Ron and the rest of the Weasleys and while the Weasley older brothers are much more accomplished than Ron, they're older, they've had more time.
Fred and George have had each other to make each other run to greater heights of of of what of foolishness and daring do and jackassery if you'll forgive my use of a slightly harsh phrase in this show that should be for all ages.
I should just say Tom fuller and edit that out, but I'm not going to so I'll refrain from that sort of thing in the future, even in the context of these books.
But, you know, Ron is really something and the whole Weasley family is really something cool and like good and moral and loving and like that's really neat and I like that while we have the orphan hero with the bad background and the rough upbringing.
We do get to see a parallel hero to him in the person Ron and the Weasleys have like this good humble loving moral family.
And then of course you get the the opposite of that with Malfoy and his father that the two the two Malfoys and they're just sinister and awful and you can understand why Draco is such a bad apple because his dad is a worse apple.
And he's raising him to be just like him. So that's pretty interesting.
What else I really love the family aspect of it. You get to see more of Hagrid.
And okay, so here's the other thing.
The third book is called.
Yeah, I'm light spoilers here. The third book is called I think the Prisoner of Azkaban.
And in some point at some point in the book.
Chamber of Secrets.
At some point in Chamber of Secrets Hagrid is falsely accused of a crime that he didn't commit.
But I repeat myself and he is sent to Azkaban prison and he's released from Azkaban prison by the end of the book.
So everything's happy.
But you get a mention of Azkaban prison and then you get the next book is titled The Prisoner of Azkaban.
And again, I talked about this a lot when I was speaking about the Flawless for Stone.
Rowling does a very interesting thing where she's seeding all these little things in book one that are relevant in other books.
And it looks like she's seeding things in the book too that will be relevant in subsequent books like Azkaban prison being this big bad thing.
And as much as Harry has been introduced to the Wizarding World, we see that he has not been fully exposed to it.
And there are much more things in it that he doesn't know about.
And the school is only helping him so much.
He ends up having knowledge gaps, especially because he and one of the others are facing such big challenges and such wild challenges that they are being confronted by things that they haven't learned about yet in school.
And while the others may know something about it, they have no experience with it.
And neither does Harry.
So they're in a similar boat.
They're in the same boat, but they have different perspectives.
Some of them have he has like no knowledge, whereas the others have some knowledge and they just have to get through it through grit and determination and teamwork and things like that.
So it's really fun, especially like this thing with the flying car that comes back in like the three quarters into the book.
And that was a lot of fun for several reasons.
It makes the magic of the Harry Potter world just whimsical and fun and wacky and just like a plot device.
Basically, it just, you know, it allows Rowling to tell these stories in this weird world.
And it can often be used for things silly, but it can also be used for things sinister.
I think there is a darker edge to this book in some aspect of it, but all of this darker edge you is talked about, but it's not shown.
You see some evidence of it, but you don't see things playing out.
And therefore, it's not as bad as it could be.
I won't spoil what that is, but it's a big dramatic turn for a certain character.
And I wonder if it'll have repercussions for this character as they go forward in the book series or not.
I don't know. I have no idea, really.
I honestly don't remember this character being much of anything involved in the next couple stories.
But then again, I know I read these first two books, then I watched, you know, I think up to three, four and five movies and didn't get the rest of the story.
So now I'll get the rest of the story.
And and so will you as you hear me talk about it.
But that's a really loud truck. I think I'm going to pause.
And now that I've collected my thoughts for a minute, I want to talk about Gilderoy Lockhart, the most insufferable character in this book and in the two books so far.
I am astonished that Rowling wrote this guy into the book.
And I, you know, Dumbledore mentions at the end that they seem to have a trend of losing their defense against the Dark Arts teachers.
And I think it's first of all, it's funny in a meta commentary kind of way that Rowling had Dumbledore say that out loud to this is only the second book.
You haven't really established that pattern.
So it's a little bit unfair to say. But then again, Quirrell was replacing the guy from before him.
So really, by the time that Lockhart is leaving Hogwarts, that's one, two, three years consecutively that they're losing their defense against the Dark Arts teacher.
And three, I can't believe Rowling had the audacity to put this character in here. And I said there was absolutely no romance with characters.
You could see Ron as being jealous of Hermione liking Lockhart. He sounds like a handsome man.
He's very ostentatious and very proud of himself. He's full of a lot of bravado. I will say that.
And he stokes the flames of his own reputation and fame. And he's almost not ashamed of that.
He's almost not ashamed of that at all. And he should be. For reasons you'll find out reading the book or I guess watching the movie.
But you should read the book. It's better. And anyway, Hermione is like drawn hearts around his name.
And she's read all of his books. And it's a weird thing that he comes in and he's supposed to be.
He's a defense against the Dark Arts teacher. And then he barely does anything in class.
And Ron says he hasn't learned anything from him. And he's just putting his books on the syllabus for the class.
So the kids all have to read his like 12 books or something and buy them all. And that's just it's so odd. It's so strange. It's a weird move.
Like I almost wonder if Rowling was just having fun with that and like he was a he wasn't even a red herring for being you know after Quirrell.
I guess you would suspect that maybe the new defense against the Dark Arts teacher would be the bad guy.
And he definitely wasn't. And I don't even think they made him a red herring.
There's a couple of spots where it seems like he could be bad like when he's kind of harassing Hagrid at his home.
But I also think that's supposed to make it look like Hagrid might be behind what's going on in this deadly or dangerous plot.
That's going on with this creature that's harming students. I don't know exactly where she was going.
But you know something in there seems about right. So I just I couldn't stand the character.
And I'm worried about who the next guy is going to be. And gosh yeah I'm really worried about that.
I look they've been an interesting job humanizing Filch while villainizing him at the same time.
Which is the like the grant he's so he's the like the custodial type guy.
And he has this cat that helps report on kids and keep them in.
And I don't know there's like this weird it's not weird it's like it's relevant to the rest of the book series.
But it's introduced here in kind of an interesting almost like a soft way.
This is a concept of mudbloods and purebloods and muggles and muggle borns.
It's touched on in the first book and it's really brought to the fore in this book.
But in kind of a weird way you even learn that there's you know Hermione is a muggle born.
Just like Lily Potter was. She's got non magical parents but she has magic.
It's discovered somehow and she's invited the Hogwarts.
There's something called a squib in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter.
And it's somebody who is wizard born or who's born of a wizarding line.
And yet has little to no magical powers.
I would think the fact that he's got this weird connection with his cat who she basically like senses things and then send signals to him.
Means that he does have like some magical potential but maybe he can't like cast spells or something like that.
And that's a really interesting turn and like it almost makes him a sympathetic character.
But then again it kind of doesn't because he's kind of a rough dude and he's you know he's too severe and you dislike him.
But like I don't know it's really interesting the way the concept is is introduced and how Rowling kind of like humanizes this guy at one point.
Or in some ways but also makes him kind of worse in other ways.
And I know she's almost doing this thing where it's like a very nuanced approach of showing multiple sides of an issue.
And I definitely like that and can appreciate that.
So that's really really interesting.
That's kind of an odd note to end things on.
But I don't want to say much more about this book right now.
I should probably I probably should shift gears and go to some other activity.
And I also want to start Book 3 because I'm that excited about how good these books have been so far that I want to jump right into it and get into the almost middle of the series.
So with that I bid you adieu.
And I ask you to leave your comments on the Harry Potter series as a whole if you like or specifically the Chamber of Secrets and what your thoughts are on it.
And what you think about what Rowling's world building and what she was doing with the characters and all the stuff that I touched on and talked about in this episode.
So this is a little embarrassing but I'm all about transparency on well everything I do pretty much.
On mjimunios.com on skimming leaves on story over everything.
So I want to let you know I forgot to record my segment of the fun facts about the book before I started recording or before I started putting together editing the episode because I make this like a month or two after having read Chamber of Secrets after having recorded this audio for the most part.
So this is coming in at the end there and I should have recorded this bit first put in the beginning.
But now I made markers chapter markers because with my audio only podcast I can do chapters and I've tried to do chapters for every single release I do going forward.
And anyway because I already have the chapters arranged and I took the time to do that while listening to the episode again.
I thought I don't really feel like messing with the chapter location so I'm just going to take this on the end before the outro and you'll still get the fun facts but it'll just be kind of out of order.
So it'll be different and that'll be okay.
I think you'll be okay.
So, I have fun facts for the book.
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and then, well, we'll be moving on to the next one soon.
So here we go.
According to my research in air quotes, the book was published in the UK on July 2nd 1998 and in the US in June of 1999.
It was the fastest selling book in the UK at the time selling over 3 million copies in its first week.
So Rowling would have definitely been a New York Times bestseller based on that volume.
Let's see, there are, huh, well, it talks about characters who are introduced.
You've already heard the spoilers for it.
I don't know. I don't want to do that.
I don't want to talk about that.
It says the book contains several references to other literary works such as Alice in Wonderland, the Talking Portraits, and the Shrinking Potion.
Now it's talking about the like password portraits or other talking portraits.
I'm not 100% sure because the password ones were in the beginning.
It's saying that the flying car and the Whomping Willow are references to the line The Witch and the Wardrobe.
This is a flying car or Whomping Willow in those.
What the heck?
This is what you get for trusting an AI.
And Aragog is a reference to Lord of the Rings, supposedly.
And the name does sound like Aragorn.
And of course, the reference would be to Shelob, which I could I can see for sure.
And then there's I'll skip over that.
So yeah, I don't really care about the movies.
Am I going to talk about that?
I will tell you, though, that the word count of Chamber of Secrets is eighty five thousand one hundred forty one.
On my thumbnail, I have eighty five thousand plus and says it's the second shortest book in the series after Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone or Sorcerer's Stone, which was eighty three thousand nine hundred sixty seven words.
So the first book is the shortest.
The second book is a little bit longer.
And then after that, they just get longer and longer and longer for the most part.
So, yeah, that's those are my little tidbits of information for you about Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, the book.
And there's actually gosh, man, there's something cool about the movie I want to share, but it's not really pertinent because this is the talk about the books here.
But yeah, like I said, like I mentioned earlier, there's stuff in this book that seeds into the next book and there's stuff in the first book that seeds into this book.
And I really like how Rowling does that.
I think it's very cool.
But I've already talked about that mostly.
So I just wanted to to cap it off by complimenting her, her planning and her, I don't know, foreshadowing her foresight to to do things like that.
That's pretty cool.
Pretty, pretty cool.
So, yeah, with that, I will let the intro play now.
And until next time, folks, this is MJ signing out.
I hope you enjoyed that.
Go to MJMunoz.com to leave any questions, comments or other feedback you might have.
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