http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20071214/ennew_afp/entertainmentbritainusliteratureauction_071214181052

Basically, Rowling wrote out five tales of Beedle the Bard, of which she only provided us one in Deathly Hallows. There are seven (I assume handwritten) copies of the book, six of which went to "people involved with the Potter books", and this last copy was sold for 1.95 million pounds (3.95 million dollars) at an auction.

This mysterious buyer is unknown to the public.

Now the query I have is--which is worse, spending 4 million dollars on a book by a popular but admittedly average author, or, as this the woman (found by Vengashii) in the link below did, carving an item from a piece of literature into her forehead.

http://modblog.bmezine.com/2006/12/21/harry-potter-scar/

It's my personal belief that the mysterious buyer is the lesser of two evils, because with a stroke of foresight, he decided to remain annonymous. I'm sure someone, somewhere, recognizes this woman.

 

It will be on teh Interweb.

BELIEVE IT.

 

My God.

If anyone ever makes fun of me for liking Harry Potter, I'll just show them that image.

 

You know, for a girl with a pile of metal sticking out of her face and some what-looks-like quality tattoos, she sure did a shitty job picking who ever did that cut.

 

I believe the anonymous buyer is the lesser of two evils, due to the fact that at least the money he paid for the book is being donated to charity. The girl who scared her forehead with a shitty look alike is an idiot. She'll have the scar for the rest of her life, and there's not much she can do about it.

 

Scarred metal head girl is at least willing to show the world her Idiocy, Mr. Mystery Buyer just dished out a load of cash for a book he can't display because it would show the world just who is dumb enough to pay 4 Mill for a manuscript...

and while we're on the topic, why the hell haven't any of the others sold their copy? hell, just offer photocopies for $500 apiece and you'd probably live comfortably for the rest of your life...

 

Mystery Buyer was Amazon according to Yahoo news.

 

Old news. Amazon were putting up reviews and summaries, as well as pictures, of the tales all of yesterday. As of this post there's only 1 to go. The reviewer is a complete JKR fangirl too. It's painful to read.

 

I'm still disgusted that Dumbledore, even knowing how little time he had left and that people were dying in ever-increasing numbers, didn't bother to just Explain what was going on to Harry and Co. He left a book of Fairy Tales - and the book didn't even contain the story that was needed.

Snape had spiritual halitosis, but the longer I look back at book7, the more I pity him. He was abused, neglected, and used used used. Then he was casually murdered. Harry at least has moments of triumph; AD didn't *bother* to elevate Snape...

 

He was a throw away character, no doubt about that. She could have at least turned him completely evil after Dumbledore told snape to off him...

 

I think that that was the whole point about Snape, especially his unspectacular death: it left a bitter taste in the mouth.

 

...which I'm sure was lost on all of her 20 bizzillion children readers. It's my honest belief that with the last book she ruined all three characters with potential to be great: Harry, Dumbledore, and (though many dislike him) Snape.

Harry was turned into a lucky, average person trusted to save the day, who dislikes his destiny, but carries on nobly, thus destroying any hopes that any of us had of him being an actual hero and beating Voldemort man up. He has to resort to trickery and sacrifice, committing suicide to win. Great message for the kids, J.K.

Dumbledore was the mysterious old wizard ala Gandalf, and she ruined it by airing every scrap of his dirty laundry. And she's still doing it.

Still.

And then Snape, who honestly has the most potential to be a cool character (just because he's such an obvious and overbearing asshole and never changes), apparently had a boyhood fascination with Harry's mother and...

Basically, she did the same thing with Snape as Dumbledore, losing all mystery behind the character.

...

But yeah, I had no idea there were summaries and shit. Good look, Taure.

 

Snape had a lot of potential to be cool, despite the fact that he was a completely and utterly worthless character. Then JKR turned him into a stalker, nearly ruining LILY's character as well.

But regardless, 80% of the characters are really one dimensional at best. :|

 

She did ruin Lily's character to me. I was waiting for some important revelation about Lily in the last book, and all we got was the obvious. Then after the book, in one of JKR's ridiculous attention seeking interview she mentioned Lily could have loved Snape romantically, which made he nausious. But then my current obsession with Lily, and hatred of Snape, is potentially blinding me

 

Part of what gave Snape the possibility to be a cool character, is that he had moral spine. When he made an adolescent decision that effectively ruined his entire life (the equivalent of agreeing to push heroin,) he Chose to make amends. He spent some twenty years trying to make some sort of brighter future for everyone else. He bore the scorn and abuse. He did the dirty work.

Harry was childish, undisciplined, and lucky. And a lot of that "luck" (not to mention the childishness and the lack of discipline) are the direct result of Dumbledore. I wonder what kind of life Harry REALLY managed to put together after Book 7. Potter certainly didn't have the grades or the smarts to be an Auror. He didn't have the discipline for professional sports. He had the potential for So Much More!

Dumbledore could have been *Awesome.* He could have been Gandalf - smart, powerful, and USEFUL. Even though he couldn't kill Riddle after he heard the Prophecy, there were so many opportunities that he missed. His "Light" policy of forgiveness is really really sweet, and even would have been wise if he had just had anything that resembled a filter. As it was, he looks like he completely lacks any sort of moral fortitude...