“The North Tower” was a literary analysis column which ran from 2003 to 2005, seeking to put the light of analysis to any mystery and digging deep to find treasures hidden carefully beneath many layers of literary soil.
- The North Tower #44: The Crux of It All (April 20, 2006) - The problem, I find, with Book 6 is that JKR throws in so much new stuff (most of which is probably entirely inconsequential) to just (in my mind) try to throw the reader off track as much as possible. There is so much information and so many new characters in this book, which is very different from the other five, that there must be a whole net of red herrings among them.
- The North Tower #43: Hermione’s Punishment (October 13, 2005) - So, what does the title, "Hermione's punishment", even mean? Well, it all started when I read OotP and started thinking about Hermione's character and how much she was changing from the earlier books. She started out as a know-it-all with very poor social skills in PS/SS, and I found her both charming and pitiable. She doesn't know how the game is played between people her own age, which shows in the relationships she forms and doesn't form. She knows how to satisfy adults (the teachers), but not her classmates. It's primarily through Harry and Ron that she starts to really socialize with the other children, it seems.
- The North Tower #42: A New Light on the Prophecy (September 3, 2005) - Today's article is going to take a closer look on the Trelawney prophecy, or, more precisely, on the circumstances surrounding that prophecy and what they tell us. First thing to note: What Dumbledore told Harry in OotP and HBP doesn't tally with what else we discover in HBP. At all.
- The North Tower #41: After the Storm (August 26, 2005) - The sad truth is, that when you read as many theories, fanfiction and discuss HP with so many people, you're bound to come across some things that are truly exceptional, and perhaps better (in your mind) than the writer will come up with herself. I feel this is the case for HBP in some ways. Don't get me wrong, I liked the book, and I don't want to trash JKR in any way. It's her book, she has the right to do whatever she pleases with it. I'm just telling you what I think, and what I think we can expect from now on. That said, let's get on with the analysis, shall we?
- The North Tower #40: HBP Predictions (July 13, 2005) - The long wait is almost over, and I thought I'd devote these last few days before we all shut ourselves away from the world with giddy laughs and big bags of candy by our side, new book reverently in hand, to recap the stuff I've written so far, including the predictions I've already made and to predict what I think will happen in Book 6. In other words, this is a great article to save and use to make fun of me later on :-).
- The North Tower #39: The Imperius Curse (July 8, 2005) - The Imperius Curse, we are told, is one of the three unforgivable curses in the wizarding world and is used to control people. It's used as a very important plot device in GoF and has received quite a bit of criticism for being used inconsistently. Now, I love and adore JKR (naturally, since I spend the time I do reading, praising and writing about her books) but she is only human. Furthermore, the Harry Potter series is her first published story, and even though it's split into seven books, it's still just one story. Everyone who's ever tried to write fiction knows how hard it is to keep track of absolutely everything, so that some things in the series might not really add up; it isn't weird at all.
- The North Tower #38: Mastering the Mind (June 7, 2005) - What I do want to write an essay on today is the mystery of mind-control. So far, the way I see it, JKR has shown us four different kinds of specifically mental magic: Legilimency, Occlumency, the Imperius Curse, and different kinds of memory-altering spells (Memory charms, Confundus Charm). Since the first two are more closely related to each other than they are to the other two, I'll split the analysis accordingly. But first, let's go over the basic principles.
- The North Tower #37: Severus Snape 3: The Vampire Rumours (February 25, 2005) - Going over some of my earlier work, I realised that I have talked about our dear Potions Master quite a bit and I think we've covered the most important parts. Today, I wanted to address the question "Is Severus Snape a Vampire?", before wrapping up the series next time with the "What can we expect for this character before the end of the series?"- discussion. So let's get started, shall we?
- The North Tower #36: Severus Snape 2: Losing Control (February 1, 2005) - Hi everybody. Hope your holidays were nice. I thought I'd cut right to the chase and start with today's article, which will continue my analysis of one Hogwarts Potions master. As I said in NT 34, there's a lot to this character, so I'll be writing a little series of articles about him. That's the plan, but there might be some insertions (like the last one on Dumbledore) because of reader reactions as well.
- The North Tower Xmas: Christmas Greeting (December 23, 2004) - A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you all
