Long ago in a galaxy far away . . .

[Debbie]

. . .  or so it seems, I began to sort out Other Literary Sources and 
Influences.  Three weeks and one dead computer (carrying all my notes 
on the categories) later, I finally have finished. 

A couple of overall points:

-Many of the posts (including some of the best) are technically 
comparisons, containing no suggestion that JKR was influenced by the 
work in question.  Don't know if the title can or should be amended 
to reflect this ("Literary Sources, Influences and Comparisons").  

-I generally deleted the code from posts that did not either suggest 
the work (or genre) as a source or make a substantive comparison 
(e.g., posts that said simply "JKR borrowed elements of [insert 
mythology/fantasy/etc]")

-To what extent should this section overlap with What genre?  (Very 
pleased that What genre? has been moved to this section.)  A reader 
looking for posts on, e.g., how well HP fits a detective novel 
pattern would likely look under "detective novels," but it seems that 
the "Detective Novels" category was made for these comparisons so 
I've left posts with detailed comparison of JKR with specific genre 
rules in both categories.

-There are numerous works that could be coded to more than one 
category (e.g., fairy tales and children's fantasy lit).  The actual 
coding was a bit arbitrary, especially between fantasy lit and 
children's lit.  It might make the decisions easier if we made 
Children's Classics disappear altogether.  We could move the 
children's fantasy to Fantasy Lit, move the children's classics 
(Little Women, Anne of Green Gables, etc.) to classic lit and kick 
any leftovers to the general category, or to What genre/Are these 
kids' books. 

-I recommend that we amend the definitions to list works with 
substantial mentions so they are coded consistently to one place.

Main heading (32 posts, now 15)
-Thread on extent to which JKR drew on her own life experiences and 
ability to convincingly portray abuse and its effects; would like to 
move to Abuse, but none of them was coded there.  Plus one post on 
the Mitfords as influencing JKR's writing.
-Aside from the above, what's left here are (non-fantasy) movie and 
TV show comparisons.

Tolkien (136/112)/CS Lewis (88/78)
-Mostly straightforward except that Tolkien's name is misspelled in 
the catalogue and it's driving me crazy!
-The Very Long Thread comparing HP to LotR and Narnia contained many 
thoughtful comments on the loose grammar in the series. IIRC, these 
were axed from Narrative Style, which makes sense, but is there no 
longer a place for discussions of JKR's use of language?  (I confess, 
I enjoyed reading what people think of JKR's grammar, since it irks 
me enough to think it detracts from the quality of the series.)

Children's Classics (91/71)
-The fairy tales are here.  So is Lewis Carroll, Oz, Roald Dahl and 
others that are arguably fantasy or legend.  Let me know if I should 
move them.

Science Fiction (64/62)/Fantasy (63/75)
-Though I'm sure SciFi purists would disagree, instead of having to 
assign specific works being compared to one or the other category, it 
might be easier to combine these two categories.

Myths & Legends (136/92)
-I put all references to retellings of the King Arthur legend here, 
rather than in classic literature, because the myth predated the 
literature. 
-Also need to decide whether legends regarding specific creatures, 
such as basilisks and phoenixes, belong here or under the specific 
beast category.  I think they should go under the specific beast 
category instead of (rather than in addition to) here, but want a 
second opinion before I delete this code.  We could cut at least 20 
more posts from this category.

Classic Plot Themes (56/47)
-The category now consists of specific discussions (not mere 
mentions) of recurring plot themes and devices, including the hero's 
journey, deus ex machina, the tragic hero, etc. 
-Where a classic plot was described with examples, I deleted all 
literary source codes except this one unless the post separately 
contained substantive analysis of a particular work.
-Nicholas Flamel is not a legend.  But apparently, this is a 
legend:  "House Elves are too ugly and repulsive for anyone to have 
sex with except a big-time pervert. "

Literary Classics (91/80)

What shall I tackle next?
-Portrayal of males/females/gays etc.
-Parameters set by JKR/Authorial intent/What is canon/FAITH
-Longbottoms 

I had signed up for the Longbottoms, but if we're not going to finish 
before getting back to coding maybe I should focus on something less 
straightforward.

My view on the important issue of the day:
Molly is poison to the Weasley family dynamic but the Twins are an 
equal but opposite poison; I find I can forgive Molly's bad parenting 
more readily than the Twins' cruelty.

Debbie