The State of the List Questionaire - Oct 2007

[Carol]

Carol responds:

Thanks for the questionnaire. Let me just say that I expressed
unhappiness with all the harping on the main list on OT Chatter and
was criticized for it. I hope that my honest reactions will be more
welcome here.

May I just say, first, that I'm not entirely happy with JKR herself
right now. I wish she'd stop giving interviews instead of trying to
play God and control the interpretation of her book. IMO, once the
books are in print, they become the intellectual property of the
general public (I don't mean that we can plagiarize or violate
copyright laws, but their interpretation should not be subject to the
whim of the author). So my own posts to HPfGu are no doubt colored by
my feeling of mild resentment. It's difficlut to interpret the text
with the author standing over my shoulder telling me what to think
about Harry or Snape or DD or even Luna.

Sorry. Had to get that off my chest.

> 1. What has been your general impression of the list since the
release of DH?

Carol:

At first, we had the expected flood of posts reacting to the book,
good and bad, how our expectations were or were not met, etc. All well
and good. Not much interpretation at that point, but that was to be
expected. But after awhile, it seems to me, the focus shifted to
complaints, including attacks on JKR as a writer and a person and even
on her editors for not catching her numerous inconsistencies. Posters
were, IMO, confusing their own expectations with what the book
"should" have contained and were more concerned with what wasn't there
than what JKR had actually written. I wanted more analysis of the
text, not Wikipedia articles on what constitutes a psychopath or how
Calvinism differs from antinomianism. Not that it isn't fine to bring
in concepts from outside the text, but it seems to me that it should
be in relation to the text. (I hope that doesn't make me a hypocrite
for bringing in Roland Barthes or Wimsatt and Beardsley: my point in
doing so is that we don't need to consider the author's intention (to
the extent that it can be discovered or has been revealed) as
definitive or even as important in interpreting a literary work. As I
understand it, the main list is supposed to be canon-based, and I feel
strongly that we've shifted away from that focus, either because of
extreme disappointment and resentment on the part of some posters or
because of JKR herself leading readers by the nose under the
impression that what's in her imagination but did not appear in the
books is somehow canonical. 

The fact that this is the last book has, of course, made a difference
in the posts. There's no more speculation about the questions that
were so important to us after HBP (whether Harry is a Horcrux, where
Snape's loyalties lie), etc., but that should not, in itself, prevent
us from actually looking at the book to see what's there. We need new
topics and I haven't been seeing many (other than some promising
threads on Harry's search for truth that began well but petered out).

Are we tired of the list? Are we to disappointed with the book, or,
alternatively, too satisfied with it, to actually analyze it? Is
finding fault the extent of the literary "criticism" (which ought to
mean analysis) that we're going to find onlist?

I don't want gripes about JKR's view of Slytherin. I want JKR left out
of it, actually. And I think that political views color the discussion
as well. Posters of a certain political stamp (and I'm not going to
specify because I don't want to offend anyone) seem to think that to
disagree with their views of how the WW "ought" to be is somehow to be
intolerant. Perhaps those posters should consider the possibility that
they, too, are being intolerant in expecting either JKR or other
readers to share their views. 
> 
> 
> 2. Have you been posting since the release? Less than, as much as,
or more than you did before the release? If there is a change, what
has caused you to change? If you haven't been posting at all, or been
posting rarely, why do you think that is?

Carol responds:

Well, you know me! I'm compelled to post. The only thing keeping me
from my five-post quota (aside from personal considerations) is the
occasional slow day when there's not much to respond to. (I suppose I
could introduce a new topic, but I'm hard-pressed to think of one, and
I suspect that other posters are in the same position.) Also, I don't
much care for joining in other people's ping pong matches except to
insert my two cents or attempt a compromise, which rarely works.
> 
> 3. Are you happy with the way the list is handled and/or the way
things are going at present? If you feel some action should be taken
by the elves, what would you suggest? What suggestions would you give
members in general to improve the list? What, if anything, have you
tried to improve the list?

Carol:
I've tried asking posters to supply canon to support their arguments
and had my hand slapped for it. So I suppose the best I can do is ask
the Elves to reiterate the rules relating to civility, posting format,
and canon-based arguments. (Maybe we could ban Wikipedia entries or
limit the length of quotes from outside sources--including essays on
literary criticism, definitions, and whatever other things I like to
bring into my own posts. Trying to be objective here and include my
own posts in my analysis of the present failings of the list.)
> 
> 4. Now that we have all seven books and the speculation is over,
> what do you see as the purpose of this list? What would you
> imagine/want to see happening on the list a year from now?
>
Carol responds:

Easy! The purpose of the main list is to analyze the books using
canon-based arguments. I'm happy that we have the chapter discussions
to help us maintain our focus, but I'd like to see those readers who
are still fans of the books closely examining the texts to see, for
example, what motifs and symbols and themes pervade the books, what
we've overlooked, and so on. I've tried posts on narrative technique,
but I suppose they're old hat to long-time list members. There are
other ways to look at a book, and so far, we don't seem to be getting
beyond our subjective reactions. What I want from this list, and don't
seem to be getting post-DH, is intellectual stimulation.

Carol, wanting to talk about the books themselves and not JKR, whose
characters no longer exist solely in her mind but belong to the world