Book 2 - Your thoughts

[sandra87b]

 Let's throw out some good ones but support it with canon...please!
> 
> Mary

Hi Mary,

Before I get waffly, what's a "canon"? I read this word a lot on the other 
pages, and I haven't a clue what it means.

Harry's discovery in the CoS, in my opinion, is that he has a charmed life and 
is destined to always find his way out of any old paper-bag.
I never really bought the ending of CoS - I thought Fawkes appearance was 
SO incredibly convenient. Yet again Harry gets saved by a plot-twist that 
comes from nowhere to help him out. I suppose that event saves the phoenix 
character from being a MacGuffin, or maybe it causes the phoenix to become 
one? (A MacGuffin, by my understanding, is the term Alfred Hitchcock coined 
to describe a character or item which exists simply as an excuse to push the 
plot along). I opt for the latter. Fawkes is a minor character who ends up 
saving Harry's bacon. Ouch, my sense of book-appreciation just fell over.
Either way, it's far too convenient that the sword appears courtesy of a 
peculiar bird who happens to know the underground systems of Hogwarts like 
the back of his wing. I was a little miffed when I read it, but gave JKR the 
benefit of the doubt because the second book was intended for children, not 
adults. It was the third which took a step towards an older audience.
I was surprised how forgiving the general public can be, though, and the 
broader audience just accepted the bird's role. I thought the second book 
shoul;d have been called Harry Potter And The Incredibly Lucky Arrival. The 
readers overlooked it, rather like they did with the fault line in the PoA, which 
was the ultimate in flawed plots - my discussion pages about Time Turning 
are on the On Topic chat pages for that, and I was glad to see that so many 
others quickly saw the gaping hole in that one - once it was pointed out.

Anyway, that's my Euro worth of thoughts for Harry's big discovery - he has a 
guardian angel called JKR, and no shame!

Sandra