[HPFGU-OTChatter] Re: Book 2 - Your thoughts

[Sherry Gomes]

Well, it's fantasy, and in fantasy, you just have to accept some things
happen as they happen.  Suspending reality.  One of my absolute favorite
fantasy novels, Tigana, by Guy Gavriel Kay, deals with a situation where an
evil sorcerer king who takes over several countries, punishes the one that
dared to fight back by removing their name.  They were a proud country,
proud of their name, their history, their culture.  This sorcerer king casts
a spell so that noone who wasn't born there can hear or remember the name.
The plot revolves around the band of seeming wanderers who are secretly
trying to drive out the sorcerer's and restore their entire region to
freedom, as well as restoring the name of their own country.  This might
sound cheesy and stupid the way I describe it, but it is not.  it was
utterly convincing and riveting.  I've read the book over and over again and
still find new things to admire in it.  It's not a kid's book.  

my point being that in fantasy, things just are, and some things that just
don't make sense have to just be accepted.  Besides, I don't think that
Fawkes is just a device to move the plot along.  I think we may see more of
him in the next two books.  It's the same thing with time turning.  i've
never had a problem with it.  It doesn't confuse me or worry me or make me
think about consequences.  JKR isn't the first author to use it and won't be
the last.  Some authors have written entire series on the idea of going back
in time, changing history, whatever.  Works for me.  The plot devices don't
intrigue me in the sense that the characters and their actions and reactions
to the plot devices intrigue me.

Sherry


-----Original Message-----
From: sandra87b [mailto:sandra87b at yahoo.co.uk] 
Sent: Monday, February 14, 2005 3:14 AM
To: HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com
Subject: [HPFGU-OTChatter] Re: Book 2 - Your thoughts




 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






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