The Agony and the Ecstacy

[justcarol67]

Alla wrote:
<snip>
> It is true in a sense that my experience can be described in a sense
that somebody told me offlist.
> 
> "All the theories I hated are now canon, but she did it so well". 

> I mean, not all theories, but certainly several big ones. <snip>

Carol responds:

My sentiments exactly.
>
Alla:

> BUT I also wanted several other things that did not come close and I
still love it, love it, because I am of the opinion that good story is
ALL that JKR owes us, nothing more and to me JKR delivered that good
story. <snip>

Carol:
Exactly. She never owed us the story we wanted, nor could she have
been expected to write it. How many million readers are there, each
with his or her own expectations? It's her book; she made me laugh and
cry; she made me furious; she made me yell with triumph and glee. Good
heavens; if anyone had seen me reading this book, they'd have hauled
me to the insane asylum. (I do wonder what the upstairs neighbors
thought of the anguished sobs at one point; I don't even know whether
it was day or night, but fortunately, no one came running downstairs
to investigate.) A good story! I have never experienced such pain and
joy and, I confess, disappointment from one book. And I have never
been so compelled to read straight through and do nothing else--little
food, no sleep, no shower--until I had finished.

Maybe it's because I never expected JKR's political or philosophical
views to conform to mine. I just wanted an exciting ride and a
satisfactory resolution to the main plot threads.

So what if Auntie Muriel is 107 (not a spoiler, folks, and not yet one
of the plot holes the main list is complaining about!) and supposedly
a contemporary of Albus Dumbledore, approximately 157 if he hadn't
been killed in HBP. Maybe what she said offlist (twice) about his age
was wrong. My reaction is simply to shrug it off and think, "Someone
send JKR a calculator. Evidently, she can't afford one." <joke>

Alla:
> Again, I fully accept everybody's right to criticise the story, each 
> and every angle of it.

Carol:
Sigh. There's constructive criticism and there's unrealistic,
persistent carping and complaining, unsupported by a single instance
of canon support. And there's also an adversarial or defensive tone
among some posters that makes the place much less inviting than it
used to be. I keep wanting to say, instead of talking about what's not
in the book, can we please look at what *is* there, at what she
actually wrote? I thought that was what the main list is for?? (Okay,
I actually *have* said it a couple of times, for all the difference it
makes. And I keep citing canon because that's what I do--canon-based
textual analysis. But I confess to having got caught up in a couple of
the tennis-ball matches. Mea culpa. Should have known the response
would be to have my counterarguments snipped and be told "you're wrong."

My goodness. I didn't mean to vent, especially when I agree with you
that JKR's sole responsibility is to entertain us, not to reinforce
our preconceived opinions of what she was going to do. So what if
she's inconsistent. Let the person who's written a seven-book series
with no plot holes or inconsistencies cast the first stone. She's
human, and I wouldn't want to be in her no-doubt expensive shoes right
now. What a beating she's taking for not meeting someone else's ideas
of perfection!
> 
Alla:
> After all people who are dissapointed spent many years as well 
analysing the books, awaiting with the baited breath how the story 
ends, I feel it is their right as readers to have their say and I 
certainly find some things to criticise, BUT am I changing my opinion
of the worth of the book as a whole?

Carol:
Well, you're the List Elf. But I'm as tired of all the bickering as
Harry is when Ron and Hermione are fussing about--oops. If you haven't
read the book, you'll just have to find out, won't you?
> 
Alla:
> Nope, I think it is a fascinating story, with all plot holes and 
awkwardness in it.

Carol:
And all those predicitions she "failed" to fulfill. I think future
fans will be lucky, actually, because they can read the books in
sequence at their own pace without agonizing over what she "has" to do
to make DH the book it "should" have been.

Sorry about that. Not exactly the touch of levity I was requesting.
But my complaint about what's going on at the main list (which isn't
what I want it to be, nyah!) should give you some idea of how certain
posters are reacting (repeatedly and without canon support) to the
book's perceived faults.

Carol, feeling a bit hypocritical and promising to lighten up in her
next post :-)