Sexuality! and Poor Writing! - JKR's Mistake

[sistermagpie]

> > Magpie:
> > Sure a write can disagree with what they write. But I don't 
think 
> > that's the same as saying that nobody can guess at anything 
based 
> on 
> > what the author wrote. It seems a bit silly, for instance, to 
say 
> > that yeah JKR wrote this whole story and had all this stuff 
> > happened, but none of it reflects anything about her at all. 
<SNIP>
> 
> Alla:
> 
> Not to me. I have NO idea what this story reflects about JKR as a 
> **person**. Except of course her saying that it has christian 
themes, 
> so I get that she is a christian. Besides that? I have absolutely 
no 
> idea.

Magpie:
Maybe we have different definitions of what "as a person" means? 
Because I'm talking about stuff like saying it seems like JKR 
basically thinks Harry's a good guy, that people who behave like 
Draco are jerks, that Ginny's a cool girl. That sort of thing. I 
wouldn't generalize it into something like "JKR approves of 
bulling!" or "JKR approves of child abuse!" but I don't read the 
book and feel like I have no idea where the author stands on every 
fictional issue. I've yet to have been surprised by the opinions of 
hers that she has given, for instance. Like, when she said, "I 
loathe traitors" about Marietta that wasn't shocked. I don't think 
it means she favors facial branding in general, but the impression I 
got in the story was that Marietta's branding was something she 
enjoyed. Or, like, when she said Sirius didn't practice what he 
preached. That sort of thing. If there's a pov that nobody in the 
books ever seems to raise it does sometimes seem like the author 
hasn't thought of it. (Unless it seems like the author's 
specifically writing about a world without that pov to make a point 
about that.)


> > Alla:
> > > I mean, when you read "Brothers Caramasov" or 'Idiot" 
> or "Writings 
> > > from psychiatric clinic" ( not sure how this one is translated 
in 
> > > English, so just translated word by word from Russian), one 
would 
> > > think that Dostoevskiy may have had some mental problems.
> > 
> > Magpie:
> > I never thought that. Are you suggesting that people are saying 
> that 
> > because JKR writes a bad guy, for instance, that she is a bad 
guy? 
> > Because I don't think that's the idea.
> 
> Alla:
> 
> Actually yeah very close and I am not just suggesting it, I read 
it, 
> but let me rephrase it. I totally get the impression and I saw it 
> sometimes spelled out, sometimes IMO very heavily implied.
> 
> That since JKR wrote the book, which message people consider to be 
> crasy or evil, that she is crasy, evil, full of hatred herself.
> 
> Yes, that is absolutely my impression. People are free to find it. 
I 
> am free to find it bizarre.

Magpie:
I definitely don't think she's crazy or evil, I agree.


> 
> Magpie:
> But I think there's a difference 
> > between that and looking at an author's work and seeing some 
basic 
> > ideas that the author believes that come through in his work. 
> > There's nothing particularly insane about any of those works 
that 
> > I've read.
> 
> Alla:
> 
> Um, I did not find those works insane either, I found many 
characters 
> to be quite disturbed though. I love Dostoevsky, but I find many 
of 
> his works to be very very difficult to read.

Magpie:
Oh, I didn't think you found the works insane. Many of his 
characters are, it's true. But I agree with what I think we're both 
saying here, which is that there's a complicated relationship 
between an author and what they write. It's really not so simple 
that anybody can just read something and really judge what the 
author is like in person. It's just so not like that. The stuff an 
author writes comes from such different places and stories take on 
lives of their own. It's sometimes almost like judging somebody 
based on their dreams. Yeah, it says something about them and came 
from them, but it's complicated.

-m