Character Development (was Re: Why Hermione isn't in Ravenclaw)

[coriolan at worldnet.att.net]

No: HPFGUIDX 6343

--- In HPforGrownups at egroups.com, "Scott " <harry_potter00 at y...> 
wrote:
> 
> > This brings me to a question about character development.  
Basically 
> would Jo have written the story to fit the characters, or would she 
> have written the characters to fit the story?  In my own experience 
> with writing they both seem to help each other along.  As I write I 
> find out new things about the characters and therefore the story 
can 
> branch off into different directions than I originally thought.  

One classic example of this is Miguel de Cervantes' Don Quixote.  One 
can see that in its first few chapters, Cervantes is intent on 
creating nothing more elaborate than a trivial satire on the 
extremely popular "swords-and-sorcery" of his time (i.e, the early 
17th century versions of Harry Potter) - see part one, chapter 6 of 
DQ to see how comprehensive was Cervantes' reading of the pop culture 
of his time.  But when Sancho Panza joins Don Quixote in Chap. 7, 
it's as if the narrative suddenly changes from black-and-white to 
full technicolor and THX-sound: Cervantes becomes gradually aware of 
the full range of the comic and tragic implications of a man who 
tries to attack the injustices of this ambiguous and flawed universe 
with the moral certitudes of the copybook headings. 

       - CMC