[HPforGrownups] Re: Beacham book

[heidi]

No: HPFGUIDX 6777



Steve Vander Ark wrote:

> I picked it up off a shelf in a bookstore, trying to keep an open
> mind, since I have big problems with people who attack a book they
> haven't actually read, and I just opened it and started reading. (I
> have to admit too that part of me was worried because the book is, in
> some sense, competition to my Lexicon website, so to be fair, I
> WANTED to find errors. Hey, I wanna win.)

So it's 0 for Beecham, 4 for Hogwarts?

> But I was amazed at how easy it was to find the errors! I get the
> sense that she doesn't know how to keep her interpretations and
> suppositions from coming through as facts. And I also suspect that
> she hasn't read the books more than once and then maybe once more for
> notes. I can tell you from experience that you CAN'T write something
> like that without knowing the books almost intuitively from repeated
> readings. I listen to the audio tapes all the time. I have read each
> book many times and still read them. I'm reading GF aloud to my son
> right now and I constantly find things that slipped past me. In order
> to understand the world you're describing, you have to immerse
> yourself in it. I know, you guys laugh at me because I'm a little
> teensy tiny bit obsessed with it all, but frankly, I can't imagine
> anyone writing a worthwhile guide who WASN'T obsessed with it. And I
> don't think she is at all. Opportunistic, yes, obsessed, no.

Completely true. I (as some of you know) am currently writing a fanfiction
which takes place after 4th year, but the next chapter is going to reference
some 3rd year events - and if I hadn't reread PoA the past few days to
refresh my recollection of it, I never would've remembered that Hermione's
Arithmancy class is at the same time as Magical Creatures, and if I had
trusted my instincts, I would've made a *huge* blunder...