Not A Children's Book

[Penny & Bryce Linsenmayer]

No: HPFGUIDX 5284

Hi --

zsenya at yahoo.com wrote:

> I guess what  I was trying to say, well, I don't really know what I
> was trying to  say.  I think the writing style is very much in the
> style of young  adult books (Harry Potter was a very unusual boy.  He
> was a wizard, etc. etc.)

I think that the writing style that you're quoting is really just the
first chapter or 2 of each book -- they don't all continue on in that
vein (IMO).  She does do the "recap" at the beginning of each book,
which some people enjoy and others (me) find rather tiresome.  The
"recap" does tend to be a bit juvenile in style, and it is a device that
is often employed in juvenile or young adult works.  But, I don't think
that this style continues much beyond the first few chapters of each
book really.

> I think that since Harry Potter starts out as age 11 in
> the first book, that book is written sort of at an 11 year-old level.

Well .  . . I think that's why the books got *marketed* to 9-12 yr
olds.  Someone at Bloomsbury Publishing said, "Oh, the protagonist is
11; therefore, these are children's books."  I still disagree strongly
that she wrote or is continuing to write the books for a target audience
of children.  She's said exactly the opposite in countless interviews.

> And I think that although JK Rowling may write for herself, she is
> also very aware that a large portion of the readers are children and
> that parents will have to read these books to their children (I think
> she mentioned in an interview somewhere reading the last chapters of
> GoF to her daughter) so she will most likely write in a way that will
> interest the children and interest the adults as well.

She's said that she has a story to tell, a story that she spent the last
10 yrs creating, outlining, researching & writing thus far.  She said
she has no intention of departing from that storyline, even if she loses
some of her younger readers along the way.  She is aware of her younger
readers, but she is definitely not targeting them (or making concessions
to suit their sensibilities).  She said that while she's thrilled when
parents tell her that their 6 or 7 yr old loved SS, she also thinks
that's too young because she knows where the series is headed.  I'm
personally glad that she's holding out for artistic integrity.

> What I meant by straightforward is that we  know that there is good
> and evil.  We know pretty much who is good and evil and we know that
> the goal is to conquer the evil part somehow.

Ah .... but we didn't know Sirius Black wasn't evil for quite some
time.  We're in serious doubt about the true nature of a number of
characters, including notably Snape, Fudge, Bagman.  I disagree that
things are "straight forward" in JKR's universe.

>  How that is done may be extremely complex.  JK Rowling's filing
> system of character notes and timelines must be amazing!

She showed boxes of stuff on a 60 Minutes interview -- 7 boxes in fact
from what I recall.  She's also said that there are plenty of things
that are just not making it into the books -- small details that don't
fit in for whatever reason.  I know she's planning to write a HP
Encyclopedia once the series is done -- that should be fascinating!

Penny



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