Dumbledore and the 'rules' of fiction

[Susan McGee]

No: HPFGUIDX 1199

--- In HPforGrownups at egroups.com, Neil Ward <neilward at d...> wrote:
> Susan said:
> 
> > 
Someone posted a very eloquent and scholarly post on one of the Harry
> Potter lists about how fiction works..
> 

The response:
> Good for them.  They should get a Nobel prize if they can 
define "how  fiction works". In my opinion, fiction is about 
imagination and there should
> be no rule book. Why not break moulds and challenge conventions?  I 
do agree > that there has to be some integrity to the characters and 
plot, however, and
> that we have to trust the portrayal of Harry Potter at least.  With 
the > other characters there are most likely secrets to be unearthed: 
some good, > some bad. 
> 


I wish I had saved the post. The original poster was not talking 
about "rules" in the sense that I might have inadvertantly implied.
S/he was discussing why great literature "works". S/he was saying 
that great literature has integrity. There's a lot of fan fiction, 
for example, that in my opinion ignores this "rule", and is just too 
far fetched to be any fun (to me). For example, Dumbledore and 
McGonagall having a secret affair or the examples Rowlings herself 
cites --- if she had Hermione get pregnant(does anyone else remember 
this interview), the characters would not be true to themselves.