Semi-Colons & John Grisham: Literary Merit; NY Times

[Penny & Bryce Linsenmayer]

No: HPFGUIDX 2032

Hi -

coriolan at worldnet.att.net wrote:

> Now, I'm sure JK Rowling will never include a sex scene to equal the
> stunning prose of Grisham, but aside from that, Rowling is in every
> respect stylistically more complex than her best-selling compatriots.
> Just one example: I've skimmed through several volumes of Grisham,
> Cornwall in search of a semi-colon.  I've yet to find one.  Grisham
> and Cornwall write a tedious series of short, declarative sentences
> that might(ignoring content) fit right in to The Weekly Reader or The
> Berenstein Bears. Rowling OTOH rejoices in the beauty of the English
> language, and fully exploits its dramatic potential in her dialogue -
> take any page at random in any of her books, and we find an array
> ofhyphens, ellipses and semi-colons. That in itself does not make a
> writer superior, yet I  think anyone who compares Rowling with the
> aforementioned authors can only agree that she has created by far the
> more morally complex and ambiguous universe, as compared to the
> simplistic good guys/bad guys of The Firm (The protagonists in
> Grisham are forever evading their adult responsiblities, and the
> author clearly expects us to accordingly applaud them when they
> finally escape them - when has Harry given into doubt, and refused
> the duties Destiny has thrust upon him?)
>
> A cartoonist in The Washington Post recently had a child exclaim "Do
> you doubt the superiority of childhood to maturity? Kids are reading
> the dense, multi-volume Harry Potter adeventures. Adults are reading
> Who Moved My Cheese," a vapid fable of money-grubbing managerial
> mice!"

I'm breaking my own rule against largely "Me too" & "I agree" posts to
say -- can I send this verbatim to the NY Times?  <g>  I *love* it!

Speaking of our friend the NY Times -- did anything ever come of Jim &
Voicelady's plans to possibly visit the NY Times Book Review offices in
person?  I'm still holding out hope . . . .

Amanda wrote: <<<<Its original intended audience *was* children/young
adults, and they like
some things to be black/white.>>>>>

(Penny assumes best Hermione-like voice): No, no, no, no  . . .
no!!!!!  JKR has said repeatedly that she wrote the books for herself &
that she never set out to write a childrens' series.  The first volumes
happen to feature a pre-adolescent boy as the protagonist, but that does
not make them a childrens' series or make their intended audience
entirely children.  Besides, I have a very hard time believing that JKR
is writing any of this to be black & white.

Penny



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