[HPforGrownups] Re: Of cliches and characterisation

[Jen Faulkner]

No: HPFGUIDX 20457

On Sat, 9 Jun 2001 catz109 at hotmail.com wrote:

> There are some really interesting and plausible ideas, like snape is
> a vampire etc...Which makes me wonder- when you lot first read the
> books, did you just read it, and think "Oh no, that isn't right, JKR
> called Dudley fat" or "How come the nerdy ones all wear glasses" and
> the such like? Just interested.

As Lilith mentioned, I think it depends a lot on what sorts of things
you *always* notice when you read.  For me, it's automatic to read and
make observations on gender portrayals, so that was mainly what I
noticed the first time I read through them.  I also noticed things
related to Classics (spell etymologies in particular, of course), since
again that's something I do pretty much every time I read.  But other
observations had to wait until I read the books again, or I never made
them at all until others mentioned them on one of the HP lists.  
Everyone has different things they notice when they read.  For someone
who, unlike me, doesn't pay attention to gender things, they could
probably read all the books and never notice what JKR does with gender,
but that same person might notice the uses of hair color (like
blondness) that never made any conscious impression on me.  And of
course, it depends how casually one read them the first time.  I read
them quite cursorily, but perhaps others gave more attention to it.  
The more carefully you read, the more of these things you will notice.

And I do think it's just careful reading and analysis, not 'reading too
much into it'.

--jen :)

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