Of cliches and characterisation

[Andrea]

No: HPFGUIDX 20462

> Rebekah wrote:
> To be honest, I never even *thought* about half of
> these topics when
> I first read the books. [snip]
> 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.
 
The first time I read the books?  Heck no I didn't
think about all of this!  I enjoyed a captivating
story about a boy wizard and his friends.  However,
the second, third, fourth, and so on times I read it,
I started picking up more subtleties and noticing
things I never noticed before.  Each time I read one
of the books again, I notice something new.  I think
it's safe to say that few people on this list have
restricted themselves to a mere one or even two
readings.  The people I've talked to have re-read many
many times, and it's as we begin to pick up on these
little points that we fall into these amazingly
involved discussions.

If we were just reading the books and not talking
about them much beyond "Oh, I just loved that last
Harry Potter book!", then probably a lot of these
ideas would never even occur to us.  I know that I am
more attuned to subtleties in the books after being
immersed in all of the wonderful discussions from this
group. After reading the Snape-as-vampire discussion,
I reread SS/PS and noticed a lot of minor points that
never occurred to me *before*, but could now be viewed
in light of the possible vampirism of our favorite
Potions Master. 

All that said, I've noticed that whenever a thread
develops, such as the Snape-as-vampire or Fat
stereotypes, and a really interesting discussion gets
going, someone comes in and says, "I think you're
reading too much into this.  It's just a piece of
fiction."

That's certainly true, can't deny it. ;)  But this is
a *discussion* group.  I joined it because it
advertised having intelligent discussions among adults
about the HP books.  If all of our questions could be
solved by merely saying, "Well, it's just a piece of
fiction and that's how JKR wanted it to go," then we
wouldn't all be here.  Of course that's the obvious
answer, but this group seems to revel in going far
beyond the obvious and mundane explanations.  

It's a tribute to JKR's amazing skills that we *can*
disect everything like this - a lesser writer wouldn't
have nearly as many subtleties in her writing, and we
would exhaust all possible avenues of discussion in
short order.  Instead, we get to have this wonderful
group!  Yes, we read to much into things.  And yes,
it's just a work of fiction.  But reading too much
into this particular work of fiction is what this
group is all about. ;)

Sorry, just had to get that off my chest.


Andrea

=====
"Reality is for people who lack imagination."

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Get personalized email addresses from Yahoo! Mail - only $35 
a year!  http://personal.mail.yahoo.com/