Children's Lit; McGonagall's death; Draco's hair

[Ev vy]

No: HPFGUIDX 29505

From: "Cindy C." <cindysphynx at home.com>

> First, the writing style, particularly of the first three books.  I
> can't assess the "grade level" of the writing (although I am sure
> someone on the list could), but they struck me as written in a
> straightforward and simple way, accessible for children.  This is not
> a bad thing, as I don't do well with flowery prose myself.  However,
> that writing style makes it more accessible to children, and so makes
> me think of them as children's books.

I would definitely agree that the language is that of children, but I
rather thought of it as a narratological device. Namely as the main
protagonist is 11 and the story is told from his point of view, use of
children's language was simply logical.

> Second, the "conflicts."  Most of the conflicts in HP, while
> entertaining, are really small potatoes to adults, who have seen how
> wrenching real life can be.  In GoF, for instance, a great deal of
> conflict time is spent with two characters not speaking to each
> other, who soon kiss and make up.  Interesting and entertaining, but
> hardly the sort of gutwrenching conflict often seen in "adult"
> drama.

Here, I'd disagree. Even life of adult people consists mainly of such
little conflicts. Adult "drama" is that of exaggeration. We would not have
even noticed some problems if they hadn't been exaggerated. If writers
stuck to real life, they would produce very boring books. And HP includes
also very important conflicts:
1)that of good vs. evil, and it's not that simple as is usually thought of
children's lit. As good and evil in HP are not simply black and white,
there are many shades of gray and ultimately one have to choose lesser
evil.
2)that of identity: Harry thought that he was "normal" and it turned out
that he's a wizard, he has to adapt to the new society and he sees that
it's not that simple for someone who spent their lives among Muggles to
adapt.
3)that of tolerance vs. prejudice: pureblood vs. mudblood. I don't think
that such issues appear usually in books for children.
I may be bit oversimplifying, but my main point is that HP addresses many
important issues, common ones and more universal.

> Also, to the extent characters have problems in HP, they sometimes
> don't experience "real life" consequences of their behavior.  Harry
> and Ron "make up" their divination homework, but never get caught or
> fail the class.

And how many times were you caught in class? I was never caught. The point
here is that both Harry and Ron are at least that intelligent (or Trelawney
that stupid) that they manage to come up with something which is untrue but
plausible.

>  Harry meets with Krum near the forest contrary to
> Sirius' instructions, and nothing happens to him.

What could Sirus do? Spank him?

> Hagrid "leaks"
> valuable information, and nothing happens to him.  Snape "leaks" that
> Lupin is a werewolf, and nothing happens to him.  Moody "bounces"
> Malfoy, and nothing happens to him.  These things don't bother me at
> all, but they strike me as evidence of fiction geared to children
> because we aren't left with uncomfortable loose ends.

That we don't really know. Harry doesn't see them punished in any way, but
it doesn't really mean that they weren't in any way punished.

> Third, (and on the other hand), I think the complexity of the plot
> (particularly in PoA and GoF) nudge those books toward adult
> fiction.  Kids tend to miss the foreshadowing and other nuances that
> help the surprise endings work.  If future books continue to be
> written in the same fashion, we'll have 5 books with complex plotting
> and 2 books (PS/SS and CoS) with far less complex plotting, so we'll
> have an adult series overall, IMHO.

If we assume that the reader grows with the book, than it would be a series
for children, adolescents and young adults, overall. I think that it all
simply depends on who reads the book and who interprets the book. For kids
HP is a book for kids, for adults HP is a book both for adults and kids.
That's how I see it. E.g. in Poland LoTR had been treated for some time as
a book for children. Why? Because of the Polish translation. The translator
assumed that the target audience of LoTR is the same as that of The Hobbit.
So she adapted the book for children. A similar thing was done to HP, the
translator targeted the book at children. So there are much less adults
reading HP in Poland than in England. Not to mention Winnie the Pooh, which
was deprived of some more drastic fragments.

> Is there "good" adult fiction in which children are the protagonist?

Yes, "Lord of the Flies" by William Golding.


About McGonagall's death:
I don't want to address the issue separately as it might have been
discussed. But as I was re-reading SS/PS I thought of McGonagall as of a
very curious person, she waited all day for Dumbledore to confirm her
suspicions. Then I thought about her animagus form, a cat, and it struck
me:
Curiosity killed the cat. It may be far-fetched but I like the idea. Most
of the people seem to be of opinion that McGonagall will not die in the
next parts. Well, I'm in opposition.

Draco's hair:
This might have been discussed as well, so if it was, ignore this part.
Today I came across an article in on of Polish sci-fi and fantasy
magazines. And there was a fragment about a significance of someone's hair
color. There was a reference to the white or rather silvery color which in
heraldry symbolizes purity and honesty. And in art this color is associated
with mages. The metal associated with this color is silver and the planet
is the Moon. And now:
1. If it holds true for all heraldry (I assumed that the author refers to
Polish heraldry and I have no idea of it, whatsoever) it even more
interesting.
2. This honesty and purity is rather deceitful, but it's rather obvious. We
all know Draco, but maybe there's more to it.
3. He's a wizard.
4. This silver is something of a bother, as I instantly thought that Draco
may be the one to kill Remus Lupin, if we assume that silver is deadly for
werewolves (I don't know this fact about Rowling's werewolves, FB is not
available here yet).
5. Moon has two sides, one visible and the other invisible. So we may be
able to see only one side of Draco's character. Now, the issue is if
Draco's other side is the darker side or the contrary.

Ev vy
who didn't think that it would be so long

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
There's nothing level in our cursed natures
But direct villainy.
      William Shakespeare "Timon of Athens"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
And therefore, since I cannot prove a lover,
To entertain these fair well-spoken days,
I am determined to prove a villain
     William Shakespeare "Richard III"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


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