PS/SS & CoS versus PoA & GoF (WAS That marvelous Chamber (long))

[cynthiaanncoe at home.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 27410

Amy wrote:

> It seems it is time after all for me to write about why I love 
CoS.  
> 
<snip excellent defense of CoS>

Rather than do a pointless point-by-point rebuttal, I'll mention one 
of the reasons why I think the last two books work much better than 
the first two books.  

The first two are fantasy/mysteries, I think.  In both, the kids set 
out to solve a mystery of life-threatening proportions, while the 
adults amble about in a rather clueless fashion.  The kids don't even 
go to the adults and spill their guts about how this is all 
developing and suggest that the adults had better get a handle on 
things -- the kids charge ahead confronting dangerous beasts and 
guessing which bottle is not lethal poison.  This leads to all sorts 
of problems, such as those involving the inexplicable behaviour of 
Dumbledore, supposedly one of the smartest and most powerful wizards 
around.  Then there is the difficulty of foreshadowing the answer to 
any mystery without giving it away.  This cannot be easy, and there 
is certainly good reason for JKR to have struggled with CoS.

PoA and GoF, on the other hand, are more like 
action/suspense/fantasy.  Yes, we're wondering about the Grim, and we 
worry that Sirius will try to kill Harry, and we're puzzling about 
how Harry's name got in the goblet, but the actions of our hero are 
directed toward accomplishing other things.  In PoA, he wants to win 
the Quidditch cup, mostly, and he learns to fight the dementors along 
the way.  Harry does not "investigate" Sirius Black or set out to 
capture the Grim, for instance.  The plot twists (werewolf, Sirius = 
good and Pettigrew = Scabbers = bad, timeturner) come as total 
surprises, not mysteries Harry set out to solve.

Same thing for GoF.  The two major plot twists (Moody and Voldemort's 
return) come completely out of nowhere (or at least, the 
foreshadowing is so subtle that we don't piece it together until the 
events happen, which is even better).  Harry is not investigating 
Moody's identity, and he is not actively trying to thwart Voldemort.  
He is trying to get through the Tournament in one piece and get a 
date.  We have a vague sense of impending doom (heightened by Sirius' 
letters and Dumbledore's bringing Moody out of retirement), but the 
suspense and excitement isn't generated by Harry willingly putting 
himself in danger while impotent adults stand around watching.  In 
GoF, the kids are not smarter than the adults around them, (and in my 
world anyway) that's the way it should be.

So . . . if JKR asked my advice for OoP, I'd steer her toward doing a 
straight action/suspense book instead of another mystery.  She's 
really, really got a knack for the former.

Cindy (who has decided that kids are NEVER supposed to be smarter 
than adults now that she is an adult)