A Wobbly, Half-Hearted Defense of GoF (WAS CoS, and in defence of Lockhart)

[cynthiaanncoe at home.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 27545

Tabouli wrote:  

I have to wonder whether JKR's editors were getting too awestruck to 
wield the machete.  If she'd given *me* the manuscript (O well, one 
can dream), I would have have been much more brutal with the axe and 
the pruning shears (and then fled before a team of HP4GU members took 
up their own axes and pruning shears to hunt me down).  I'm sure at 
least 100 pages could have bitten the cutting room floor without 
crucial loss to the plot.
> 

I can't decide whether to lead the charge to defend GoF or just pile 
on.  I really did like the book when I finished it, and it did what I 
like a book to do by the end -- make me say "Wow!"  I wasn't bored, 
and I never considered abandoning the book.  I bought the graveyard 
scene hook, line and sinker, I was totally blindsided about 
Crouch/Moody, and I like the unhappy ending.  I thought the writing 
was more substantial (I didn't get the feeling that parts of 
paragraphs were missing as in CoS), and the one-liners were some of 
JKR's best.

On the other hand, Tabouli makes great points.  I too feel confident 
that I could trim 100+ pages out of GOF without breaking a sweat, 
although I am not sure I could flee HP4GU members quickly enough to 
avoid being hacked to bits.   Most of the cuts would come out of "The 
Portkey", "Bagman and Crouch," "The Quiddich World Cup," "Dark Mark" 
and "Mayhem at the Ministry", which total almost 100 pages right 
there.  That's an awful lot of background before the story really 
gets moving.  "The Portkey" is about 10 pages of waking up, having 
breakfast, walking up a hill, and touching a boot.  Those chapters 
would get collapsed into perhaps two chapters.  (I wonder if the 
meandering nature of these 5 chapters has something to do with the 
plot glitch JKR discovered as she was writing GoF.)  Nary a page 
of "The House Elf Liberation Front" sub-plot would survive -- 22 
pages.  That would leave enough room to keep "The Unexpected Task" 
and the "Yule Ball", because those chapters are priceless, even 
though they don't advance the plot much.   But the "Yule Ball" is 30 
pages, which is a bit windy considering it is mostly a diversion.

Aside from the possibility that JKR's editors are awestruck, as 
Tabouli mentions, I am starting to feel that maybe there is an 
overemphasis on foreshadowing in GoF.  For instance, we foreshadow 
Accio with Mrs. Weasley removing the toffees from Fred and George's 
pockets.  But because the Summoning Charm is taught in class and then 
used in the First Task, we don't need Mrs. Weasley to foreshadow its 
use in the graveyard.  We also repeat a lot of what happens in 
the "Dark Mark" when we get to "Padfoot Returns."  We learn the 
Banishing Charm, but never use it.  Maybe it comes up in later books?
I just had this sense that GoF didn't really get rolling until we 
meet Moody and Harry's name comes out of the goblet.  As a result of 
these concerns that the books seem to be getting "fatter", I am a 
little alarmed at the news that OoP is as long as GoF.  

I also wonder if Bagman and the gambling sub-plot could have been 
eliminated entirely.  If he really isn't a DE and a pivotal character 
for OoP (as I think he must be), then he got an awful lot of 
attention in GoF.  

Anyway, these are just my opinions on GoF, and I seem to change my 
mind all the time about GoF, because it is still my second-favorite 
book after PoA.  For what it is worth, I don't think two people could 
ever have the same exact views of the books, although I certainly 
enjoy these types of discussions.  I was talking to my husband, and 
he thought Lockhart was among the best characters in the books, and 
didn't buy the Pettigrew-as-spy idea in PoA.  Go figure.

> Cindy:
> > Sadly, Lockhart has managed to tally only a few fans and no 
support group 
> has even been proposed, so far as I know.
> 
Tabouli:
> As one of this happy minority, it's clearly up to me to start a 
support group.  How about L.I.G.H.T.R.E.L.I.E.F. (Lockhart is 
Genuinely Hilarious Territory: a Really Entertaining Loser, If Evil 
Fellow)?
> 

<BG>  You win the award for best support group acronym!  My husband 
will send his two sickles (assuming there's a membership fee).

Cindy (getting discouraged that her two favorite HP books don't hold 
up as well to careful analysis as she thought they would, and 
pleading with other HP4GU members to bail her out)