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

[nicholaswebb at hotmail.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 27573

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., cynthiaanncoe at h... wrote:
> 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)

Every cloud has a silver lining- I too have been fearing that Rowling 
has been larding her books too much, but luckily, she seems to have 
sensed that as well. Two hints about book 5 cheer me mightily- first, 
that it will definitely be shorter than book 4, and second, that 
Rowling is taking an enourmous amount of time with it, because, she 
says, she doesn't want to be caught up in a deadline. I have no doubt 
that GoF would have been three times better if it hadn't been rushed.