Idle musings on Book Six

[caliburncy at yahoo.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 27747

With all the talk of Book Five, I actually find myself currently more 
curious about Book Six.  Obviously, with Book Seven being the GRAND, 
EPIC CONCLUSION and with GOF having been the book that sets said 
GRAND, EPIC CONCLUSION into motion, we can expect either Five or Six 
to function as something of a respite (perhaps even both to some 
extent).  You can't up the stakes every book; it's just not possible 
to maintain good pacing.  Which is why you have books like POA, that 
clearly further the storyline, and clearly have considerable impact 
upon the main focus of the events, but are not epic in the same sense. 
 Between Five and Six, I personally expect Six to be more of the 
tangential respite.  I may be entirely wrong, but it seems with the 
cliff-hanger ending of GOF that it might be difficult to not give Five 
the accordingly increasing epic scope.  This of course does not equate 
to another direct conflict with Voldemort.  Perhaps I should explain 
what I mean by "epic", which is not quite identical to the official 
definition.

What I mean by something being on an "epic" scale in this particular 
case, is that it is shown to have far-reaching implications.  Not 
whether or not it *logically* has far-reaching implications, but 
whether it is *shown* to have them.  So GOF was in some ways made more 
epic, because not only did Voldemort's return affect the whole 
wizarding world (the logical reason), but it was also *shown* to be 
more epic in an indirect sort of way, by introducing us to more of the 
wizarding world via the Quidditch World Cup and the TriWizard 
Tournament.  We see more of the world, and that sight 'ups the stakes' 
in its own way, simply because we are made more aware of just how 
vastly this conflict can affect the world.  This was logically just as 
true of PS/SS, but it was not *shown* to be true, so it feels less 
epic in its scope.

Five, I imagine, will be similarly epic, although in a different 
fashion.  We will see more of the wizarding world and I suspect the 
focus will be on preparations for Seven.

So what about Six?  I find it hard to believe that it will be 
similarly "preparatory".  Therefore I would expect it to be tangential 
and character-centric (i.e. backstory) like POA was.  A story that 
clearly impacts the fight against Voldemort, but does not directly 
involve it.  However, if this assumption is correct than I cannot for 
the life of me fathom why every question asked of JKR in interviews 
indicates that [insert any mystery here] will be answered in Five or 
Seven.  Never Six.  Maybe Six is the well-kept secret we are 
overlooking.

Or perhaps I am dead wrong and Five will be the tangential respite, 
with Six being the increasingly epic.  But if so then I certainly have 
to wonder how JKR is going to achieve that return to a sense of 
normalcy when it is clear that no normalcy is possible.  And also how 
she will do this without it appearing like she has temporarily dropped 
the Voldemort conflict and not kept the promise she essentially makes 
at the end of GOF for everything to now go into full-gear?  It seems 
to me that this balance would be much easier to achieve if Five were 
the epic and Six the respite.

-Luke, who is rather curious to hear opinions, though he surely won't 
be fully satisfied until all the books come out and he can see for 
certain