Idle musings on Book Six

[Barb]

No: HPFGUIDX 27778

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., Penny & Bryce <pennylin at s...> wrote:
> Just for grins, I pulled out Book Magazine's article (May/June 
2000). Here's what they said (all based on JKR interviews & chats):
> 
> ** They all fall in love with the wrong people (hmmm.... did any of 
> them really fall in love?  Seems overplayed to me)

It's true that "in love" isn't quite right.  But to be fair, Harry 
asks Cho out and is rebuffed; Ginny is still crushing on Harry and 
misses her chance to go to the ball with him when she accepts 
Neville's invitation.  Neville had already asked Hermione, who was 
going with Viktor (THAT'S the wrong person in spades, I believe).  
Ron asks Fleur out...Harry and Ron go to the ball with Parvati and 
Padma, who wind up with Beauxbatons boys...there are quite a number 
of "wrong" people, IMO. 

> ** The first truly evil female character makes her debut

This is interesting.  Either JKR changed her mind about including 
this character or making her female, or we have yet to find out how 
truly evil a female character introduced in GoF is (Fleur, anyone? 
Nah, me neither.)
 
> ** There will be "a number of deaths, including that of one 
> character readers have grown to love" (okay, so we grew to know 
> Cedric better over the course of GoF, but most everyone assumed the 
> death would be someone we *already* knew ... and GoF hardly 
> features a "number" of deaths)

Actually, the book starts off with "a number of deaths."  There's Tom 
Riddle's dad and grandparents and Frank Bryce; later, Barty Crouch, 
Sr. is killed by his son, we hear of Bertha Jorkins' death, Cedric is 
killed, of course (although I also think the "grown to love" 
description is high-flown) and finally, Barty Crouch, Jr. experiences 
the dementor's kiss, arguably worse than death.  So this phrase is 
actually quite accurate.

> ** We learn why Voldemort is who he is (huh?  Did we?)

I thought we learned more about this in CoS, frankly.  The bit about 
him killing his father and grandparents is hardly revealing of 
anything except his early capacity for revenge and disregard for life.

> ** The book's ending will be very frightening indeed

I'm willing to concede this, as my kids were pretty scared on their 
first read-through.  (Consider that this includes Pettigrew--without 
anasthesia--amputating HIS OWN HAND.)  They finally decided to 
proceed based on the fact that they know Harry has years 5, 6 and 7 
ahead of him and therefore had to survive year 4.

> So ... you might see now why I'm skeptical of things like "Ginny 
> will have a more important role in Book 5."  I tend to 
> think, "Well, that's great because right now the Giant Squid has 
> had about as much of a role as Ginny's had so far."   

I like that!  Maybe we'll see more of the Giant Squid...As for the 
Harry "fan" who will die, I'm of the firm opinion that this is 
Hagrid, especially since she has said it will be very painful for her 
to write this (or words to that effect).  It seems the only logical 
choice.  He is a classic tragic character, from his low social status 
(half-breed background of which he is ashamed) and quirky tendencies 
(dangerous creatures and too much drink) to his tragic childhood (the 
disappearing mother, the dead father and being expelled from Hogwarts 
for something he didn't do).  Frankly, the character of Hagrid is 
downright Dickensian, but unlike Mr. Macawber, I don't think he's 
going to go off to Australia and take up politics.

> Back to the original question though: I think JKR is deliberately 
> cagey, and she words things in such a way that they can be subject 
> to more than one interpretation.

I can hardly complain about this as she is my role model <g>.
 
--Barb