Book 2 Rules (WAS HP Structure Idea)

[Cindy C.]

No: HPFGUIDX 28262

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., fourfuries at a... wrote:

Please forgive the rather random snipping from this excellent post.

> 
> I though HP3 (PoA) was the weakest 
> book, and like JKR, thought CoS the best.
> 
> My reasoning is as follows.  

<snip analysis of PS/SS, with which I agree>

> In Book 2 we begin to establish the major theme: the battle between 
> Good and Evil is a battle within ourselves. We find out more about 
> the nature of the Wizarding world.  <snip more great observations 
about CoS> 
> Neither Harry nor his friends take on any real weight until book 
2.  
> Book 2 establishes the character of Harry, as opposed to the 
> personality of Harry.  His fear is real.  The risk to his few 
friends 
> is great.  And the climactic encounter with the bad guy is vastly 
> more personal, intimate and engaging than the "white pain, pass 
out" 
> events of Book 1.  <snip again>  
> 

Let me break in here to say that all of this about CoS is true.  The 
events in it are important, and the subsequent books don't work 
without those events.  That alone, however, doesn't quite elevate CoS 
into the league of GoF and PoA for me.  The reason is that CoS' plot 
is fine, for the most part.  The issues I have are with the 
execution.  The writing is not as engaging, lively or witty.  The new 
characters are mostly Dobby and Lockhart.  There are parts that don't 
make sense to me.  *And I'll stop here, because there will be a huge 
virtual groan if I go on and on again about my "issues" with CoS.*

Suffice it to say that I think it is undisputed that CoS is 
an "important" book, a book that had the potential to be among the 
best in the series, but the execution prevented it from being all it 
could be.  I think it winds up on the bottom of most people's ranking 
only because the other three books executed their plots better.

> Book 3, on the other hand, does nothing to forward that most 
central 
> theme of battling the Evil within in us through personal growth.  
> Yes, it introduces important characters, but none of them is what 
> they seem to be, and we can therefore learn very little from their 
> examples for most of the book.  All the information is presented in 
> a "third hand" fashion (maybe second hand in the case of the 
> Shrieking Shack).  It's all background.  And the temptation to lock 
> onto Sirius as father figure did not grip me at all.  I was so glad 
> Harry didn't go off to live with Sirius!  How trite that would have 
> been.
> 

I'd agree that Book 3 isn't the most important book plotwise, and 
even I, a rabid PoA fan, wouldn't call it pivotal.  But PoA competes 
nicely with Book 4 for "best written" book in terms of the 
outstanding character development, subtle humor, crisp dialogue, and 
brilliant use of foreshadowing, not to mention the huge number of 
plot balls JKR has in the air at one time.  Book 3 also wins points 
for "degree of difficulty" because as you correctly note, it is 
largely background.  Anyone who can make background as exciting as 
PoA wins major style points from me.  I also think (but can't prove) 
that PoA can contend for the prize for internal integrity for having 
the fewest plot holes and other large unresolved issues than GoF or 
CoS.  PS/SS might win the prize for integrity in the end, I don't 
know.  


As an aside, your terrific analysis of CoA vs. the other books makes 
me wonder what others think about which of the books is the 
most "important," and implicitly, whether there can even be an answer 
to that question.  Perhaps the consensus would be GoF, but there 
might be a spirited discussion for second place.

Cindy (who sometimes can't believe the same person wrote the 4 HP 
books, as the writing style seems so different)