Potterverse Coherence

[archeaologee]

No: HPFGUIDX 38876

Penny,

[James crawls from the wreckage of his beloved aeroplane "the 
hedgehog" haveing been shot down in flames. He is bruised, batterd - 
but unbowed.  Resolves to carry on on foot]

I belive the books are the best ficion (or, gosh-darn-it, anything) I 
have read in a long time (the Illiad pips them, but they destroy LOTR 
and the Dark Matter trilogy).  I am not a child.  However part of the 
joy of them is precisely that they are written in a childish way.  A 
return to innocence through a child's eye - entering a magical world.

> [sounds of everyone groaning, "Oh no!  We were hoping Penny 
wouldn't notice this one.  Here she goes again....<g>]

> That's why I think it would be wrong to explain away the 
inconsistencies or problems within the series on the grounds that 
they are "just children's books."


No, but to understand the plotting we must cling to this.  Just like 
to understand the end of Macbeth we must realise when it was written, 
and that it was written for King James I/VI.  The books (especially 
the first one) WERE written for children.  JKR says so.

> I also think this approach is unnecessarily critical of childrens' 
literature as a whole.  


I feel I have answered this, in saying that I rate them higher than 
anything I've read recently...but...I don't use the term children's 
literature as a pejorative.  I was giving examples of bad writing in 
children's literature (something I hated as a child an still do).  
The joy of JKR's work is that she was annoyed by this as a child too 
so never presents a false world where bad stuff doesn't happen, all 
in black and white (and from spoilers of OOP the grey keeps growing).

I think the Potterverse is a rich and full one, but not complete.  
This was elegantly shown in her companion books.  One left out 
creatures present in the story's and the other (as a devout sports 
fan) was frankly unsatisfactory.  Continuity errors will slip in, but 
all the books are\will be  written with the whole arc in mind.

The plot hasn't fossilised yet so change will occur making things 
written earlier and intended for significance asides, and new ideas 
either spring from the ether - or be drawn from incedental details. 

I wait with baited breath for the next installments,

[James sets off in search of a rock to crawl under until the 
backblast subsides, and hopes all forgive his awful spelling as he 
forgives their americanisms]

James