Harry Potter: a great representation of our time?

[Steve]

No: HPFGUIDX 77329

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "mmouse322" <mollsballs322 at a...>
wrote:

> 
>  ..., but I do agree that if book six is anywhere close to OotP's 
> tone, it would kill a lot of the excitement people have for HP. I 
> knowit's not "realistic" for a boy like Harry to not show some anger
> and bitterness, but flying over London on an invisable horse isn't 
> very realistic either, is it? I just hope that book six shows Harry 
> back to normal and not so brooding; ...edited...
> 
> mmouse322

bboy_mn:

I'm going to weigh in on several points on this issue of Harry Potter
as 'great' literature.

1.) You statement above RE: book 5 and Harry's anger. I am baffled by
people not understand Harry's anger. He went through a massively
tramatics experience, then he was shipped off home with no support
system of any kind; of ANY KIND. He left with limited contact, no
information on an event to which he is intimately and integrally tied. 

Left with his boiling emotions, doubt, uncertainy, regret, guilt,
anger, fear, resentment, and most important of all, no way to purge
these feeling, or means to put them in perspective. No resources what
so ever to help him deal with them. 

He is in fact, left alone and unsupported to stew in overwhelming
unresolved mostly negative emotions, and people wonder why those
emotions are amplified????? Duh, what else could happen? 

Is there anyone one of us whose emotions would not be compounded under
these circumstances? 

Is there any one of us who would not feel an ever increasing boil of
anger and resentment at being emotionally and physically abondoned in
our most desperate and needy time? 

If you think you could get through this massive trama, sense of
abandonment, fear, and uncertainy, and come out of it calm, cool, and
collected, then you are certainly more emotionally stable than
99.999999% of the rest of the humans on this earth.

Personally, I think if Harry had reacted to any milder degree than he
did, I would have been far more worried about his sanity. His reaction
was, in my opinion, the only normal and reasonable reaction under the
circumstances.

2.) Literature- Explain to my why some authors who are technically
proficient, follow all the rules of style and construct, and create
technically perfect books, end up gather dust on the shelves, just
barely published and mostly unread? 

Why are there books with high techical acclaim, but little or know
popular acclaim?

Because it is not the technicalities that create a great book. For a
moment let's move to the realm of story telling in the oral tradition.
I was watching a PBS documentary on stories in the oral tradition. Did
you know that there are festivals where people gather together in the
spirit of fun and competition to hear people tell stories? 

In any event, I recall one specific story teller. He was from the
hills of Appalachia (mountain range, east coast, USA). He was
uneducated, his gramar was atrocious, his speech was fragemented and
rambling, in other words, his techinical proficiency at public
speaking stunk to high heaven, but he was a captivating story teller;
a master. Once he started to speak, you were mesmerized. He was like a
living train wreck, you just could not turn your eyes away. 

I started to read 'The Hobbit' because everyone told me it was the
most wonderful book and an essential lead in to the even better 'Lord
of the Rings' series. So, I borrowed a copy and started to read it.
DAMN IT WAS BORING. As technically perfect as it may have been,
NOTHING EVER HAPPENED. I read page after page, and I couldn't find any
story anywhere. It just rambled on and on with incomprehensible names
and places, and in my opinion, pointless rambling that by no means
ever added up to any kind of story. I thought if I kept reading I
would surely die of bordom, so I gave the book back and said, 'thanks,
but no thanks'. 

JKR does a lot of things that by most standards of writing, are wrong.
You DON'T WRITE IN ALL CAPS, (and you don't use paranthesis). You
don't write short 3, 4, and 5 word sentences; everybody know you are
suppose to elaborate on every scene in order to create a mental image
for the reader. Most high school English composition teachers would be
very critical of the technical structure of JKR's work.

Ask youself how much you know about Ron? To what degree has he been
described in detail? He's tall, lanky, has a pointed nose, and an
inference of big feet, and that is about it. But, on the other hand,
how many of you have your own very precise mental image of Ron? Most
of you do, I would speculate. 

I know exactly what Ron looks like. I know how he combs and parts his
hair. I know subtle barely distinguishable inflections in his speech.
I know how he walks. I know every detail of is face. I know his
attitute, his demeanor, his posture, I even know what goes on inside
his head. I know his secret dreams and fears. I predicted in my own
writing a couple years ago, just how Ron would react to Ginny dating.
So where did I get that?

What do I know about any Hobbit? Other than they were bland, dull,
boring and short, not much.

What does that all add up to? It adds up to a story. Not a techincally
correct complilation of words, because many of them never ever ever
make it into print. Those who can tell a good tale, those who can spin
a captivating yarn, a tale the readers can identify with, a tale that
has both superficial, and much deeper more poignant underlying
meaning; these are the things that make great literature. 

Technical perfection is nothing without a captivating story, and
without a doubt, and irrespective of technicalities, JKR tells a
masterful story, thoughly captivating and enchanting. 

It is never technical perfection that makes a piece of literature
stand the test of time, it is the presents of a captivating,
entrancing, and emotionally moving story. 

THE STORY IS KING.

3.) Where will Harry, or at least, his emotions go next?
Harry's already overburdened life has had heaped upon it the heaviest
burden of all, and life in the last year has taught him a lesson that
he probably has not learned with the clearest of minds. 

Give that he has no support network to help him put that lesson into
perspective, I can see no other reaction from Harry than the worst
possible reaction. I think the subconscious lesson he learn or thinks
he has learned, is that to know him and to love him is to die. Better
to not be known or loved, than to have those you know and love die
because of you. 

JKR has already set Harry's self-imposed sense of and act of isolation
into motion. I think we will see this as a major theme in the next
book; Harry displaying a self-imposed, thoroughly misguided, and
ultimately dangerous self-isolation.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

bboy_mn