A few more random thoughts & questions

[D.G.]

No: HPFGUIDX 69103


1.  Okay everyone: examine the tea leaves, throw the Tarot, gaze into 
the midnight heavens, seduce a Centaur, do whatever it takes -- but 
look into the future and tell us:  How did Harry do on his O.W.L.S.?

2.  This may have been covered in a previous post -- but how long 
does it take for owls to reach their destination, anyway?  When Harry 
performs magick on Privet Drive, an owl shows up almost immediately 
to deliver his inevitable letter of reprimand.  But in other cases, 
it seems as if owls deliver their messages in something 
approximating "real time" (sometimes an answer doesn't come back for 
several days) -- and they even get injured along the way.  Any ideas?

3.   I know we've talked about this, in terms of Snape (and, to an 
extent, Draco), at great length -- but is anyone else getting a tad 
frustrated with these "straw-person" enemies JKR keeps feeding us?  
It's gotten so every time Crabbe & Co. show up, I have to summon my 
entire willpower to not simply turn the pages until their names 
disappear;  ditto for Draco [and, at least in classroom situations, 
ol' Snape himself] -- aside from (at least arguably) Quirril [sp?], 
we haven't yet been surprised at the ineptitute or evil intent of any 
of our Dark Arts professors [Lupin was a good guy, he was always 
going to be a good guy -- he simply had a tragic personal 
characteristic that made him unable to keep the gig -- but did anyone 
doubt for a moment that Lockhart was a phony, or that Umbridge was an 
incompetent moron if not worse?].... and the list goes on.  As much 
as I don't want to say it, I'm almost beginning to doubt JKR's much-
vaunted "genius" for characterization, despite the admirable growth 
and complexity we've seen in Ginny, Harry, Hermione [to a certain 
extent] and, at least arguably, Ron.  Everyone else [with the 
possible exception of Hagrid] seems pretty much locked into a one-
dimensional role.  We know which side they're going to take in any 
given confrontation, we know whether or not they'll prove adequate or 
competent to any given task at hand, we know that in the inevitable 
final battle against the Dark Lord the same cast of characters (give 
or take one or two) will appear (perhaps literally), wage gallant and 
resourceful battle, risk death, maybe get seriously hurt... but 
necessarily prevail.  

I honestly think that the most genuinely creative plot-twist was way 
back in "The Prisoner Of Azkaban," when we learned (along with the 
characters) of Wormtail's deception and Sirius' false accusation and 
imprisonment.  Since then, I fear that there have been precious few 
surpises that can hold a candle to that moment.   

4.  I saw the term "Body Image" in a post a while back, and it got me 
to thinking... when are we going to have a fat character who isn't 
either evil or a buffoon?

D.G. ("JazzmanChgo")

p.s. I'm getting some of these messages returned, undelivered, to my 
personal e-mail box by "daemon" "451 connection to mail service 
rejected" -- what gives?