[OOP] - OOP = Empire Strikes Back

[Dennis Grant]

No: HPFGUIDX 62081


During my reading of OOP on Saturday, and doubly so after reading a bunch of
the posts here, I was struck by the simularity between OOP and another famous
story.

But let me set some background first:

There is a tradition in Western literature (and I include movies in the same
category - a movie is just another way to tell a story) of the "episodic heroic
character". Think "Indiana Jones" or (even better) "James Bond".

The character is featured in a series of stories, where in each one, the Hero
Is Placed In Mortal Peril And Must Overcome It To Save The Day.

But one of the characteristics of the "episodic hero" is that there's really
very little carryover from one episode to the next. There may be references
to other episodes, and characters may be introduced (or removed!) from the canon,
but each episode is more-or-less self-contained. Hero discovers problem, hero
struggles against problem, hero ultimately triumphs. Next!

As a reader/viewer, it really doesn't matter all that much which episode you
read/watch first. If you get the episodes out of order, you may miss out on
some backstory and some inside jokes, but you're not really punished for it.
Who here saw all the Bond movies in chronological order?

The first "Star Wars" movie was cast in this mold too. Hero discovers past,
gets mission, rescues princess, blows up Death Star, gets medal. Done.

So too - although with decreasing degree - with the first 4 HP books. I actually
started with GoF, then went back through the rest of the series in order. And
while I picked up on a few things here and there from GoF that had been introduced
earlier on, there were no real startling suprises. It is entirely possible to
read the first 4 HP books stand-alone.

Back to Star Wars: First movie is a stand-alone episodic adventure. But the
second movie, "The Empire Strikes Back", was very different. Instead of Heroes
Going On Another Quest, this time the heroes spend the entire story getting
their butts kicked. There's no quest; the challenge is just to stay alive/effective.
And all the while, we keep getting hit with Dramatic Revelations.

"Empire" changed Star Wars from "episodic" to "epic". Instead of each chapter
in the story being mostly stand-alone, now each chapter is a distinct part of
the greater arc. It's a SINGLE story in many chapters, not many stories with
the same characters.

(No, I'm not a George Lucas fanboy. I think the Star Wars story had enormous
potential and George screwed it up. Star Wars doesm however, make for a handy
example as I think more of us have seen it than have read "Beowulf" :)

"Empire" was a filmmaking revolution of sorts. It was this enormous-budget,
super-high-profile blockbuster event, and yet it was 100% devoted to moving
the arc along; setting up the third act. And the good guys don't triumph in
the end - in fact, they're a darn sight worse off by the time the credits roll.


So too, is OOP.

Unlike the other HP books, there's no specific goal or mission to be accomplished.
This book is more about just getting through the year than it is about saving
the Philosopher's Stone, or winning the TriWizard Cup, or what have you.

But more importantly, pretty much every single major character on the Good side
makes at least one major blunder. Dumbledore keeps Harry at arms' length without
considering the psychic cost to Harry. Sirius mistreats a house elf wihout regards
to the consequences. Snape stops teaching Harry the Occul-whatzis lessons. Harry
never really stops tap-dancing on his own anatomy. Even Ms Perfect Hermonie
makes a blunder with the Centaurs. And in the end, there's consequences to all
these mistakes.

Meanwhile, over on the Evil side, they seem to have their act together. They
manage to come up with a workable plan to obtain the Prophesy Sphere, and it
comes within a whisker of success. In action, the Evil side is much better organized
and co-ordinated than the Good, and although their plans ultimately fail, they
manage to give as good as they got.

(Yes, the text of the actual prophesy wouldn't have helped them all that much
had they succeeded - but THEY DIDN'T KNOW THAT - and given the lack of knowledge,
attempting to gain it was a pretty smart thing to do)

See the parallels?

Now we've known for a while that the HP books are greater than the sum of their
parts, and that they are intended to tell a single arc - but OOP is the book
that really sets this in motion. OOP is the first book totally dedicated to
moving the grand arc along, while sacrificing its own interior arc. It's the
book that moves us from "episodic with some additional continuity" to "epic".


And based on this, I'm starting to think that there will be some pretty heavy
consequences for Harry.

When you're doing episodic stories, you can't really hurt the core characters
too badly, because you need them around for the next episode. You can develop
characters, move them in different directions, play with them a bit, but ultimately
you need them hale and whole again by the time the next episode rolls around.


But when you're doing epics... you can do real damage, because when the arc
closes, it's CLOSED. An epic doesn't need the hero to survive (relatively) unscathed
- or even to survive. He only has to triumph.

I beginning to think that Harry isn't going to get to lead a normal life, EVER.
I think we're being set up for a Harry sacrifice of some kind. He's not going
to get the girl, he's not going to live happily ever after. Instead, his fate
will be to face down and destroy Voldy - at which point his arc will end.

My crystal ball gets rather cloudy at this point. Rowling is very good at both
working within her genres, but also giving them her own twists. I rather doubt
that Voldy will turn out to be Harry's father, Hermonie his sister, and that
Sirius will pop out of that veil "unfrozen" at some point. (Although it IS clear
to me that Rowling is now writing as much for the screen as she is for the page...)


I DO forsee a visit to the Land of the Dead at some point (that's a common Heroic
task) and I DO forsee some sort of large-scale sacrifice on Harry's part. But
that's as far as I'll go at this point.

Although when Dumbledore mentioned that Neville was the other child who COULD
have been the subject of the prophesy, I'll admit that Yoda popped out of thin
air like the Great Gazoo, said "There is another..." and then vanished....

Thoughts? 

It'll be VERY interesting to see where Rowling goes with the next book. If I
were writing it, Book 6 would be "Harry trains an Army" and Book 7 would be
"Harry Kicks Some Ass" - but then I'm a guy, and raised in the heroic military
tradition (al la Ender's Game). My guess is that JKR will have a slightly different
take on it. :)

DG