Media-Created Suspense and the OothP Death

[Burnham, Louisa]

No: HPFGUIDX 64067

Greg wrote:

But 
OotP's main inertia came not from the story, but from the external 
media hype about the death.

(did you really mean "inertia?)

I have to say I disagree, but probably that's because I'm pretty isolated
from the media:  don't watch television, and hadn't read much of the hype
anywhere else.  Yes, I knew that someone was supposed to die, but that
wasn't at all what I was concentrating on as I was reading -- I was immersed
in the story.  At the end, I admit that I was absolutely on the edge of my
seat, knowing as I did that someone WOULD die, but that was only in the last
50 pages of so.  Up until then, I was pretty engrossed in the characters,
and the world.  

I don't know if this is my "favorite" of the books, but I enjoyed it
tremendously, and found it gave some necessary and welcome depth.  The fact
that there are at least 20 posts an hour right now about Kreacher and
Sirius, or about James and his bullying, is great!  There is more subtlety
now in the world -- though JKR hasn't lost that comic, slapstick touch that
makes characters like Umbridge so successful (I loved when she practically
started salivating at the idea of using the Cruciatus curse!).  I like Harry
more for being an Angry Young Man -- but perhaps that's because I used to
teach kids that age, and he's starting to seem even more vivid for me.

My only slight disappointment in this book came from Hagrid and the giants,
and I'm trusting that JKR will make good on this in the future.  I love
Hagrid, really I do, but his story wasn't all that engrossing, really -- and
all we got out of it was Grawp! I hope she does more with this, to make it
all worthwhile.

So I'm a happy OoP fan, who's read it twice already, and will be moving in
for #3 shortly.

Louisa