OOP: Cindy's gratuitous foreshadowing list (was Re: OOP: Give OoP a chance! )

[Tim Regan]

No: HPFGUIDX 66028

Hi All,

--- In a detailed and interesting negative review of OoP on 
HPforGrownups Cindy wrote:
> <snip JKR interview where she says she had to put some things in 
> because of what is coming in 6 and 7>
> 
> The issue, though, is whether the author manages to do this in a 
> convincing way that blends in with the book or whether it sticks 
out 
> like a sore thumb.  In the first four books, JKR did these things 
> beautifully -- the mention of them was either very subtle or was 
> integral to the plot in that book.  Sirius Black in PS/SS blended 
> in.  Polyjuice blended in.  Nifflers blended in.
> 
> OoP was different, though.  Things just seemed to be stuck in 
there 
> without any relation to the plot of OoP.  Examples abound, so I 
won't 
> list them here.  But OoP would have been better, IMHO, had JKR 
worked 
> harder to make these bits flow with the story.

Though it is probably ever-so-evil to ask Cindy to re-read a book 
she didn't enjoy, I feel I have to. Not to change her mind, but to 
get the list of "things [
] stuck in there without any relation to 
the plot".  It may be that for this novel Cindy was more attuned to 
gratuitous foreshadowing than many of us, and so the bits that 
jarred with her are the exact bits that are in there purely to 
service the plots of books 6 and 7. 

I'm assuming that JKR put in the red-herrings with the same flare 
she always does (since she didn't have to include them, so their 
writing may not be as labored).

How useful would a list of the foreshadowing elements be? Very. Go 
to it Cindy.

Cheers,

Dumbledad.

PS One of my friends back in the UK just turned up on MSN Messenger 
with the new moniker "Weasley is Our King". It did make me smile – 
HP is everwhere!