Reading too much into... [WAS: James & Lilly Happy Couple?]

[cubfanbudwoman]

No: HPFGUIDX 82624

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Richard" <darkmatter30 at y...> 
wrote:
> 
> I think you are reading too much into this passage.  
<SNIP>
> This all raises an interesting point, which is one of exegesis.  It 
> is all to easy for one to read things into a text, rather than simply 
> reading out of the text what is there.  I've seen a great deal of the 
> former, round these parts, often leading to theories that are at odds 
> with canon.  JKR doesn't help matters by so consistently dropping 
> little clues that cannot be fully appreciated except in retrospect, 
> but that doesn't change my belief that some of us (perhaps all of us, 
> at times, myself included) need to exercise a bit more circumspection 
> when trying to analyze Potterian canon.
> 
> It seems as if some readers are too tightly wound into the story, and 
> their opinions of how it should develop, rather than treating it as I 
> think it should be, which is as a very good story, to be read so that 
> it unfolds itself, rather than being in any sense required to unfold 
> according our personal expectations.  Given JKR's ability to keep us 
> all surprised, I think it best to let her write the end of this tale 
> as she sees fit, rather than entrenching ourselves in opinions that 
> may prove at odds with the tale itself.
> 
> So, back to the point, if James and Lily are a happy couple ... or 
> not ... let's allow JKR to tell us in the fullness of the tales 
> time ... or not.  If it matters she'll tell us, if not, she likely 
> won't.  But, it is her tale, after all.


Bravo!!!!  How wonderfully said!

Doubtless, you will take a lot of grief from people, saying "Why are 
you here, then, if you don't want to engage in the fun of speculation 
and theorizing?"  But I think you are right.  These are JKR's 
stories, and sometimes people need to lighten up a bit and let her 
story come to *its own* conclusions!  

Sometimes people seem to forget that JKR is a human being--an author, 
yes, and one who takes great care with her work--but a human being 
nonetheless, who probably does not labor over *every* single word and 
how fans might read them...and who probably [gasp!] makes an error or 
two in terms of consistency or logic in her magical world.  I say, so 
what!?  It's a fun story with delightful characters, and while I get 
a kick out of considering possibilities in the future or what various 
things might have meant, I do not think it makes sense to belabor 
**tiny** bits of word usage or **minutiae** in an effort to 
gain "evidence" for theories.  It's a judgment call, of course, over 
how far is too far, but there are times it's pretty clear someone's 
really grasping at straws in the text.

Note to the original James & Lily poster:  I'm not saying YOU went 
ridiculously far in your argument, which is why I snipped out your 
post; I'm simply responding to Richard's general comments.
 
Siriusly Snapey Susan