Harry Potter CHILDREN'S BOOK/rape; sexual preference/META

[msbeadsley]

No: HPFGUIDX 79574

I left the subject line mostly as is, and, having said that, I have 
to reiterate what is already widely known:  JKR did *not* write HP & 
The Current Bugaboo for children; she was writing a story she would 
enjoy reading.

IMO (and in my limited experience, and from what I've heard from 
pros), that's what writing *is*--for writers: it's your mind telling 
*itself* a story using that old imagination.  Even the crustiest old 
pros get fan mail pointing out stuff (archetypes; myths) they didn't 
know they put in there; a lot of the process (IMO, the most enjoyable 
part) goes on unconsciously, out of sight.  I doubt that any one 
writer or artist focuses on as many details as I have seen picked at 
here.  (It's highly unlikely one person *could* without grinding to a 
full stop creatively; and stories written by committee don't become 
bestsellers ^-^.)  Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar, isn't it?  (I 
guess the endless guessing is because no one (except maybe JKR; nah, 
probably not her either!) completely knows which ones are and which 
ones aren't.)

JKR said that she had a rough outline from the beginning which 
covered the entire saga; the end is already done and one of the 
hardest parts of writing it is not giving away too much too soon.  
The "hardest" part, she said, implying that it was *not* the most fun 
to do.  That's the writer-as-editor as she goes.  That's intellectual 
mechanics for JKR, not smooth internal narrative flow or inspired 
conception; it's the deliberate structuring of the mystery, the runes 
*we* will examine endlessly from all angles later.  She may have fun 
with us, with it; but it isn't *the story*; it is the parceling up 
and doling out of the story.

A lot of us seem to be focusing on the parcels instead of the story.  
On the medium, not the message.  I'm suggesting a periodic paradigm 
shift, a temporary panning out with the camera to include a wider 
field of vision, perhaps less deconstructing of details.  I think I'm 
afraid it might be a little like my first "transistor" radio (old 
fart here, yep), which I took apart in fascination.  It was an 
enjoyable exercise, but it never played again.  I am not complaining 
(I *love* this group); it's just a suggestion, and one I think might 
actually help some of us nitpick more effectively after the shift in 
perspective.

As for whether or not the books are *appropriate* for children, it 
depends (beating a dying horse here, I know) on the child.  Not only 
do the books become mature along with Harry as they go, but each 
child (and any person for that matter) of any age is going to bring a 
unique set of experiences to the story.

The books are not designed to help children who have post traumatic 
stress; and JKR is not writing Heather Has Two Mommies.  JKR is a 
bard, a professional dreamer, an entertainer, a fantasist, a word 
artist.  She is after the high: the process of telling/creating the 
story (to herself) and satisfaction of a tale well told.  (It isn't 
about the money; when/if the money (or we, the deconstructive 
readership) intrude/s, the story suffers.)  If, in her mind, the 
story tells itself to include a rape, it'll be there (my take is 
not); and like it or not, sexual preference is a tap at knee-jerk 
responses almost everywhere.  If the story told itself with an 
obviously gay character, the story would then, for her and for 
readers, be about being gay, to the degree that the gay character was 
major in the story and the degree that the issue (and it is one) 
impacted the reader.  I'm guessing if it hasn't happened even subtly 
by now (and I don't think it has), it isn't going to happen more 
overtly later.  (And I may get deluged with protests:  "But it 
COULD!"  Yes, it could.  The likelihood is not very great, and I 
would see it as odd, literarily.)

I see HP as being about friendship, loyalty, courage, maturity, 
sacrifice, choice, trust, and love (maternal, fraternal, agape).  And 
here I will sign off, having exhausted myself with my own rather META 
oratory, and hoping I haven't been an utterly pompous git,

"msbeadsley"