Are we having fun?

[msbeadsley]

No: HPFGUIDX 80643

> I also think of one of my other great favourites - LOTR. The 
> darkest moment is perhaps in Volume 3 when Sam discovers that Frodo 
> is alive and in the hands of the Orcs of Cirith Ungol. At that 
> moment, Sam hits bottom. "His fear of the orcs, forgotten for a 
> while in his wrath an depression, now returned. As far as he could 
> see, there was only one course for him to take: he must go on <snip>

Another parallel with J.R.R. Tolkien has occurred to me that has made 
me a bit more hopeful (that and the part of the interview--thanks to 
those who pointed out where I saw the "writer's block" comment--where 
JKR says that after OoP *at least* one thing lightens Harry's load:  
he's believed by the WW).

Tolkien started out with The Hobbit, which was a light-hearted romp 
with some darker moments.  I have read that he knew when he wrote 
LOTR much later that some fans of The Hobbit were likely going to 
recoil at the serious grittiness of the later, greater saga.  I am 
hoping you're right and that a large part of what makes OoP seem so 
unrelievedly bleak *now* is that the story cannot be seen in 
perspective within the larger whole.

Sandy, aka "msbeadsley" who, if the series continues darkening 
through its end, is going to spend an awful lot of time writing 
scathing analyses of how the series tanked after Book 4