[HPforGrownups]Re: Not Writers Block After All---Was Re: Are we having fun?

[Sara Butler]

No: HPFGUIDX 80652

Wanda wrote:

> Having fun?  Are WE having fun anymore?  Speaking for myself, I have to 
say no.  For me, the fun died on June 21, when OotP was released.  And so 
much of the discussion of that book, and speculation of what it will lead 
to, make me think that very few readers are having fun anymore. >>>


Yoda (Me):

I loved OotP, I think that the dark tone was very appropriate.  When I 
was trying to contemplate what might happen after reading GOF, I remember thinking that the next book would have to be darker and Harry would 
probably be changed significantly by the the events in GOF, and I hoped 
that JKR would be up to the task of writing it that way.  I'm in the same 
mind as people who feel that the first two books are in no way on the same level with the later books.  To be fair they are better than a lot of other books, but it's kind of like re-reading Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles, Interview with the Vampire is the book you have to get through to get to 
the good stuff.  


msbeadsley wrote:

> The first four books had a lovely "flow" to them; reading them was effortless.  Even when bad things happened to Harry, the narrative voice 
had a certain resilence to it that reassured us; in OoP that seemed to me 
to be sadly lacking.  (Snip) >>>

IMO, a better written book would have communicated every bit of what Harry 
was going through and left it Harry's without making it mine (which I'd 
have resisted going in except that the first four books built up such a 
great level of trust in me that I failed to mount defenses).

I hope that I am responding to what you really meant to say, when I say 
that I think that the level of empathy inspired by OotP shows what a good writer JKR is.  I think that the best books are the ones that suck you 
in and cause you to live the events along with the characters.  Harry went 
through a very tramatic experience and then came back to find that the 
general public did not believe him.  He has had his sense of security 
taken from him after being spirited away from Hogwarts and betrayed by 
someone he trusted (fake Moody).  So it makes sense that if we are to appreciate what he is going through our sense of security will be removed 
too.  I was so impressed with OotP because of the character development involved, and finding out what a cool person Ginny really is, and the fact 
that it reads like a well written novel, I like it because you can't speed through it.  

Yoda, Who, as a former English Major, really enjoys the discussion and 
portions of the speculation.