A perspective on OOP

[Geoff Bannister]

No: HPFGUIDX 80745

>  Yoda :
>  
> < I loved OOP. 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 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. >
> 
> 

Geoff:
The point about the series is that they ramp up as they go because 
Harry is getting older and seeing things from a changing point of 
view and as the threat against him and the Wizarding world becomes 
more aggresive, so the story line becomes darker. The early books see 
Harry as a naive 11 year old, sheltered from the outside world 
because of the oppresive regime directed at him by the Dursleys. 
Hogwarts opens a new view of the world - friends, experiences all of 
which add to his development. The books become longer and darker as 
they progress because of this. COS is darker than PS - which despite 
Voldemort's attempts to kill Harry via the agency of Quirrell is 
still quite a "light" book showing young secondary pupils 
interacting. POA again darkens the horizons and, obviously, Harry's 
view is affected; he sees the world in darker tomes than when he was 
11. I think JKR has produced a tour de force in the way in which the 
shifts have occurred. I realise when, having read OOTP 5 times, I 
then look back to the early books that I "see" Harry as a very 
different person; it is analogous to children growing up. I look at 
pictures of my elder son, for example, at the age of 11 and now see 
him at 30 and he isn't the same - I wouldn't expect him to be the 
same unless something was drastically wrong. It's only when someone 
used to come along when they were younger who hadn't seen them for, 
say, several months and they would say "Goodness, hasn't he changed" 
that you realise this has happened; this I think is the case with 
Harry. He has changed gradually and subtly under our noses and it is 
only when we really sit back and have a good look at the early 
stories that we really see it.