Why now?

[Barry Arrowsmith]

No: HPFGUIDX 110652

JKR seems to be giving us a lot of information and hints lately.

I wonder why?

Why now, when the sixth book is approaching completion?
Haven't all the clues been placed, the red herrings waved in front of 
our noses  and nothing but a down-hill sprint to  the finish on 
everyone's minds? Why would she be concerned with web-sites, fan 
speculations and what-not at this stage?

Let's face it, she's pretty busy right now - two small kids, a book to 
whip into shape for the publishers, a recently announced pregnancy - 
and  yet she's engaging with the fanbase  probably  as closely, if not 
more closely than when the media first took notice of what was 
happening among young readers. And the intriguing aspect is the *way* 
she's engaging with the fans.

Seems, well, a touch odd to me. It makes my suspicious, devious little 
mind look for reasons.

Even  though I've been pre-occupied with things other than HP over the 
past few weeks, I still send emails and receive them and there has been 
a level of speculation about her motives. Quite a few have expressed a  
sort of concern, either openly stated or as a sort of subliminal 
sub-text. For the first time *ever*  JKR seems to be trying to *guide* 
our speculations. Has she ever stated before this week "...these are 
the questions you *should* be asking...?"

Not to my knowledge.
It's always been "Good question.." (usually followed by an ambiguous 
non-answer) or "I can't answer that.." or "You'll find out in a later 
book.."
It's all been accepted as part of the game; she writes, we guess - 
usually wrongly, then we all have a good laugh and get back to the 
speculating.

The thing is, we're in (almost) virgin territory here, in that only  a 
couple of times in history has there been so much fervid speculation 
about the climax and resolution to an unfinished work. Dickens managed 
it; so to a lesser extent did Conan-Doyle. There's a difference of 
course - modern communications. We can blast our thoughts out to 
millions of others at our merest whim; just sit at the keyboard, type, 
press "send" and  it's done. And we do it. Well over a 100,000 times on 
this site alone. Add in all the others and ...... well, it's time to 
boggle.

But these days boggling is what we don't do much of,  we take it all 
for granted; except (maybe) if you're on the receiving end -  except 
(perhaps) when you're JKR.

Rewind. Take it back 10 years. A teacher-in-training has an idea for a 
book, a series of books. The plot is pretty much complete right from 
the start. Fill in the background, add a few sub-plots etc. Yeah, I 
know it's not that simple; it's bloody hard work in fact, but  I'm 
concentrating on the situation  rather than the slog. OK, it's 
published. Great! Might add a nice supplement to a teachers salary - 
then it explodes, becomes a world-wide phenomenon. Totally unexpected, 
but who's going to fight it? Nobody, at least nobody who has an ounce 
of imagination.

Then there are the flies in the ointment. Us.
We just  can't  keep our grubby little hands off it - spouting 
theories, prejudices, plot arcs and character assessments from every 
orifice fans descend on the books like  a shoal of ravening analytical 
piranha. That's OK;  adds to the general merriment and brou-haha. 
Except.....

The fans seem to be developing definite expectations -  about this 
character or that; about the solution to this puzzle or that; for this 
resolution or that. So much  so that some are getting pretty involved 
or even dogmatic about it. Some no longer say "I think this might 
happen.." they say "This will not happen" or "I experienced this, I  
know about this, so I'm an expert."

Excuse me? Tut tut. Not on the Potterverse and it's inhabitants you 
ain't. Real life I won't argue about - well; not often, but 
extrapolating from real life to a fictional world defined solely by the 
author is a bit of a stretch and unlikely to be valid.  And  this is 
why I  believe JKR is getting  involved. A few million busy little bees 
have been pollinating the wrong flowers;  they've come up  with ideas 
that have now become common currency in fandom and unless JKR starts 
putting the brake on, starts nudging the proto-stampede in the right 
direction there's going to be tears before bedtime.

So maybe it's time to hand out a few more  clues, give the poor  dears 
a hint or two, put 'em  on track, maybe damp  down some of those  
expectations, perhaps quietly eliminate a few theoretical off-shoots  
that exist nowhere except  in the imagination of the fans. Because if 
she doesn't they  may  let their fevered little minds run riot and the 
*real* ending may be the sort of surprise no-one wants, a 
disappointment or  an anti-climax.

Remember -  these books were not conceived with a fan-base in the 
hundreds of millions in mind and it's totally impossible for  all of us 
to get the ending we want. Me - I'm already getting prepared.  I  can 
think of three endings that would satisfy me - and all of them have low 
probabilities of coming to pass. So it's likely that I'll re-read 
volumes 1-6 fairly frequently and  pass the final one on to a Charity  
shop. I  expect to  read it just once.
Unless she surprises me, of course.
But I'm not very  optimistic about  that.

Kneasy