Comic passages in OotP (was:Theoretical boundaries / Durs...

[nkafkafi]

No: HPFGUIDX 120593


> Hickengruendler:
> 
> I thought OotP was the funniest of all books. At least it was the one 
> where I laughed the most.
> 
> Here a few examples: <snip many good examples>

Neri:
Good to see I'm not the only one thinking so. I won't go as far as
labeling OotP the funniest, but there's no denying that JKR has kept
OotP comical to amazing length. Even the battle with the DEs in the
DoM has many comical moments in it. Even Nevill's torture and his
bravery are slightly funny because of his broken nose speech. The only
place where the humor stops is in the two chapters following Sirius'
death (and even then not completely – see the past headmaster
portraits horrified at Harry's conduct and Nigellus advising DD not to
try understanding the students) and then, as Hickengruendler noticed,
the humor appears again in the last chapter.

I agree of course that there is a big change in tone from SS/PS to
OotP, but I don't think it is in the humor. It is more in the length
and level of detail. The first books are short and stringy on details,
which gives a tone of (as Lupinlore termed it) a modern fairytale,
while the last two are so long and detailed that they are practically
epic. This is similar to (as Carol noted) the transition from The
Hobbit to the ending of LOTR. 

I'm writing as someone who, at first, also found GoF and OotP too long
and too melodramatic. I originally thought that JKR is best at telling
modern fairytales and should have stuck with that tone. But now I
realize that it wasn't likely. To take Lupinlore's excellent example
of the abuse of Hansel and Gretel, suppose you were writing a 7 books
saga about Hansel. Getting away from the evil witch (erm... hag) would
be the first book when Hansel is 11, and then you'd write six more
books, each telling a year of Hansel's life until he is 17. Would you
have kept the strict fairytale tone in all seven books? I guess you
could, and in the seventh book Hansel could save the kingdom from the
honcho dragon and marry the king's daughter, but this would already
get repeating and boring in the forth book, and also not reflecting
the hero's development. JKR didn't have much choice but to change the
tone. I agree that at times she could have done it better than she
actually did.

Neri