It's not easy...

[Barry Arrowsmith]

No: HPFGUIDX 91430

It's not easy being an HP fan.
Remember the febrile excitement of last mid-summer?
The site was in near meltdown from anticipation; the rumours were 
rampant, hints had been dropped and the adrenalin seeping out under the 
door and was causing problems with the neighbour's cat. The assault on 
the local bookstore was planned with meticulous care, taking into 
consideration such factors as timing (how early?); likely obstacles 
that must be swept aside (small children or Johnny-come-lately 
enthusiasts i.e. anyone starting the books after you did); slow and/or 
dim shop assistants and a maxed-out credit card. Eventually emerging 
triumphant and gaining the sanctuary of a locked room well suited as an 
exemplar for sensory deprivation studies, we begin. Hours later (or 
days, depending on the voracity of your reading habits) we emerge 
blinking in the sunlight of a changed world. Sort of. In some  ways. 
Perhaps.

Did you, like me (whisper it down a well at midnight if you must), have 
a nagging feeling of deja vu? Hadn't  the same events played themselves 
out three years previously? Not just the physical actions of an 
aficionado desperate to savour fresh canon hot off the presses, but the 
mind state afterwards when the nuances had been dissected and the 
conundrums considered. Because the same old questions remained.

Frustration. The necessary  acceptance that no  great revelation was or 
will be made between these covers. A few more pieces of the jig-saw 
handed over but with little or no indication of where in the puzzle 
they'll eventually fit. Is this a bit of background or is it a key 
piece? Who knows? Nobody.

Oh, we guess constantly. That's what attracted me to this site in the 
first place. I'd started reading the books back in 2000, years before 
signing up with HPfGU, but eventually got bored with rehashing my own 
theories and fancied finding out the ways in which others too were 
getting it wrong. And get it wrong we do; the devastation in TBAY after 
the howling maelstrom of Hurricane Jo  is proof enough. Even the 
survivors of that trauma are not certain of an eventual safe harbour - 
most  of them were untouched solely  because their proud banners were 
flying in backwaters that Jo did not touch this time round. Few if any 
of the theoretical constructs were actually strengthened or confirmed 
by the last volume; they are in abeyance, to be put to the test the 
next time the wind blows.

And that  is mostly the point. We are learning things at the same rate 
as Harry, so confirmation (of theory) and conclusion (of the series) 
will be heading for the finish line neck and neck so far as most of us 
are concerned.

The early  birds, that happy band that built the site into what it is 
today, cobbled together (I beg your pardon - after much thought and 
analysis carefully crafted)  most of the major theories - MAGIC 
DISHWASHER, LOLLIPOPS, TOADMASTER etc, etc. Dozens of 'em covering just 
  about every aspect of the life and hard times of one H. Potter. And 
after 5 of 7 books we're no  further forward in determining their 
accuracy let alone the ultimate resolution of the saga. JKR is  a smart 
author - she throws us tid-bits; little snippets that get us in an 
uproar but are not exactly crucially important. Things like the 
Prophesy. It doesn't really matter, it's a distraction. The only person 
it identifies is the Dark Lord, the rest of it could have any number of 
explanations but with the information available we are totally unable 
to predict which it is. Note that *no* explanation offered so far gives 
us an unambiguous and clear translation. And my  word, an awful lot of 
us have tried. An author doesn't resort to that level of impenetrable 
obscurity to help her readers, it's for confusion, obfuscation, to 
mislead, to distract.  Naturally that doesn't stop us; we chase after 
it like greyhounds after the mechanical rabbit, and just like the 
greyhounds we ain't gonna get it.

Unless  he turns out to not  to  have been what he appeared Sirius is 
probably yet another distraction. Me, I hope he was a fraud, it would 
provide some meaning for  having him cluttering up the plot if it means 
that tales of vile betrayal surface later.
Oh, I know that many  of his fans claim that he was necessary for 
Harry's 'emotional development', but if that's the case why has the 
psychological prop been kicked away just when it looks as if things are 
going to get *really* tough for Harry? I have problems accepting that 
most of one book and bits of two others  are devoted to the distraction 
of supposed psychological health in what  is a fantasy adventure. Nah, 
HP isn't another of those boring books where cod psychology is used as 
a cover-up for lack of plotting skills. Can't be. Anyway, those who 
have dipped into my past posts are well aware  of my views on Sirius - 
the quote "The more he protested his honour, the faster we counted the 
spoons" might have been invented for him.

But I digress.
What is truly amazing is not how much we know but how little. Great 
gaping gaps all over the place; and each new volume only seems to 
emphasise our lack of knowledge. Of  all the key characters only  two 
seem to be regarded with general approbation - Lily and Hermione (and I 
did my best to  rectify that with 77800 - Lily-Snape. An AGGIE? and 
66428 TBAY - Grand Opening! New Establishment! So far as I'm concerned 
they're probably all guilty of something - another  facet of my kind 
and generous nature.) All the other characters seem to attract doubts, 
niggles, reservations, suspicions. Why? Because we suspect (or know) 
that information is being with-held. The reason there are so many 
theories extant is because we are stumbling around in the dark, we 
don't *know* anything and are reduced to speculation.

How  can anyone write 5 books and give nothing important away? It's 
inhuman. It's sadistic. And guess what? I strongly suspect that I'll  
be experiencing deja vu (again!) after the next book too. I'll still be 
asking the same questions. Does anyone believe that JKR will disclose 
anything important until she absolutely must? Me neither. It'll all be 
in book 7 - another, what? 4  years? Meantime I'll be knocking my pipes 
out attempting to make sense of it all and trying to reach some sort of 
conclusion. And I'll  probably get it wrong anyway.

Like I said -  it's not easy  being an HP fan.

Kneasy