Which way?

[mooseming]

No: HPFGUIDX 101854

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, Barry Arrowsmith
<arrowsmithbt at b...> wrote:
><major snipage>
> There's a metaphorical  split in the road somewhere ahead; one way goes 
> the traditional route towards the theories that are most popular, the 
> other path could go somewhere else entirely. The scene seems set for 
> both possibilities; which way will  Jo  take us?
> 
> Kneasy

I'm not so sure there is a split ahead. JKR has created a series of
books that can be categorised under a multitude of genres:
 
Children's book (although I suspect that more adults have read it than
children)
Odyssey
Mystery (see posts on Red Herrings)
Fantasy (real magicalism anyone?)
Trilogy (Like LOTR but as in Douglas Adams book four in the trilogy)
Morality tale (not unlike the Chronicles of Narnia also a 7 volume work) 
Social critique (see Dan's post no 101776)
Action/Adventure
Romance (if the shippers have their way)
 
Rather than perceiving this approach as creating a new sub genre it is
best viewed as a meta genre. 
 
There isn't to my knowledge a history for this type of polyglot style,
it is full on post modernism. There are writers working now with a
similar approach (Jasper Fford springs to mind) but not a tradition as
such.
 
Rather than follow a well established path JKR is weaving many paths
into a tapestry, a big picture. The conclusion then becomes not an end
point reached by a linear rationale but a complex, messy, living whole.
 
As such it is reasonable to suppose JKR can tie up all the loose ends,
specific threads can be followed from beginning to end, but also leave
questions unanswered, a greater perspective always raises more and
different questions.
 
At the end of the series we will be able to stand back and see the
wood from the trees but I doubt very much we will all see the same
wood! I shall return to these lists to read others observations and
learn from them just as I do now. We still won't have the answer we
will have greater understanding and that is not the same thing at all!
 
Regards
Jo
 
(Thanking Kneasy for the intelligence, imagination and sheer hard work
he puts into his posts!)