JKR's opinon. was What JKR's up to

[cubfanbudwoman]

No: HPFGUIDX 98696

Antosha wrote:
> > Which leads me to my next point: the work isn't finished. Until 
> > we can see the opus complete, it is presumptuous of us to tell 
> > the author--the only person on earth who knows where we're going--
> > that she's wrong about her work. We can't say what Draco is 
> > like yet--we don't have all the data. We can barely say what
> > Harry's like--he's still growing and changing, as are all of the 
> > other characters, something I think JKR is handling better 
> > than any other author of children's books I can think of.


Abigailnus [which I can't type w/o thinking of Frank Abagnale]:
> Yes, I was actually going to say something about that in my post.  
> Because Harry Potter is essentially a work in progress, the fannish 
> reactions to it differ greatly from your average book fandom.  The 
> fact that there are parts of the story that we haven't read does 
> allow us to be wrong in many more ways than your standard fans.  I 
> guess we could say there are different levels of wrong.  Sometimes 
> we assert facts that are contradicted by canon (Sirius' eyes are 
> blue).  Sometimes we presume things about the future that turn out 
> to be false (the female DADA will be a good guy).  And sometimes we 
> just disagree with JKR.
> 
> It's true that JKR knows things about her characters, including 
> their futures, that we can't know.  Maybe in future books, Malfoy 
> will do something so horrible that he will lose all reader sympathy 
> (right now he's a little too pathetic for me to hate).  However, 
> until that canon exists, we can only react to the canon that we 
> have.  So, shall we stop discussing characters that interest us?  
> Shall we stop taking an interest in those characters?  Shall we 
> stop feeling for them?


SSSusan:
I've enjoyed both your comments very much and agree.  Abigail, re: 
your questions here at the end.  Heck no, we shouldn't stop 
discussing or taking interest or having feeling for the characters; 
that's what all the fun here is about, imo.  

What I can get a little frustrated with is when people appear to be 
judging JKR *already* for what they think she's "done" to the 
characters or the story, how she's ruined X or Y, without waiting for 
what's to come.  Of course, it's anybody's right to decide the books 
aren't for them and to ditch the series at any time.  But I'm taking 
any concerns I have & weaknesses I see with a grain of salt *for 
now.*  

As Abigail said, maybe JKR will write a storyline in which Draco does 
something so horrible that it would be difficult for anyone to have 
sympathy for him or to find him appealing.  Any final judgments of 
Draco or JKR for how she's drawn him would be premature, correct?

It's kind of like the many here who have recently stated that Voldy, 
well, isn't really that scary!  Some found him kind of weak at the 
end of OoP and feel that he just hasn't elicited a great deal of 
fear.  As another recently posted, if *this* is the "condition" Voldy 
is in when Harry defeats him, then I think many WILL be disappointed 
in JKR for not fleshing out her villain more fully and giving us 
reasons why we should be scared.  So I can see approaching this with 
a little concern but not passing a summary judgment on JKR now for 
why she's doing "a crappy job".  She might just have a reason for 
what she's doing & how she's doing it.

Siriusly Snapey Susan, who's got a nasty headache and so wonders if 
she really shouldn't have written this....  Be gentle, please!?