HP: Mystery or Adventure?

[nkafkafi]

No: HPFGUIDX 117922


> Lupinlore wrote:
> 
> 
> The words "mystery" and "adventure" are often used to characterize 
> the HP saga.  However, these two kinds of stories have quite 
> different characteristics.  I wonder if much of the argument over 
HP 
> in fan circles has to do with whether one approaches it more as a 
> mystery or more as an adventure?
> <snip discussion>

Neri:

I'm not sure JKR herself is completely decided about the proper 
balance between mystery and adventure. For example, as an adventure 
story the Shrieking Shack scene leaves a lot to be desired. Right 
there in the middle of the climax, Lupin takes a chapter or more to 
explain the MWPP backstory. It really hampers the development of the 
climax, IMO, but it is necessary for the mystery part, and the 
adventure climax is rectified by the following TT plot. But in other 
cases it seems that JKR sacrifices the consistency and detail of the 
mystery for the needs of the adventure plot effect, and then we get 
explanations that aren't completly satisfying, such as the 
explanation of the Mirror of Erised trick.

I would add that a typical mystery story ends when the Sherlock 
Holmes type gathers the other characters, gives them the full 
explanation and reveals "who dunnit". In such a story the Holmes type 
and his faithful sidekick the Dr. Watson type are the main and 
important heroes, while all the rest are expendable (they usually 
change from one book to the other anyway). Therefore any of these 
side characters, which are usually pretty two-dimensional, might turn 
out to be ESE, including even characters that have a romantic or 
otherwise deep emotional relationship with the heroes. Thus the 
mystery readers of the HP saga expect DD to be the Holmes type, Harry 
to be the Watson type, and each book (especially the last) should end 
with DD solving the mystery in front of Harry (as I mentioned here 
before, this might be technically difficult in the Book 7 because DD 
might not be alive by then, exactly when we need him the most). This 
typical ending of the mystery story usually doesn't pack enough BANG 
for an adventure story, which requires a climax with lots of action 
and strong emotions. In such an active and emotional climax you don't 
have enough time for cerebral explanations of intricate mysteries. In 
addition, in the adventure story proper characters must have some 
integrity as well as complexity, so a complex character that 
displayed many good qualities can't turn out to be ESE just like 
that. He/she needs very deep and satisfying reasons for such a 
change, or it would feel artificial.   

Needles to say, the combination of DD & Harry doesn't work well as a 
classic Holmes & Watson combination. I would add that JKR is trying 
to do here something that was almost never done before in mystery 
stories (but I'm not an avid mystery reader so feel free to point me 
to the counterexamples): Creating a mystery that spreads over many 
books, with several years between them. Thus for the first time the 
fans actually have years to develop intricate theories, and every 
inconsistency in the mystery is likely to be overanalyzed. For 
example, if Lupin didn't take his potion at the night of the 
Shrieking Shack, or didn't notice Harry's invisibility cloak outside 
the willow (while Snape did), in the usual mystery book these 
wouldn't be much of a problem because we would be sure that by the 
end of PoA the mystery was solved once and for all. But in the HP 
saga we have more books to come. So should we think about these 
suspicious incidents as mysteries to be solved in later books, or are 
they merely means for the author to move the plot in the direction 
she wanted it?

Neri