[HPforGrownups] Re: Plot in OotP

[Sherry Gomes]

No: HPFGUIDX 118137

Just Carol wrote:
SNIP


It's like the carelessness regarding wands in the graveyard scene of GoF:
How
can Harry be holding his wand *and* the portkey in one hand and dragging
Cedric's body with the other? Only in OoP, that carelessness or confusion is
more extensive. In the MoM scene, for example, it's
very hard to tell what's going on. Harry's confusion (not knowing which DE
is which in many cases, or what spell is being cast) is reflected by the
narrator and consequently becomes the reader's confusion. The cleaning
scenes with the doxies were just (IMO) boring, and I can't stand Umbridge or
Grawp.

And yet OoP is full of treasures, glimpses into the past that we
haven't seen in other books (via Occlumency), hints at the future
(Mrs. Weasley's boggart). JKR's usual balance of tension and humor is
there, too--Lockhart in St. Mungo's and the twins with their swamp.

I loved GoF, with its realistic quarrels among the friends and real
tragedy, or rather pathos, with poor Cedric, and the close-up glimpses
of Voldemort as he became, if not "greater and more terrible than
ever," at least more real and more threatening, if it weren't for
Harry's luck in the matter of the brother wands. OoP was disappointing
as a sequel.

I hope that HBP is better; shorter, more tightly and carefully
plotted, more action-filled, more capable of arousing the reader's
sympathies. And I hope it begins to answer our questions about
everyone from Snape to Grindelwald, and especially about Godric's
Hollow. I wonder, though, if we'll ever find out what happened during
those missing twenty-four hours, or whether JKR even knows that
they're missing.

Carol, hoping that other list members can tell from the writing style
or the Yahoo ID which Carol is which

Sherry now:

Excellent post!  I had many of the same reactions on my first reading of
OOTP, but I wasn't on this list at the time, so I didn't have a place to
vent.  I had two friends over for the weekend and we all went to buy the
books at midnight.  I bought the audio and we proceeded to listen starting
as soon as we got back to my place, till we finished, with a few sleep
breaks thrown in from time to time.  But I had a very difficult time getting
through the book.  At one point, something to do with Umbridge, I had to
leave and go to bed in my own room.  I couldn't take the parts with the
lines and the quill cutting into Harry's skin.  it bothered me so much I
almost didn't finish reading the book.  And Grawp was such a disappointing
character.  How could we be subjected to him, during the very game when Ron
was being the Quidditch star?  I was horrified to have missed that game all
for Grawp!  The battle at the ministry was difficult to follow, and I found
myself just wanting to get it over instead of being on the edge of my seat
with anxiety and nervousness, as I was at the end of GoF.

But there were things that held me.  The ways people found to defy Umbridge,
especially the twins and McGonagall.  The DA was terrific and it seemed to
help tone down Harry's simmering anger to be doing something useful.
Molly's boggart which showed how near the breaking point she is and gave her
some real emotion and showed us how the war is affecting her, Arthur's
attack and the aftermath with Harry's fears, Lockhart and the Longbottoms
and Ginny's reminding him that she knows what it's like to be possessed.   I
enjoyed some of the stuff with the order, seeing moody and Lupin again and
even Mrs. Black's annoying shrieking portrait.

I'm hoping that HBP will bring us back to what Carol called a tightly
plotted story and will begin answering some questions.  I hope I will care
about the characters, the action and the outcomes, because my getting
wrapped up and involved in a story is something that was missing in my
reactions to OOTP.

Sherry G