JKR's Characterization

[dzeytoun]

No: HPFGUIDX 114475


--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "scoutmom21113" 
<navarro198 at h...> wrote:
> 
> Having read a number of very strong posts from Snape/Sirius
> –philes/–phobes, I would like to ask one question – has
> anyone else noticed that many of the characters are really 
> caricatures?  
> 

True, which is what many people find wrong with OOTP.  When the 
series had the tone of a fairy tale such caricatures were all well 
and good.  In OOTP, however, JKR seemed to want to be 
more "realistic."  Therein lies the origin of such extreme opinions.  
What one can except from a fairy tale character without blinking one 
cannot accept from a character that is supposed to be "real" in some 
sense.

> 
> The magic of JKR's storytelling is that we have all come to love 
> these characters (good and bad) and think of them as real.  For us 
> to tell her what her characters must do is like telling her how to 
> write her story.  To write the characters any differently would 
> change the dynamics of the story.  

You are correct, but I'm afraid I don't see the point.  Of course it 
would change the dynamics of the story.  Many people think the 
dynamics of the story need to be changed.  That isn't to say that 
they don't like the story as a whole, just that they find problems 
with this, that, or the other thing.  In particular, by taking a 
more "realistic" tone in OOTP, JKR lays herself open to criticism as 
to what fits in a more realistic universe.  

Of course no fiction is totally realistic.  But once you take that 
turn, it's hard to draw your boundaries.  Trying to make a realistic 
turn and then say "I want to only go this far, no farther," is kind 
of like throwing somebody out a window and yelling at him to stop 
half way down.  It may be something you'd like to see but it isn't 
likely to be very effective.

JKR can, of course, do whatever she wants and will do whatever she 
wants.  That's her right and power as a writer.  However, readers can 
and will say whatever they want about what she's written.  That's our 
right and power as readers.  And the "realistic" turn, in practical 
effect, invites an enormous amount of virulent criticism.  People 
take real life very seriously, unlike fairy tales, and tend to have 
very, very strong opinions on important issues such as how teachers 
should behave toward their students, what schools should do to punish 
bullies, what constitutes child abuse, and what is the correct 
response to an abusive teacher.  It's just the way people are.

Dzeytoun