Kids and grownups (Was: Just where is JKR getting her info from?)

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 115872


--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Nora Renka" 
<nrenka at y...> wrote:

> JKR is really more interested in the kids than the adults.
<snip>History isn't repeating itself,  but we're going to get 
something new, because it's Harry's story, and  everyone else 
just plays a role in it.
> 
> For me-as-reader, the world expanded greatly with the real  
introduction of the adult generation in book 3, and I still have a 
 lot of things I want to know about them, but I'm no longer 
convinced  that their backstory is the secret knowledge just out of 
reach.  My  impression from reading some of the interviews is 
that she's often  almost nudging us to ask more about the kids, 
when we get hung up on  the adults. <

I think this is true, especially for us hardcore readers. We're so 
fascinated by the adults that we want them to be the heroes. But 
the Trio are the heroes, and to some extent that means that the 
adults are all failures, or at least, less than they might have 
been. The adults, even those on the good side, are  there to be 
surpassed.

I think this really gets the goat of some readers, especially those 
who think it's the job of a children's book to present adult role 
models, especially in the case of McGonagall and Molly, who are 
fine women in their way but not great heroines.

Then readers want Lupin to be the poster boy for overcoming 
prejudice without falling into evil, forgetting that  Hermione and 
many other are in this category too. I think it's instructive that 
when in conversations with  hardcore readers, like members of 
this group, about the ESE!Lupin theory, they worry about the 
anti-prejudice message, or say, "But he's so nice!" More casual 
fans, on the other hand, the sort of people who ask me when the 
next book is due, generally counter "Lupin? Which one's he?"

Pippin