What JKR Finds Important

[Geoff Bannister]

No: HPFGUIDX 116164


--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "delwynmarch" 
<delwynmarch at y...> wrote:
> 
> Geoff wrote :
> " At the beginning of OOTP, Harry has just turned 15. Some folk have
> commented that he makes a sudden transition from being fairly placid
> to being angry. "
> 
> snip the rest, because it would be too long to quote it all :-)
> 
> Del replies :
> Geoff, you don't understand what I meant. I wasn't trying to say 
that
> it was unnatural for Harry to evolve the way he did


Geoff:
I'm sorry. I was using your post as a springboard to reply to the two 
or three bits of material sticking off the main thread and some 
didn't really belong to you. 


Del:
> What I'm trying to explain is that, because the change occured
> off-screen, and because I'm nothing like Harry, it didn't MAKE SENSE
> to me. To me, it was as big a leap as suddenly having a Black Harry 
or
> a thin and nice Dudley for example. It wouldn't make sense, you 
would
> go "Duh !?", right ? That's what happened to me : Angry!Harry made 
me
> go "Duh !?" because his transformation is not natural *for me*, it's
> something I need explained. But JKR did *not* explain, she just said
> "well, that's how he is now", and by so doing she lost me.
> 
> If the change had happened on-screen, if I had seen Harry evolve 
into
> Angry!Harry, I would probably have accepted and understood it much
> better. But instead of that, I had to forget *years* of knowing a
> certain Harry, and I was supposed to instantly accept a completely 
new
> and totally bewildering (to me) Harry. I couldn't. Not in a couple 
of
> days. That's why I never got into the book the first time through.


Geoff:
That's interesting because it's obviously an experience you haven't 
been through.

I taught for 32 years in a school in south-west London mainly working 
with teenagers between 13-18 and, for the first eight of those years, 
boys only.

I often had the experience when the pupils returned, after the long 7-
8 week summer break, of seeing quite dramatic changes in some of 
them. Sometimes physical - it's amazing how much some folk could 
shoot up in that period of time and also emotional and intellectual 
changes. People who were quite placid and cooperative returned 
questioning what goes on and being quite forceful in wanting to say 
or know things. Some pupils could be almost totally different folk on 
their reurn. This often happened at the beginning of the Fifth 
Year/Year 11 when they were approaching 16 and also entering their 
exam year.

The no man's land between childhood and adulthood can be very 
difficult, especially for boys - at least from my experience. Some of 
Harry's problems also stem from perhaps brooding over the way he is 
treated. Some people like Fudge, for example, haven't got the first 
idea how to deal with him; the instance where Harry goes to 
Dumbledore about his dream in GOF and Fudge takes a "there, there, 
sonny, run along, we're busy" line is a classic. And Snape's 
obstinacy when Harry is trying to get help for Crouch is another case 
of how not to do it.

No. I see no difficulty in accepting that things have happened while 
he's been away from Hogwarts and the others are seeing the end 
product of what's been going on. 

Geoff
Enjoy views of Exmoor and preserved 
West Somerset Railway steam at:
http://www.aspectsofexmoor.com