[HPforGrownups] Re: Writers Fiat (was: Stockholm Syndrome - was No sympathy for Kreacher)

[caesian]

No: HPFGUIDX 124675


On Feb 15, 2005, at 8:25 PM, lupinlore wrote:

>  I think you are absolutely right that kids and adults view events in
>  the series very differently.  I think there are many complex reasons
>  for that.  Thinking back to when I was ten or twelve, I probably
>  wouldn't have had a negative reaction to DD, either.  I think we get
>  much harsher on adults as we grow up and learn more about them, mainly
>  through becoming one ourselves.
>
>  I've seen this basic difference in approach about OOTP in general.
>  Kids have tended to like it, or at least find it OK.  Adults often
>  have trashed it.  Once again, I think its because adults are much
>  harder on the adults in the book than kids are.  But that could be a
>  totally mistaken impression.
>
>

Caesian now:
I think the difference is a fundamental - adults tend to give 
preference to logical reasoning when interpreting the world, whereas 
children give greater credence to how they feel.  (Neither approach is 
necessarily superior, IMO.)

Adult readers often try to figure out the logic of the WW, sometimes 
with fabulously clever insight (witness all posts here) and sometimes 
via hilarious obsession with arcane minutia (present company excluded, 
of course!).

On the other hand, children remember how the books made them feel.  
They pay greater attention to the emotional presentation of the story.  
Emotional cues trump logical chains.  Of course Dumbledore is good and 
cares for Harry, because he cried didn't he?  He tried, didn't he?  It 
matters not that there were holes in his plan, it matters that he 
wanted the plan to work and for Harry to be safe and happy.

In these hyper-logical discussions, it is almost impossible to 
articulate the power of the overall emotional tone of a scene, or of a 
character's presentation throughout the series.  The logic of 
Dumbledore's decisions may seem odd (given what we now know, which may 
well be incomplete - another problem with relying to heavily on logic). 
  But it is clear that the author has presented Dumbledore in an 
overwhelmingly positive emotional tone.  And that does indeed count for 
something.

Cheers,
Caesian


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