Realism or Fairytale(was: Innocent Alby?)

[horridporrid03]

No: HPFGUIDX 123247


>>Renee:
>There are hints of realism, especially in GoF, that even I can see, 
especially if I take realism to refer to an unpleasant reality, the 
way it's often used in everyday speech. ("Be realistic" seldom 
means "get your hopes up".)< 

Betsy:
Something I noticed was that PS/SS wasn't quite "fairytale" enough - 
if that makes sense.  For example, the Dursleys weren't as over the 
top horrid as I would have expected of a "fairytale" story.  So I 
don't know if JKR meant that to prime the pump, so to speak, for 
things not having the "fairytale" outcome as the books went along.  
For example, Sirius escaping but his name not being cleared, in spite 
of Dumbledore's involvement in PoA.

However, I don't think JKR means for us to read these books as 
absolute reality - like say books by Judy Bloom.  As you pointed out, 
there's too much mythic symbolism floating around, and too many 
archetypical characters (though JKR tries to round them out a bit) to 
be as real as all that.  So I doubt we'll have a scene where Harry 
deals with wet dreams or Ron starts drinking too much butterbeer or 
something as grittily real as that.  (Will there ever be a "Harry 
learns the wizard's way to shave" scene though?)

[As an aside, I read a fascinating discussion once on how different 
the books might have been if told from say, Hermione's point of 
view.  Would JKR have had to talk about menstruation, and training 
bras, etc.]

Perhaps JKR is trying to do a blending of the two genres?  At this 
point I'd say she's leaning more towards realistic fairytale than 
fairytale realism - if that makes any sense.

>>Betsy: 
>But I think the big question is really (as Alla pointed out), how 
well is JKR handling the transition?  Did she drop enough hints for 
readers to follow along or is everything suddenly different?  I don't 
know if these questions can be fully debated until the end of the 
series, but it is interesting.<

>>Renee:
>Agreed. So far, most of the realism, especially of the unpleasant 
kind, is found in OotP. So we'll have to wait and see what the last 
two books are going to look like. Also, I've realised that again, 
much of the problem is caused by JKR's own comments - and by my own 
unspoken assumptions that 1) it's obvious what JKR means when she 
uses phrases like "epitome of goodness", and 2) that her definitions 
are identical with mine or anyone else's.<

Betsy:
I wonder if GoF and OotP are the "Empire Strikes Back" of the Harry 
Potter world?  All the anguish and failure the hero must travel 
through occur within those two books, but good finally prevails and 
the hero comes into his own by the end of the story arch.  We shall 
see. :)

And of course, even in the "fairytale" stories, the hero must break 
with his mentor and stike out on his own, otherwise he'll never 
complete his journey.  Sometimes this break occurs with the mentor's 
death.  Sometimes the mentor willingly steps aside.  I think the 
painful part of OotP is that for Harry "perfect, all-knowing 
Dumbledore" died.  It will be interesting to see how this "death" 
affects his character.  I'm sure Harry will come into his own 
eventually, but will this growth occur in HPB?

I really do have a love/hate relationship with JKR's interviews.  She 
seems like a lovely person and I love her wit, but she's also asked a 
lot of questions that she really can't answer fully without ruining 
the books - which, thank goodness, she's loath to do.  So I don't put 
it past her to be cagey at times.  In fact I hope that she is less 
than clear so that no spoilage occurs.  I think it's also important 
to recognize that some of these interviews occur when she's tired, 
distracted, rushed, whatever, and she's speaking, not writing.  So 
JKR doesn't edit or review what gets said - so she might not mean 
exactly what she says.

My personal way of dealing with it is to put the books over the 
interviews and if she says something that appears to contradict what 
occurs in the books, I go with the books.  Of course I love the 
little extra bits she gives us like Dean Thomas' background, but 
otherwise, I don't take the interviews too much to heart.

Betsy