Ginny VS Harry / Re: HBP Review in Globe and Mail

[hickengruendler]

No: HPFGUIDX 135711

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "fanofminerva" 
<drjuliehoward at y...> wrote:
> --- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "delwynmarch" 
> <delwynmarch at y...> wrote:
> > Julie wrote:
> > "According to JKR's interview with Mugglenet/TLC, she is writing
> > according to a genre."
> > 
> > Del replies:
> > Agreed, but according to the same interview she also incorporates 
> what
> > she feels needs to be there:
> > 
> > > 
> > Emerson and Melissa were apparently satisfied with the romance, 
but
> > I'm not. I can't be satisfied with a romance that happens 
> *entirely*
> > off-screen. Especially not when on the other hand we see Ron and
> > Lavender snogging every 5 pages during half the book (or so).
> >
> Julie now:
> I see her use of romance to develop the adolescent character, and I 
> think this is why much of it is implied.  Except, of course, for 
> the "snogging" (being American, I loved that word!  Conjured a very 
> different image than simply "kissing" or "Making out."  It was 
> almost like they were trying to suck each other's face off.)  THe 
> snogging created tension in the characters that could not have been 
> created as well in implication.  However, I don't think we are 
going 
> to get much of the characters romatic fantasies, internal dialogue, 
> etc., because this is a fantasy/action book.  I do understand that 
> many people want much more of the romance, which is why this fanfic 
> is so popular.  I just don't think they are going to be satisfied 
> with what they get in this septology.
> 
 
Hickengruendler:

But I don't think this is true. Even if we exclude the internal 
dialogue, and I might add that we got internal dialogue about several 
things in course of the series, including Quidditch, that does not 
explain why we didn't got any *external* dialogue between Harry and 
Ginny. Why don't we see them talking with each other? Or Harry 
confiding in her? Or them simply eating chocolate frogs together, 
enjoying their time? (see, it doesn't even have to be deep 
conversation. I just want to see them interacting with each other). 
Taking all the books together (before the Spiderman scene in the 
end), there is exactly one scene, where Harry and Ginny have a 
conversation without anyone else present, namely the one in the 
library in book 5. Heck, Harry had more pagetime alone with *Tonks* 
than with Ginny, at least they had two scenes together without anyone 
else present. And in one of them Tonks did not much more than telling 
Harry about her metamorphmagus powers and that she thinks that the 
Dursley house is a bit too clean. And yet this is a very lively and 
interesting scene.

There is nothing in the books that suggest that Ginny is anything 
more than the object of Harry's teen lust. And the thing is, I 
wouldn't have minded this, since I find it pretty realistic and since 
it still has the opportunity to develop into more. But the problem 
is, that JKR obviously wants us to believe, that there is already 
more, as the last scene clearly suggests. And this is where she IMO 
failed. In the last scene Harry and Ginny talk, as if they were 
deeply in love, caring for each other on a level that goes way 
beneath the surface and that they are obviously soulmates. But I do 
not find this obvious at all, because there is no emotional 
investment leading to this. There is no bond between Harry and Ginny. 
I see a stronger bond (of course in a non-shippy way) between Harry 
and Neville or Harry and Luna or Harry and Remus, because of the 
times we see them interact. What I see is a teenage boy who lusted 
after a pretty girl, and a teenage girl, who is happy because her 
childhood-crush finally acknowledged her. Really, the relationship 
between them seems as "deep" to me as the one between Fleur Delacour 
and Roger Davies after the Yule Ball.

You are saying that romance doesn't have as much room in such a 
story, but this can't explain why the romance between Ron and 
Lavender got more screentime than the one Harry had with his 
supposed "ideal" girl. And if JKR really wants to include such a 
noble hero scene like the one in the end, than she should make the 
reader care about this ship, so that the scene feels earned. And I 
can't say that I care about the H/G ship, or about Ginny as a 
character, very much.

Hickengruendler