Ginny VS Harry

[delwynmarch]

No: HPFGUIDX 135774

Julie wrote:
" I just don't think the romantic pairings are as important to JKR as
the main storyline."

Del replies:
Then why write so much about Ron and Lavender, or about Ginny and Dean?

Julie wrote:
"She simply can't include everything that all of her fans want to read."

Del replies:
I think that very few people cared about seeing Ron snog Lavender,
while A LOT of people would have loved to see Harry and Ginny
interacting privately.

Julie wrote:
"IMO she has made it quite clear these are not romance novels, so
these details will not be there.  They have not been there in the
previous six books"

Del replies:
WHAT??? How can you say that when we were treated to EVERY little bit
and detail of the Harry/Cho relationship?? Harry notices Cho, Harry
daydreams of Cho, Harry dreams of Cho, Harry looks at Cho, Harry is
jealous of Cedric, Harry asks Cho to the Ball, Harry wishes he were
with Cho, Harry has butterflies when looking at Cho, Harry fleetingly
wishes he were Sorted into Ravenclaw so he could be with Cho, and so
on, and on, and on, and ON, and that was BEFORE they even started
going out together! Once they do get together, we get a VERY detailed
account of their every time together. Their first kiss is discussed
for pages, their date in Hogsmeade is described to the smallest
detail, their rows happen on-screen, we are privy to all the different
emotions Harry goes through, and so on.

If JKR didn't want romance to be a significant part of her books, she
shouldn't have MADE it so.

Julie wrote:
"I can understand why you are disappointed if this is what you are
looking for."

Del replies:
It is NOT what I am looking for. What I AM looking for is HARRY.
That's what the books "Harry Potter and..." are about: Harry. That's
what I want to read about: Harry. And that IS what we used to read
about: Harry. We used to be privy to EVERY little detail of his life.
There was NOTHING JKR kept from us. She told us all about his emotions
and how they affected him. But suddenly, in HBP, she's keeping
something MAJOR from us: Harry's love life. Harry's love life is about
Harry, it's something very important about Harry, so it SHOULD be
included in a book called "Harry Potter and...". I would have
understood that Ron's love life be kept entirely off-screen, because
Ron is not the hero of HP. But Harry IS the hero of HP, so his love
life belongs on-screen. It's as simple as that. Making a book about
Harry and keeping his love life off-screen is about as honest as
writing a biography of Arthur Weasley and forgetting to mention his
wife and his 7 kids, IMO.

Julie wrote:
"She has set up much bigger fish to fry in book seven that who gets
together and how." 

Del replies:
Much bigger fish such as "love is the most powerful magic of all".
Yeah, except that she doesn't even show us Harry enjoying his
supposedly Big Love Story. Major discrepancy.

Julie wrote:
"However, I like things being implied and left to my interpretation."

Del replies:
I *love* things being implied. But where Ginny and Harry are
concerned, *nothing* is implied. I have NO canon basis to start
imagining a relationship between Harry and Ginny. We have ONE scene
between just the two of them in the entire canon, and that was long
before they were dating.

But the real problem, for me, is that JKR meant MUCH more than
implication. She meant us to KNOW that Harry and Ginny love each other
very much. The scene where Harry splits up with Ginny makes sense only
if the readers care about the relationship, if they know about it, if
they know how intense it is, how much of a sacrifice it is for Harry
to propose to end the relationship, and how selfless it is for Ginny
to let Harry go. Except that by the time I got there, I knew NOTHING
of their relationship, I sure had NOT realised that it was supposed to
be The Real Deal. So the scene fell horribly flat, and Harry *telling*
of his deep love for Ginny came out as typically very bad writing. Not
at all something I would expect from JKR.

And by the way, if romance doesn't matter, then why put that mushy
scene in at all? Why not just TELL us that Harry split up with Ginny,
instead of spending all that time showing it?

Del