DD's dilemma + owl post

[someoneofsomeplace]

No: HPFGUIDX 126418




> Jen said:

<BIG SNIP>

>No, I love what JKR has done and see it as a package deal. Even 
> though I spend my time deconstructing the story, ultimately what 
>JKR 
> said in an interview is the lens through which I view the HP 
>series: 
> 
> "I sweated blood over that story to make it work, but it really 
>ame 
> from my heart. Only later can you start analyzing it. But you can 
> overanalyze, too. I had a woman tell me it was clear to her that 
> Harry was so abused that he becomes schizophrenic, and that 
> everything that happens from the point of the arrival of the 
letters 
> about Hogswart is his own escape into a sort of torture-fantasy. I 
> tried to be polite and say something like, 'Well, that would be 
>one 
> way of looking at it, I guess.' But I was kind of scared. One of 
>the 
> nicest things about writing for children is that you don't find 
>them 
> deconstructing novels. Either they like it or they don't like 
>it. " 
> (Book Links, 1999).
> 
> Jen, who so loves Harry's story exactly as it is.

John:
Exactly! You know, I do think we tend to over-analyze these books 
sometimes. HP is, essentially, a form of escapism, a ripping good 
yarn about good versus evil. I don't think it should be viewed as a 
critique of contemporary society, or the Path of Liberation, or 
anything other then what it appears at the surface.

Sure, "classic" literature will always transcend the motives of the 
author, but I don't think JKR's work is/should be viewed in that 
light. Her skill as a writer, I *think*, is that she knows what will 
best please today's audience. That, plus the fact that her books are 
very much a unique hybrid of many different genres.

One other thing; I think we should very much just let JKR write the 
story the way she wants to, have things happen to characters that 
she wants to have happen to them, "cheat" with a prophecy here and 
there if she wants to. If we don't like some of these things, fair 
enough, but by looking for ways to "improve" the story as it 
currently stands/ saying "I'll be disappointed if she does *that*", 
we are overlooking one of the very things that has made these 
stories so appealing, to all of us; that JKR won't be dictated to 
when it comes to what she should or shouldn't include in her books. 

Just my opinion.

John, who despite all of that will probably continue to "over-
analyze" and lament certain aspects of the books anyway.