Why Do You Read the HP Books?

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 142741

ibchawz wrote:
<snip>
> The first issue I would like to address is JKR's writing ability and
style. I have seen comments regarding the contrived nature of some of
the plot elements used.  I have also seen comments that JKR sacrifices
character development to move the plot along.  At the other end of the
spectrum, I have read that some feel that the plot follows the
standard fantasy / hero's quest storyline too closely and that she
should be more original.  My question is:  If you feel these books are
so poorly written from a character, plot, and storyline development
perspective, why do you read them?
> 
> I have seen criticism of Harry Potter's character and moral fiber.
Comments I have seen include him being arrogant, lazy, rebellious,
amoral, immoral, plagiaristic, disrespectful, incompetent, etc.  If 
Harry, as the main character, is really this bad a person, why do you
 read the books?

Carol responds:
I plead guilty to having a PhD in English literature and a
compulsively analytical mind, and I do sometimes examine things like
narrative technique (it bothers me when people refer to Harry as the
narrator and, like Harry with Quidditch terms, I like to get things
right), but that has more to do with *how* I read the books than *why*
I read them. Also, I try(!) to analyze objectively, examining plots
and characters and themes rather than to evaluate the books in terms
of how well they're written. IOW, I almost never pass judgment on
JKR's writing abilities, and I recently tried to distinguish between a
well-crafted work of fiction and a work that meets a particular
reader's expectations, which, of course, is a purely subjective
judgment and one that it would be impossible for JKR to live up to
even if it were desirable to do so. 

Also, I happen to disagree with much of what I perceive as JKR's
politics, but I try not to let that disagreement influence my
discussions of her themes and characters. What I want and expect is
thematic consistency (and I admit that I don't always find it, so I
confess to a degree of criticism there). What I don't expect is for
either the characters or JKR herself to share my political and moral
values. In fact, I'd rather see more understanding from certain
posters of the WW in general and the Slytherin subculture in
particular as something different from modern or postmodern Muggle
culture. The witches and wizards inhabiting the Potterverse can't
possibly understand, much less exemplify, values to which they've
never been exposed. (Tolerance for giants--not that anyone has
specifically proposed it, but it's implicit in the prejudice against
non-wizard magical beings motif--is a bit too much to expect of
anybody, wizard or Muggle. Not that I think the giants should be
killed off, but I don't want to see them attending Hogwarts in the
Epilogue. Grawp in Potions class--shudder!)

As for the characters themselves, analyzing a character's behavior and
motives has nothing to do with thinking that the book is poorly
written. Half the fun on this list is trying to figure out that "gift
of a character," Snape. Harry himself has considerably less
fascination for me (speaking only for myself, not for the list in
general) if only because he's so young, so half-formed, that I can't
identify with him. I'm much more interested in the adults,
particularly Snape. Which is not to say that I don't like Harry or
care what happens to him. I want him to learn to control his emotions,
realize that he can't defeat Voldemort through hatred, come to terms
with Snape, survive his ordeal with Voldemort, and live a normal life.
(You know, become Minister for Magic and have red-haired nine
children. :-) ) I absolutely *don't* want him to be a Horcrux and have
to sacrifice himself for the greater good. I don't care in the least
whether JKR violates the conventions of the heroic quest genre to
achieve that ending (the book is as much a bildungsroman as a heroic
quest, anyway). And of course I won't criticize her craftsmanship if
she doesn't give me the ending I hope for. (I might stop reading the
last two books if I don't get DDM!Snape and surviving Harry. But
that's purely subjective, nothing to do with how well the books are
written. I won't criticize her for it. I'll just be disappointed
because she hasn't given the characters I care about, characters that
she created, the fates I would have hoped for them.)

Why do I read the books? I got started on them purely by accident (a
friend recommended them and I recommended LOTR to him; we promptly
traded addictions.) It's an addiction, a compulsion, a fantasy world
that is and isn't like our own. (I've fantasized on occasion going to
Salem, picking up my witch ancestor's wand--not that she really had
one--and discovering that I'm a Muggleborn. <I hear those of you who
know me snickering.>) I would love to use magic (rather than computers
or red pencils) to edit manuscripts. And JKR's writing is so much
better than some of the blather I have to read for a living that her
world is an escape for me on a number of levels. And, of course,
there's that enigma, Severus Snape, who draws me like a magnet. 

At any rate, I think the reason that we discuss the characters so
passionately is that (the Dursleys and Hagrid and a few others
excepted) they seem so real, so human. If Harry and Dumbledore (and
Ron, Hermione, Snape, Lupin, MWPP and others) didn't have flaws, they
wouldn't be interesting. As for "criticizing" Harry in particular,
pointing out what we see as his failings and weaknesses and
misperceptions rather than concentrating on his strengths, who wants a
perfect hero? I don't. If he's perfect to begin with, how can he
develop and grow? How can he pass from Innocence through Experience to
Wisdom, to put it in Blakean terms, if he's already wise? We've seen
him learn some important lessons between age eleven and sixteen, but
he still has more to learn. I don't expect him to become Dumbledore at
seventeen (and, yes, I do see Dumbledore as wise though obviously not
omniscient), but I hope that Harry at least comes to recognize that
Dumbledore was right about death and choice and love and mercy--and,
above all, for me, trust in Severus Snape.

The books reward rereading on many levels. They are rich in mystery
and ambiguity and in themes that most of us hope will be fully
developed (and clarified) in Book 7 as the various subplots and
character arcs are resolved. But in the long run, I think, it's the
characters that engage most of us. We like them and their company. We
empathize with one or more of them. We care about them. (I cry for
Cedric and his parents every time I read GoF and I agonize for Snape
as he agrees to take the UV.) Some books are more than words on paper.
They're our friends. They're part of our being. And the HP books are
that for me, whether or not they're destined to become literary
classics. I rather think that they'll become not the LOTR but the
"David Copperfield" of future generations. And I'm glad, very glad,
that my friend introduced me to them.

Carol, who forgot to mention the humor, which pops up in unexpected
places in every book (the Rotfang Conspiracy being my all-time favorite)