Good writer - Two Trees

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 141332


> bboyminn:
> 
> I was thinking about this yesterday and the image of two trees came to
> mind. One normal tree, upright and branching out, and one inverted
> tree with many branches at the bottom converging upward into a single
> trunk.
> 
> We in fandom are the normal tree, we can speculate and pontificate, we
> can spawn a thousand tangents and create a thousand potential
> plotlines for the books. We can branch out; we have infinite
> possibilities.
> 
> JKRowling on the other hand is the inverted tree. She is narrowing her
> focus to a single trunk. She can not spawn infinite tangents or
> plotlines. She has to make her focus narrower and narrower with each
> book. Certain things must be said, certain things must be done, and
> the narrower her focus becomes, the few plot and story options she has.
> 
> Personally, I would have preferred it if the most recent book (HBP)
> was about the continuation of the DA Club, Harry and Draco fighting
> over the Black Estate, and the emergence of one or more 'good
> Slytherins' from the students. That certainly would have made a more
> interesting story. And, if this were the 'Hardy Boys' or 'Nancy Drew'
> where the characters are ageless and the author can spawn 100 volumes
> over the life of the series, then JKR could certainly come up with
> more interesting stories. THEN the possibilities are near infinite.
> 

Pippin:
I like the analogy of fanon to a tree, but maybe the better analogy for
canon is a tower, broad and bustling at the base but narrowing till
it comes to a flagpole at the top. From JKR's point of view, every
element of the story is just a building block whose whole purpose is
to raise that flagpole into the air so every one can see the banner 
when it's finally unfurled. And make no mistake, there's a banner--
this is Hermione's alter-ego we're talking about. She's grown up
now and knows she'll lose her audience if she preaches, but I'll
bet she's still planning to change the world. From JKR's perspective,
the tower is already built and the flag is flying -- we're in the
position of watching from below as a fog slowly lifts, revealing one
story at a time.


Whatever that banner is, it's probably not romantic love or the
need to reform the inheritance laws, so JKR will not explore those
areas in depth. What we will get, I think, once the whole structure
is visible, is a sense of how those elements fit into the theme
she *is* trying to express. What seems like rambling digression
now will echo some element of the dominant theme once that
is made clear -- that's the way artistic unity works. In fact such
is the power of the human mind to find patterns that critical
readers will probably discern echoes of the theme whether the 
author consciously inserted them or not.


Pippin