Twist JKR? (was:Re: Dumbledore's pleading...)

[nrenka]

No: HPFGUIDX 141520

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "horridporrid03" 
<horridporrid03 at y...> wrote:

> Betsy Hp:
> Haven't we?  I'd say the Fake!Moody reveal in GoF was awfully BANG-
> y.  Especially for young Harry.  And the kidnapping-that-wasn't in 
> OotP, while not as BANG-y for the readership I think, certainly 
> threw Harry for a loop.

No.  Scabbers is the one genuinely grand case of the twist which 
surpasses the boundaries of a single volume (excepting the continually 
open question of Snape, which has been left open enough and 
deliberately so that I don't really count any resolution as a 'twist', 
more as simply finding out the background).  But there are lots of dead 
or unproven/able theories (soon to be riding the SCOW) which rely upon 
this kind of grand twist.

Books 1-4 had the general resolution of a twist at the end of them, but 
the twist was generally introduced and worked out within a single book; 
when it depended upon prior information as well, the instigation of the 
twist was generally within the scope of the book.  My memory tells me 
that most readers found the end of OotP to be decidedly lacking on the 
Twist Revelation Scale, and book six has a disputed revelation, at best.

Theories are fun for the sake of theories, but that's not what I'm 
dealing with at all here.  I'm on the canonical possibility and 
prediction track, and that's where I think people are convincing 
themselves it's going to be much more complicated than it really is.  I 
can imagine something legitimately considered twisty for Snape's end, 
but I can also imagine something more direct.  I'm calling the biggest 
twist to come with however Harry ultimately disposes of Voldemort, 
because I don't think it's predictable at the moment--while I think at 
least one of us, or a few in tandem, have Snape pegged correctly...if 
only we knew who.

> I do agree that fandom does tend to find more twists than are 
> actually there. (Caused, I'm sure, by the wait between books.)  But 
> that doesn't mean that there are no twists at all.  JKR's handling 
> of the Slytherins in HBP strongly suggests, IMO, that the most 
> straight forward reading is not necessarily the correct one.

Not evil, but still venal and generally unpleasant?  That's the reading 
I get, at my more generous, post-HBP.

-Nora hits the magic number, and retires back into her desert island 
cave