SHIPS/ Reading by JK Rowling at Radio City - Spoilers Within

[Ken Hutchinson]

No: HPFGUIDX 156479

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Tonks" <tonks_op at ...> wrote:
>
> Reading some of the reactions to the comments by JKR regarding 
> the `shippings',  I am rather amazed at what seems to be happening 
> here.  It is as if we have forgotten that these folks are not real.  
> JKR has written the characters and the WW in such a way that fans argue 
> that she can't possible know what Ron or Hermione or Harry or Ginny 
> will feel after they leave Hogwarts.  lol!!  Yes, she can!  She is 
> writing the book.  She is their creator, of course she is the final 
> authority on what will happen and who will be with who.   
> 
> I understand that sometimes a book might `write itself', but Rowling 
> has a reason for her main shippings, IMO. And no matter what, that is 
> the way it will come out in the end.  
> 
> Tonks-op
>

Ken:

I can't speak for others and I am not a shipper anyway but that is not
what I was saying. Of course JKR knows where she intends to take the
story and she has the right to finish the work she created according
to her artistic vision. The thing I am reacting to is her, some would
prefer the word incredulity and I will go along with that, with those
who persist in shipping H/H. Her comments about this indicate that she
feels these people are ignoring the plain clues, anvils some would
say, in the books as well as her own statements in interviews.

My response to this is simply that not everyone who falls into a
chance to pose her a question on these matters face to face, and not
everyone who discusses these matters on groups like this, is familiar
with her statements in previous interviews. Furthermore while it
should be plain in the books where things are *headed* anyone with any
experience in life or with reading works of fiction knows that setting
a chain of events in motion is not the same as achieving the expected
result. Fate will frequently intervene to deflect the course of our
lives. No where is this more common than in romance.

So those who persist in shipping H/H are not *necessarily* poor
readers or dim bulbs. They may be unware of the comments JKR has made
outside the books and they may be all too aware that an author who so
likes to trick readers could have some surprises in store related to
who ends up with who. Besides, can we be certain that an author who
delights in playing the unreliable narrator on the page does not do so
in person too? Can we be certain that if she is still making changes
as basic as who lives and who dies that she will not also change the
final pairings? How *can* she be sure herself? The answer is that she
cannot be sure herself until she has approved the manuscript for
publication. Once the presses have started rolling even she is
unlikely to have enough clout to stop them. Up until then even she
cannot say with 100% certainty how this story ends.

I don't really care about shipping or anything else in the final book
in the sense that I have plot expectations that I feel JKR must meet
to satisfy me. I think it is fun to speculate on and to try to second
guess her intentions. She can take the story anywhere she feels it
needs to go and as long as she can sell it to me in a convincing
fashion I will be satisfied with the ending. And with some major
exceptions she has been able to do that well enough so far that I
genuinely enjoy the previous books and so I have reason to hope that
the conclusion will satisfy too.

Ken