[HPforGrownups] Re: Reading by JK Rowling at Radio City - Spoilers Within (SHIP)

[Magpie]

No: HPFGUIDX 156568

> Lynda:
>
> Granted, (and no one knows this better than I) characters sometimes
> "write themselves" and if an author tries to change that writing,
> the result can be forced and stilted.  However, an author's
> characters still reside within the mind of that author who knows
> their characteristics and tendencies better than anyone else.  So
> far JKR has not disappointed (I'm considering the anvil sized hints
> here concerning relationships) and if anything changes or if things
> continue to develop as it seems from the previous six books they
> will, I'm certain she can handle it without forcing relationships.
> Of course, as always JMHO.

Magpie:
Also, remember that a lot of things that fandom sees as not having happened 
yet are already happening as far as the author's concerned.  It's not just 
that there are anvils, R/Hr is actually happening in GoF--at a time when a 
lot of fandom didn't see it.  H/G is more of just, imo, literary techniques 
tipping you off that it's going that way, but still for R/Hr at least times 
when people claim that it could go either way I'm sure the author sees it 
already going the one way.  She knows why characters do what they do even 
when we don't, so she knows how they feel about each other and writes it in, 
albeit invisibly.  The story has, in many ways, happened in her head 
already.  She just hasn't written it down.

To compare it to a non-shipping thing, imagine if people said Snape had to 
be Pureblood and Sirius had to be Half-blood pre-OotP.  If Rowling said, 
"No, Snape's Half-blood and Sirius is Pureblood" they might have said well, 
she could still change her mind so it's not canon yet.  They'd be write to 
an extent--if it's not written in she could change it.  But from her pov she 
might have already been writing the two characters as influenced by their 
backgrounds.  She would have known way back in PS that Sirius was Narcissa's 
cousin, had a brother who was a DE, etc.

The trouble sometimes is that people don't always just say what they think 
should happen, which characters should be together etc., they claim these 
things are going to happen and then get angry when they don't, sometimes 
even claiming they were misled.  I think it would be much better if JKR 
didn't tack on an ending that locked everyone into their future lives--a 
coming of age story, imo, should be open-ended, not telling you that Harry 
married Ginny and had a dozen kids.  The kid just grew up, don't rush him 
into middle age.  (Besides, I personally hate epilogues like that, though I 
know Rowling's planned something of that kind.)  That kind of thing I think 
is unnecessary.  But for what's in the middle of happening within the 
timeline of the story I can see why she'd maybe eventually get frustrated. I 
admit I'm amazed at the way she can say something flat out and then have it 
twisted to fit whatever theory someone wants it to fit--not primarily 
because I don't think people should have fun with theories, but because it 
intentionally changes what she said.

-m