JKR's dealing with emotions (was Re: The importance of death /Harry and Cedric)

[lupinlore]

No: HPFGUIDX 147371

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Karen" <kchuplis at a...> wrote:
>
<SNIP>

In fact, I'm really becoming more and more
> amazed at how well she has written about grief without any overtness.
>

Chuckle.  It truly is amazing how people read totally different books, 
isn't it?  I find her dealing with Harry's grief (or amazing lack 
thereof) to be incredibly poor writing and completely unbelievable, 
especially after that blow up over Cedric.  It would have to be a LOT 
more overt than that to be believable.  When Harry came up with that 
quote about being strong because Sirius wouldn't want him to grieve 
overtly I actually laughed out loud in derision.  Talk about sweeping 
something under the rug for no other reason than to get on with the 
plot!

But that just brings up a question of JKR's handling of strong emotion 
in general.  What does she do well, and what does she do poorly?  
CAPSLOCK Harry was over the top in the view of many readers, many 
others don't find her handling of his grief (or lack thereof) over 
Sirius to be believable (especially given CAPSLOCK Harry in OOTP), and 
her handling of romance brought a chorus of rasberries.

Perhaps it does have to do with emotional styles.  I really don't 
know.  But it certainly is true that, surveying a number of different 
boards and forums (particularly HPfGU, Sugarquill, and Fictionalley, 
along with numerous fanfic chat sites), those three instances in 
particular bring a storm of dissent and objection.  What do other 
people think is the source of this?


Lupinlore