Avoiding Spoilers (was Harry's fate WAS: Re: RE Snape and Petunia

[susanbones2003]

No: HPFGUIDX 155957

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "horridporrid03" 
<horridporrid03 at ...> wrote:
>
> > >>Mike:
> > > BTW, on July 16, 2005 at 1:30 am I was walking out of Barnes and
> > > Noble with my copy of HBP when I overheard a couple of 
teenagers,
> > > talking loudly, say,"Dumbledore dies... around page 600". Boy   
> > > was I miffed. I don't know how they knew, heard from someone in 
> > > England? I don't want this to happen again for book 7. 
Anybody   
> > > got any suggestions can email me off list. Thanks :-)
> 
> Betsy Hp:
> I'm pretty hard core "no-spoiler", so I take the extreme measure of 
> cutting myself totally off of Harry Potter stuff when a new book is 
> due.  I stay away from computer sites, tv spots, radio spots, etc.  
> I disconnected for HBP about a week to two weeks before the 
> release.  I avoided news-type sites pretty much from the time JKR 
> announced that HBP was done.
> 
> I'd managed to read OotP without knowing that anyone was going to 
> die, so Sirius was a shock.  And I liked that.  So I wanted to be 
> similarly ignorant for HBP. And I was. <g>
> 
> SNIP

> Betsy Hp
>
Hi Guys,
I take the opposite tack. I read what serious writers about Harry 
have to say about the series. I have been following John Granger for 
a couple of books. He's been charting JKR's literary path and she's 
using some very identifiable devices. He knew according to this thing 
called "The Alchemical Path" that she'd need to get rid of all 
Harry's mentors so that he could face his quest alone so the fact 
that DD bought it was not a surprise to me. How it transpired was a 
shocker and truly inspired. I think this points out that we are all 
reading Harry for a variety of reasons. Some want him vindicated, a 
guaranteed happy life at the end of this, some are wrapped up in an 
amazing "whodunit" and some of us are looking at patterns and 
literary aspects. I do love Harry and I am sure that's what unites 
all our various reasons and needs. 

And by the way, it's no fun to be the spoiler for someone. I was 
casually talking with a friend months after HPB came out, her son was 
reading it, she talked so knowledgeably about Harry I just assumed 
she'd read it. I innocently asked her how she thought her little boy 
would react to DD's death. Her face blanched and I aplologized 
profusely. What's the time limit on spoiling?
Jen D.