Story analysis

[horridporrid03]

No: HPFGUIDX 156163

> >>Alla:
> <snip>
> Yes, but my point is that IMO complete detachment in analysing 
> characters is rarely happens and as a reader not in the academic 
> setting, I don't know if I want to try. I mean, it is also        
> question of degree of course. 
> Let's take someone whom I consider to be one of the most brilliant 
> list members of HPFGU of all time and I think many people will     
> agree with me - Elkins. I am a very big fan of her posts and hope 
> that one day I will be able to write quarter as well as she does. 
> But one day somebody brought up Elkins' posts as the example of   
> detachment, which I don't think I agree with at all.
> I mean, sure in some of the posts she seems to be, but take her    
> post about "Draco Malfoy, who is so lame and dead * (paraphrasing, 
> too lasy to look up exact subject heading, but I am sure you know 
> which one I am talking about).
> I think this is post is *very* coloured by her love for Draco, or  
> at least that is the impression I get from it ( um, I don't know   
> Elkins personally,never talked to her, so maybe I am completely    
> wrong) and IMO that is causing the interpretation which so very   
> radically different from mine, because no matter how hard I look I 
> don't see Draco's angst, Draco's stoic sufferings anywhere in     
> canon in books 1 through 5. I see the wimperings of the coward,    
> who starts his misfortune and brings his troubles upon himself,   
> where Elkins sees "hurt-comfort". There is some or a lot of       
> **Draco angst** in HBP, sure ( which he still brought upon himself 
> IMO), but before that? I find this post, which is of course       
> brilliant and of course analyses canon evidence to be **very**    
> coloured by emotions, which makes it only more beatiful.
> <snip>

Betsy Hp:
Hee!  That's the post that brought me to HPfGU's.  Here's a link for 
any who are interested:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/39083

But actually, I disagree with you here, Alla.  Not that emotions 
effect a reading, but that it all boils down to emotions.  Because 
Elkins shows, rather definitively I thought, that JKR *does* use 
hurt/comfort with Draco.  Hurt/comfort is a specific sort of 
technique, one that writers can choose to use, and one JKR uses 
often.  Elkins showed all that with examples from the texts.  She 
also showed that hurt/comfort can be undercut, that JKR has undercut 
it with certain characters (Pettigrew, for example) but chooses not 
to do so with Draco.  None of that is emotion.  It's all right there 
in the text.

Where emotion comes in is if it actually *works* for you.  JKR uses 
the same technique with Sirius, and it obviously works like gang 
busters for some, but not so well for others (as with just about 
every single character in Potterverse <g>).  Of course, if you 
emotionally connect with a character that can be what sends you 
looking for textual support for your feelings.  However, if it's 
there in the text, it's intellectual support you're giving, not 
emotional.

Especially if you're trying to figure out the characters place 
within the story, emotional analysis won't take you too far.  
Because you and the author may well disagree.  It's the intellectual 
anaysis, where you look to see where the author is trying to take 
you, that gives you the proper hints, IMO.

Of course, Potterverse brings its own issues to the table, because 
JKR is very coy about who we're supposed to like or dislike.  She'll 
give with one hand and take away with another, and until the story 
is completely done it's hard to decide who she wants us to like or 
not.  It's hard to decide if she's being crazy with her technique or 
crazy like a fox.

So I guess my point is that intellectual analysis *does* exist.  And 
while a certain technique might not work for you emotionally (as 
hurt/comfort, while popular, doesn't work for everyone) it doesn't 
mean that that particular technique isn't in play.

Betsy Hp