JKR and the boys (and girls)

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 161579

> 
> > >>Pippin:
> > But as Harry wasn't paying much attention to Ginny's opinions in   
> > GoF, we didn't get to hear about it.
> 
> Betsy Hp:
> I have two feelings about this sort of thought (both very much my 
> opinion, of course).  
> 
> One, this is an excuse used to cover up or explain away bad writing 
> on JKR's part.  Even if your POV character doesn't pay attention to 
> something, an author should be able to get across what they choose 
> to get across. 
 If Ginny and Hermione were close friends at this 
> time the reader should be aware of it, even if Harry doesn't care.  
> If JKR failed to do so than she's done a bad job writing Ginny's and 
> Hermione's relationship.

> 

Pippin:
Why, though? JKR is a novelist, not a newscaster. She doesn't have
to give us breaking news as it happens, details at eleven. The
great paradox of the Potterverse is that we see most of what
happens from Harry's PoV, yet if Harry were the astute observer
he appears to be, we wouldn't have a story. 

Harry misses stuff. Once we know that, JKR is free to use that
to build suspense, IMO. Leaving us to speculate over what Ginny's
really like is no different than leaving us hanging about what 
happened in Godric's Hollow. For those of us who saw Ginny
marked out as Harry's girl from the moment he saw her on the
platform, learning before Harry did  that she was close to Hermione 
or that she was interested in Quidditch wouldn't have been a clue, it
would have been a dead giveaway, and it would have made
Harry look dumb. He's supposed to be oblivious, not stupid.

As it is, we do get  notice that a relationship had developed. That
giggly love potion business -- who else does Hermione ever let 
herself get giggly with? And giving Ginny advice on how to win
Harry!! Hermione's awfully protective of him, you know, she wouldn't
hand that out to just anyone. She'd want to know Ginny pretty well
first, and Ginny, for her part wouldn't let just anyone in on her
deepest secrets, not after what happened to her in CoS. So for
those things to happen, they have to be close.

We didn't see the closeness developing because it would have killed
the  H/G suspense, and because the focus of the stories isn't on normal
social development. 

It seems to me the bad writing charge is an excuse used by readers
to explain why something they wanted to read about isn't in the books.
But is it bad writing that makes us so intrigued by these imaginary
people's lives that we're not satisfied with the story JKR is telling us
about them and want something different?

 
> > >>Pippin:
> > There were long stretches in PoA when Ron and Harry weren't       
> > talking to Hermione at all, and that might have been when Ginny   
> > and Hermione got to be close. 
> 
> Betsy Hp:
> But we're told that Hermione spends that time with Hagrid or 
> researching to find a way to save Buckbeak. Ginny is never described 
> as being with her.  When Ron and Harry had their fight in GoF, we 
> are told that Ron is hanging out with Dean and Seamus, so I'm not 
> sure why JKR wouldn't mention that Hermione hung around Ginny in 
> PoA, if that's what we're supposed to see.

Pippin:
Harry never speculates about what goes on in the girls' dorm. But
Hermione spends an awful lot of time in there.

> Betsy Hp:
> Which is what Miles was missing I think (I'm quite possibly putting 
> words in Miles's mouth here): the economics over simple and warming 
> human interaction.  By putting story-telling economics over 
> character development there's a human element missing from the 
> Potter books.  Something the director of PoA felt so essential he 
> actually wrote such a scene into the film.

Pippin:
Filmmaking is a very different art -- it's collaborative, immediate, 
visual and dramatic, all things that novels don't have to be. JKR 
can write that Harry was looking forward to Hogwarts and seeing
his friends again, the filmmakers have to show us. Which they do.


> > >>Pippin:
> > Yeah, Hermione was so cool over it all that she got into a        
> > screaming, shouting, hairdo destroying brawl with Ron. She never   
> > gets worked up about that stuff, except when she sends killer     
> > canaries to peck someone's eyes out. 
> 
> Betsy Hp:
> But that wasn't over the stress of *dating*.  That was the stress of 
> *Ron*.  Hermione effortlessly landed the school's most eligible 
> bachelor soon into the asking process.  

Pippin:
Yeah, too bad it wasn't the date *she* wanted. Or have you forgotten
the infamous, "Next time there's a ball, ask me before someone else
does and not as a last resort!" 

If she really had the dating stuff down, not that I'd expect her to
at going on sixteen, she'd have:

a) Found a way to let Ron know she was a girl

b)Let him know she'd be up for an invite to the ball

c)Made him think it was all his idea.

Instead, Hermione tried hard to make it seem like she could 
care less what Ron is up to, but the stress of it made her 
explode.

Betsy Hp:

> We get a similar deal in HBP with Slughorn's Christmas party.  
> Hermione effortlessly lands a date that meets her political 
> requirements.  

Pippin:
Except that she doesn't twig that his intentions are different
than hers. That's part of the dating thing too. And I shouldn't
think it would be hard to get a date for Slughorn's parties.
Draco can't be the only Slugclub wannabe.


Pippin