A Sense of Betrayal

[sylviampj]

No: HPFGUIDX 174416

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, Lee Kaiwen <leekaiwen at ...> 
wrote:
>
> horridporrid03 blessed us with this gem On 25/07/2007 09:27:
> > 
> > Betsy Hp:
> > Oh my gosh, I totally agree. We heard not hair nor hide about the
> > Hallows in any of the previous books and suddenly JKR decides 
that
> > what this great McGuffin hunt needs is... three more McGuffins. 
The
> > hell?
> 
> Yeah, didn't make much sense in that way. At the end of HBP 
Dumbledore 
> entrusts Harry with the sacred task of destroying Horcruxes, only 
to 
> suddenly start lobbing excruciating hints of Deathly Hallows at 
Harry 
> out of left field just to -- what? -- demonstrate some sort of 
sadistic 
> streak? Harry rationalization was that maybe there were things he 
was 
> supposed to learn, but not use. Come again? Smack in the middle of 
the 
> Great Horcrux Chase hardly seems the proper time for Dumbledore to 
be 
> distracting Harry with trivia lesson.
> 
> I think what JKR was going for was the Revelation, a "Wow -- 
Harry's 
> Invisibility Cloak is is a Deathly Hallow? That's so-o-o KEWL!" 
kind of 
> moment. In the end, however, the cost in terms of story line was 
just 
> too high.
> 
> CJ>>>

I'm sure that JKR is telling the truth when she says that she 
planned the whole series from the beginning. I'm also pretty sure 
that the evolution in the scope and tone of the books was a response 
to the huge and unexpected public reaction to them. JKR started out 
writing delightful children's stories, with which like all good 
children's stories are popular with adults who like to escape into a 
fantasy world. But she ended up trying to write an epic, a 
whodunnit, a coming of age story, an allegory... And she 
overstretched herself. Some of the facile divisions between good 
guys and bad guys and the static characterisations which were 
adequate for the first three books were unsustainable for the 
remaining four and I think limited her ability to develop her 
characters and the storyline. I don't feel betrayed. I enjoyed the 
books very much and I think JKR gave it her best shot.  But I think 
she boxed herself in from the beginning into a children's story 
format and never really managed to break out of it. 

She also boxed herself in with a seven book format. I think five or 
at most six books would have been enough. I personally believe that 
the 'Deathly Hallow's were an add-on. It was all about the Horcruxes 
but then JKR realised that she had to sustain the interest of her 
audiences for a seventh book and she introduced this new element 
which was supposed to test Harry's mettle in a new way. IMO the 
question of Harry's purity of motives and heart was settled in PS 
when he was able to take the Philosopher's stone because he did not 
want to use it for personal gain. Time after time in the books he 
faced death bravely or rejected limelight or popularity in favour of 
the truth. We didn't need the Deathly Hallows to tell us this. 

 

Sylvia.