[HPforGrownups] Holding JKR Accountable (was Re: 7 reasons why - The Glass is Half Empty.)

Wed Aug 8 07:31:12 UTC 2007

No: HPFGUIDX 174795

> > bboyminn:

>  

> > 

> > This isn't a problem with the story, this is a problem

> > with what /you/ choose to believe or not believe.

va32h:

I choose to believe that JKR became lazier and sloppier with each 

book after PoA, culminating in a 7th book that is full of plot holes, 

continuity errors, and characters acting entirely out of character. 

She has become so accustomed to her fandom cheerfully and devotedly 

explaining away all her flaws, that she didn't even make an effort to 

make anything in DH make sense. 

And we just keep on doing it. 

Carol said:

>Ravenclaw diadem and Bertha Jorkins for Nagini), Dumbledore is

> mistaken on this particular point. Voldemort does not reserve

> Horcrux-making for important murders, or the other way around. The

> most recent murder will do. It's the Horcrux itself that counts.

>Maybe he even murdered Myrtle to make the diary Horcrux.

va32h:

Dumbledore is not mistaken - JKR is mistaken. Once again, she is too 

lazy to bother remembering or re-reading anything she's previously 

written so she just made up this business about Albanian peasants and 

Bertha Jorkins right there on the spot. 

Just like she made up three or four variations on the secret keeper 

concept or two different careers for Ron. 

And fandom is bending over backwards to correct that mistake too. 

Clearly, JKR meant that Ron works at Weasley's Wizard Wheezes by day 

and moonlights as an Auror. Or he works as an Auror during the week 

and at WWW on the weekends. 

Of course these are very small, even petty issues. But each little 

mistake in itself is not the problem. That readers are so determined 

not to believe she could ever be mistaken is the problem, IMO.

Why is any convoluted scenario so much more plausible than "JKR 

forgot how she answered that question the last time it was asked?"

I think it's because we are reluctant to admit that we care far more 

about this universe than its creator does. I'm sure she cared once, 

but somewhere along the line she stopped. Too much hype, too much 

pressure, too much time spent with the material, I don't know the 

reason. But Deathly Hallows reeks of "getting this over with". 

Sandy:

I wanted to snip this down? but just couldn't find any of it that I wanted to dispense with.? Having been royally? flamed on more than one occasion? I have learned to keep my opinion of JKR to myself,? but I have been disenchanted with her for a very long time,? and since the release of DH I downright dislike her.

I totally agree with everything va32h? has said.? I have seen a radical difference from OOP? forward in her writing style. It has been my firm belief that, had she been able to get away with it, she would not have written another HP book after GoF.? I believe that by that time she had totally lost interest in the saga, and it shows. But, she had contracted to do a seven part series, so she had to go on.

For me, it isn't hard to understand *why* she lost interest. When she first published SS/PS she was a single mother living on assistance. She needed to publish. By the time OOP came along she had already made millions, was married to a doctor 6 years her junior and had a new baby. She didn't need HP anymore. But, like it or not, she was committed to it. So she turned out three books that couldn't hold a candle to the first four, and all along the way she teased and taunted us and then didn't follow through. But, by that time, most of her fandom thought she could walk on water, and woe be to anyone who had an honest criticism of her.

As far as DH goes for me; I like it on the whole, but I have issues with a lot of the content. She took everything I thought I knew about this world and the people in it and turned it inside-out and upside-down, and all I could do was scratch my head and go "HUH"?!? And now, even after a second reading, I still don't understand a lot of it. It's making me feel stupid, and I don't like that.

And her post-publication interviews have just made me furious. I have no doubt that she is making things up on the fly, and then can't remember from one interview to the next what she said in the last one. This is the one thing that I will disagree with va32h about. I don't think these mistakes are small and petty; I think they are huge and I am insulted by them. Before she ever opened her mouth she owed it to us to have her facts ready and straight, not to make things up as she went along only to change them a couple of days later. And I feel she handled the book the same way she handled the interviews. She is, after all, JKR, an entity unto herself, and we, her adoring fans, will forgive and cover for her mistakes.

Before anyone fires up the flame thrower let me say this. I admire JKR's knowledge and love most of her writing style. And I love the story she started out with. I just wish her circumstances had not so radically changed to the point that she lost interest in, and sight of, what she started out to do.

Sandy

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