Appeal of the story to the reader

[nitalynx]

No: HPFGUIDX 175693

montims wrote:
> so now I am beginning to understand why some people are having the
problems
> they evidently are.  You see, I have no problem suspending my
disbelief and
> entering a "parallel" world, whether it is opera, theatre, books, films,
> whatever, even when set in what is ostensibly and recognisably our own
> world...


Nita:

Oh. Evidently, I've failed to explain my position clearly...


> I am troubled by inconsistencies within the imaginary world, but I
do not
> have to have its physical or moral or whatever laws conform with
those of my
> world.  More than that, I lived in Italy for 10 years, and quickly
had to
> make massive adjustments to my understanding of the way people
reacted to a
> concept or action (the Mafia, to use an extreme example; Ms as a female
> title to use a trivial example).


It's not really the characters' morals I'm having a problem with, but
the way they're presented.


> I adore Discworld, and find its characters and laws totally
consistent.  I
> read Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, Trollope and others, and am not
cut up
> when their moral ideas differ from mine.  If, in their universe, as
> character is good for doing X and bad for doing Y, I note it
mentally and
> move on, maybe with a little smile at the differences in our
attitudes.  But
> it does not make their world wrong, or their characters morally
deficient.


But don't you ever wonder why the author has chosen such laws, how
they impact the imaginary world, why our laws are different?


> As I say, it is inconsistencies (Flints if you will) in the imagined
world
> that jar...


I can live with a pretty high amount of technical flints (bad
timelines, objects ending up in random places), and a lower amount of
character-related quirks (knowing things for no good reason, keeping
secrets for no good reason, some OOC-ness for plot purposes).

Moral inconsistencies annoy me, and narrative inconsistencies (for
instance, telling and showing different things) make me suspect either
an inexperienced writer or a clever reversal. Which is why I felt
mildly stunned while reading DH ("Wait, so she *meant* that?!").


> Oh, and as to why conventional justice doesn't work in Potterverse,
IMO it's
> because there is LV, and a MoM, and Hogwarts, etc.  Their world is not
> "conventional"...


So we have an unconventional world with unconventional groups fighting
each other for unconventional reasons with unconventional weapons. Why
should I sympathize with one of those groups and not the other(s)? Who
do you sympathize with, and why? :)

Nita