[HPforGrownups] Re: Appeal of the story to the reader

[Janette]

No: HPFGUIDX 175699

>
> 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


montims:
Well, that's the point - I have never really seen the "Slytherins
evil/Gryffindor saints" thing, or vice versa, and I don't sympathise with
one group over the other.  I certainly don't revel in the
torture/killings/vengeance events as mentioned by another poster.

For me, it is just the story of Harry Potter from birth through to age 36
(?), the world in which he lives, and its events as they impact his life...
The characters do what they do, and I can cheer, or wish they didn't, but it
is not my story to change.

The joy for me is seeing all the separate strands which lead all the way
back to the first of the seven books, being woven together to form a
beautiful and intricate pattern, and upon rereading the septology (currently
nearly finishing PoA), seeing how often I have been led astray by
misdirection and Harry's errant viewpoint.  The books can also be very
funny, and sometimes quite poignant.

I recently, for a break, reread Emma, and took great pleasure at being
misdirected there also.  I used to like reading Agatha Christie, and
other "classic" mystery writers.  These days, the method seems to be to show
the crime and who did it at the very start, and to explore the psychology
behind the criminal's actions, and why the victim's psychology contributed
to the crime, etc, through the rest of the book...  I prefer a good
oldfashioned whodunnit, which makes me rack my brains and doesn't let me
know till the end what really happened, then I slap my head and go, "D'oh!
How can I have missed that?"  Now that's good writing!...


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