A bit frustrated with fandom at the moment - DH spoilers

[colebiancardi]

No: HPFGUIDX 172899

>Lisa wrote:
> My frustration and concern is the people who want to flame the whole
> series, in general and the author specifically, rather than rationally
> discuss and explore the text of the story and the characters involved.
> 
> No one made anyone pay any money for these books.  If we didn't like
> them, we didn't have to buy them, read them, absorb them.
> 
> Critique is good and constructive.
> 
> Personal attack of the author is unnecessary.

colebiancardi:

at this point, with the book out less than a week and from the looks
of it, many on this board are disappointed in the way certain things
were handled, I think that some slack should be given to us listies as
well.

"Real" literary analysis of this particular book probably won't happen
until a month or so from now;  right now, I know I am still struggling
with why certain things played out the way they did.

JKR gave us hints and clues, from the previous books and her
interviews, on where this series was going.  I don't think by
expressing personal disappointment and the lack of growth & maturity
of characters is a *personal attack*.  JKR is a wonderful writer,
giving us a WW with complex characters.  However, she hit the wall
with this book, IMHO.  She couldn't, in my eyes, seem to reconcile the
shades of grey with the "bad" house of Slytherin.  Nor did she deal
with the questionable actions of the *good* house using
*unforgivables*, which I thought was a huge no-no.  

At the end of HBP, when Snape tells Harry "No Unforgivable Curses for
you" - I thought that was the direction JKR was heading - that the
*goodies* would not sink to the level of the *evil-doers*.  And those
biases *do* affect people adversely and how to overcome those biases -
to look at people as individuals, not separating people into "You are
either with us or against us" groups.  If you tell someone from day
one they are bad to the bone, the question of "why should I change?"
comes up.  If the past is something I cannot redeem or make atones
for, why bother?  If you have already pigeon-holed me into a
stereotype, and you won't change your mind about me, again, why bother
with it?  How can one can break free from those preconceptions and
ideas about people on *both* sides?  Those types of questions, which
are good questions for people of all ages, not just adults. Children
are quite asute with character development and judgement.  

 

In OotP, Sirius's statement of "..the world isn't split into good
people and Death Eaters" was going to be prophetic in some way with
the final outcome in book 7.  Alas, it seems it has not.

My disappointment came in book 7.  JKR books 1 through 6 showed a
world of complex and compelling characters, some good, some bad, some
morally questionable, some grey - and it was wonderful.  A *nice*
person could be *evil* and a *mean* person could be *good*.   IMO,
Book 7 showed me a writer who had written herself into a corner and
had no way to get out of it except splitting the world into good
people and Death Eaters.   Snape, a character who has fascinated  this
board since they were started due to his ambiguity and whom JKR stated
was a gift of a character, was reduced to the emotional level of a
hormonally challenged teenager.  Snape, in books 1 through 6, was a
wonderful anti-hero to Harry's hero.  And it was shattered.

Dumbledore, a wizard who was supposed to be above the biases of the
WW, slapped down Snape with his one liner of "we Sort too soon".  Why
couldn't he have just stopped at the "You are a braver man by far than
Igor Karkaroff" and left the complement stand alone, instead of
hitting Snape with the old bias of the House system as a throw-away?


How else am I supposed to react this soon after the book?  The books
are part of the author's being - she is responsible for the way these
characters turned out;  it is part and parcle of who JKR is.  Her
creations, her vision, her world.  Not fanfiction's - but hers.  And
if some members feels that JKR's world is twisted, so be it.  It is
their opinion and those members have made a valid point.


Deathly Hallows - again, not my favorite book  in the series. 
Yesterday, I posted it wasn't in my top 4 - I think now I have put it
dead last in 7th.  I am not enamored  by the world we ended up with in
the Harry Potter series.  I was not enchanted by it, unlike books 1
through 6, which is a world that has hope and possiblities to break
the glass ceilings of hatred and biases.   As JKR is a published
author who is celebrated - yes, I expected more than fan-fic.  She is
published and I do pay good money to read her works.  Fan-fic is fine,
but when it comes down to it, I want to read something different from
her.  That is why she is famous.

Perhaps JKR will revisit this world in 10 years.  I hope so.  I also
hope her stance on some of these topics will revert back to the
original promise that 1-6 gave me.  Perhaps she was feeling fatigued
by book 7 and had to wrap it up in a nice neat package.  Because that
is how it felt to me

colebiancardi