[HPforGrownups] Harry Potter and the Endless Camping Trip (a new perspective)

[Maeg]

No: HPFGUIDX 173305


On Jul 27, 2007, at 11:43 AM, va32h wrote:

> I also think that all the camping scenes allow us to really feel the
> frustration that the trio are experiencing. They don't know where
> they are going or what they are doing - we don't know where JKR is
> going with her narrative. Hermione and Ron are disappointed in Harry,
> they thought he knew what he was doing. I confess I was disappointed
> with JKR - I thought this book had been planned for 17 years, why all
> the filler? The trio are frustrated and bored, the readers are
> frustrated and bored. In short - the camping trip is a metaphor for
> our experience of reading DH.
>
> Now is that an interesting coincidence or utter brilliance on the
> part of JKR or neither?

There's a difference between showing how your characters go through a  
boring and frustrating period and actually boring and frustrating  
your readers. Given the simplicity of JKR's writing, I have a very  
hard time ascribing this to brilliance. I call it bad writing. I was  
bored. I began to not care what happened to the characters.

Brilliance in war writing is Catch-22 or All Quiet on the Western Front.

But thanks for making me re-think my position.

Maeg

My mind isn't always in the gutter -- sometimes it comes out to feed.