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

[dan]

No: HPFGUIDX 173366

va32h wrote:

> I've seen many complaints about the Worst Camping Trip Ever! (on 
this and other forums) and while I can't disagree that those parts 
were boring, I wonder if there was a reason for them to be boring?

dan:
Complaints about the camping trip remind me of the offhand comments 
about "exposition" in OotP. My response to that book was absolute 
joy - at last, descriptive passages galore, the whole witchwizard 
world coming alive, being given shape and texture and context. All 
the while, the plot moves forward. OotP was a great read, because of 
the exposition, not in spite of it. 

>  I confess I was disappointed with JKR - I thought this book had 
been planned for 17 years, why all the filler? 

But just as Harry complains that learning about Tom's background is 
irrelevant (and it most definitely is not), so I think those who 
complain about the camping trip are missing the true nature of what 
went on. The horcrux among them, undestroyed, showed them at their 
lowest point, very near hopeless. Here, jealousy, envy, fear are real 
tests, not filler at all. Un this series, I was never truly in love 
with the trio until this camping trip. It was us getting to know 
three young people who have given up everything for what they believe 
in, and Rowling letting us enjoy the working out of their true 
relationship, which absolutely MUST be worked out before the end.

So, the camping trip is actually the most important part of the book.

dan