Less than 1000 posts in a month - why now?

[Jim Ferer]

No: HPFGUIDX 180184

Carol: "Where was the fun we had had before? Surely, it wasn't just
the inability to speculate that had taken away our enjoyment."

To a large degree it was, though. The world was not complete and we
were creating it in our image, and owning a piece of it in our
imaginations.

Carol: "I don't think that the HBP books are great books. Certainly,
JKR is not a great author. I think, frankly, that the Peter Principle
has overcome her, and she's been raised to a prominence she's not
capable of sustaining."

If JKR has a problem sustaining her prominence, I would say it's
because she went so high. The HP books will be read and discussed for
the rest of our lifetimes, and probably beyond. The world she created
is richer and more complex than almost any other in literature.
Millions of words could be written telling the stories arising from
that world, and they will be. We readers could recapture the wonder of
speculation we thrived on on these storylines.

Carol: "I've spent far too much time thinking about her characters and
her world. But that's because they're no longer her characters.
They're outside her control and have taken on a "reality" or existence
of their own, which she needs to recognize and honor."

There will always be a struggle between JKR and us, the fans, over
ownership of this world. [see Arthur Conan Doyle] We know how things
turned out in JKR's world, but there's nothing stopping us from taking
off from there on our own. "It could have gone thiss way..."  JKR
seems a gentle enough spirit to handle it (her generous attitude
towards fanfic is proof enough), and I completely forgive her if she
has enough ego to think she did something special that's hers. Her
attitude will mellow.

I like the idea of approaching these books as history. History is even
more imprecise and imperfect. Like life, the world is messy. All
worlds are messy.

Carol, I regret that your joy in the books has diminished. You've
always been a thinker and valuable contributor, and I'd hate it to
think you feel let down. I didn't want it to end, and I wish it would
go on forever, but I know it can't. I know they aren't perfect. They
can't be. The story was emotionally satisfying, though, and that
counts for me.

Jim Ferer