New Card Story (was Re: Muggles v wizards redux)

[potioncat]

No: HPFGUIDX 183275

Jerri/Dan Chase"  wrote:
>
> I have been away and came back to the in-depth discussion of JKR's 
> treatment of Muggles and Muggle/Wizarding World relations in the 
> series as a whole, and with parts of the discussion relating to the 
> new short-short story JKR wrote for the Waterstone charity 
fundraiser 
> about James and Sirius and the police and the motorcycle, etc.
> 
> I want to focus on just this new bit of writing.

Potioncat:
Interestingly enough, the thread about the post card is very active a 
the OT site. I take it, most of us don't consider it canon? or was it 
just a fluke that it took off over there?


Taking it just as it it, a short ficlet for charity it's OK. It's a 
quick little adventure. The dialogue and some of the descriptions 
left me flat. In fact, at one point I wondered if it was a hoax.  


Jerri:
> And couldn't she leave out the "fat" jokes about the poor 
policemen. 
> Cheap laughs about fat people seem so out of place, for someone who 
on 
> her web site expressed concern about young women and girls with 
weight 
> and image issues!  

Potioncat:
After I finished the little story, I wasn't sure if I was annoyed at 
her stereotypical police-buffoon character (The character sounded 
just like Chief Wiggam from the Simpsons.) or, if I was annoyed at 
her portrayal of Muggles as inept. Either way, I didn't care for the 
humor.

It is, however, fairly standard cardboard characters one would find 
in a story that had an arrogant teenaged hero as the main character. 
It would have been more interesting to show James and Sirius facing a 
lean, tough cop, if you ask me. But for the humor to work, James and 
Sirius had to be smarter than the policeman. Which explains it all, 
really.  ;-)