[HPforGrownups] Are we being too critical? (was: Epilogue (was Re: Ron and Parseltongue))

[k12listmomma]

No: HPFGUIDX 183462

> Potioncat:
> I don't see the exclusive negativity that you mention, but that may
> just be our own differing perceptions
>
> Lynda:
> It waxes and wanes like everything else. I've just been noticing a lot of
> very critical posting recently, that seems to be focused on what people
> wanted to see that did not happen or was left out.

Shelley:
See, to me, this isn't NEGATIVITY...it's DISCUSSION! (Not shouting, just 
emphasizing.) Negativity, to me, is only in the eye of the beholder who 
feels uncomfortable talking critically about a subject. Some don't have a 
tolerance for critical comments, as they tend to take them personally, 
rather than focus on what's being discussed. It seems like we keep going 
round and round on this. I wasn't seeing anything other than focus on the 
series itself- as pointed out so detailed by others- the list of things that 
they found wrong/distracting/boring about the last book, things that made 
the series less enjoyable for them. Remove that part of this list, and all 
you have is a hallow and rather shallow fan club that shouts "Rah, rah 
Rowling!" without any substance to it. Talking about the book critically is 
the substance of this list- the meat of it. You have to take the good with 
the bad (or in this case, the "bad" with the good), and I'd just as well 
rather getting back to talking about the book rather than to talk about how 
we feel about others talking about the book. So what if (one person) thinks 
we are being negative and critical....to mention it only stifles the 
conversation, does it not?

That we wanted a perfect book- no, I don't see anyone saying that. That only 
puts people on the defensive unnecessarily- it's too close to an attack on 
the person for thinking critically about why this book doesn't satisfy like 
the earlier ones in the series did. The focus is not on what we wanted to 
see happen that didn't happen- again, I think that view is a shallow one 
too- placing emphasis on the reader as being disappointed only because they 
had some fantasy book that would never be written in their mind while 
reading DH as Rowling wrote it. There is a clear difference to me in the 
quality of the series, right up until Book 7 (and some even see it in Book 
6), and some of us are evaluating WHY we feel that these last books are 
different. To do that, we have to see what's different- plot arcs that 
weren't resolved, and new ones that were introduced that distract from the 
series (the many deaths, for me, that seem to be way overdone, and the 
Hallows arc, and the camping, and the mostly-doing-nothing part of the book) 
and how they make us feel. I'm sorry if the last book didn't produce all 
warm and fuzzies for me, and that it bothers you for me to say so, but that 
isn't going to stop me from analyzing the last book in detail to see what 
could have been different to make it a better and more fitting ending for an 
otherwise excellent series.

Montavilla47 did an excellent list of reasons why this series disappointed 
him- if I wrote a post like his it would overlap many of his comments, and 
then double them. But, I'm not going to take the time now to write my long 
post describing all of these events for me, but prefer rather to just 
comment on them when they show up in others posts, as I have been doing all 
along.

Shelley