[HPforGrownups] DD's commentary in Beedle the Bard

[k12listmomma]

No: HPFGUIDX 185250

From: "Carol" <justcarol67 at yahoo.com>
> It seems to me that once again, JKR's sense of timing within the
> framework of the story is off, as is DD's motivation. True, he took
> time earlier to comment on or write a preface to "Fantastic Beasts,"
> but that was before the danger of Voldemort's return intensified. By
> Harry's fifth year, DD was busy searching for Horcruxes and possibly
> still investigating Voldemort's past. (Then again, he'd lost his
> position as chief Warlock of the Wizengamot and whatever the other one
> was, so maybe he was a little less busy than usual. But Umbridge was
> High Inquisitor, undermining his control of the school and Voldemort
> was getting stronger, and DD was using his time to comment on
> children's stories? It doesn't make sense to me.)
>
> Admittedly, I haven't read Beedle the Bard (I picked up a copy in a
> Border's store and skimmed it, but I don't recall a single word!), so
> I'm probably wrong on all counts.
>
> Carol, having trouble suspending her disbelief in this particular instance


The problem I have with this book: Dumbledore's commentary isn't 
Dumbledore's at all- it's the voice of Rowling. The words do not sound like 
the Dumbledore we all know and love from the series, it sounds like Rowling 
merely explaining the wizarding world to us, written post production of Book 
7. Only once in the commentaries does it sound like Dumbledore, where he 
recounts fondly of Professor Beery's Christmas production of the Fountain of 
Fair Fortune skit. But again, it smacks of Rowling's post writing recreation 
of the characters she created, recreating Dumbledore as this warm man who 
willing shared funny stories of his past, but yet in the books, Dumbledore 
fails to warmly share anything with Harry in person. He always stops short 
of that kind of relationship with Harry. So just whom is he reminiscing with 
here? Anything he told Harry was all part of the manipulation of getting him 
to fight Voldemort and die, and so what is the point of this commentary? 
It's only (for Rowling) to fill in gaps, tell more of the story, but it's 
told using Rowling's voice and not of that of Dumbledore as she wrote him in 
the story.

So the timing of when he supposedly writes this has two problems- the "fun 
recounting" smacks of a time when Dumbledore had less troubles on his mind, 
and all of the Deathly Hallows stuff smacks of a post Deathly Hallows book 
writing, for if the commentary had indeed been there for Hermione to read, 
most of the Book 7 was spoiled- they didn't need to spend months figuring 
things out if it was all explained clearly by Dumbledore in the commentary. 
Suspend disbelief indeed. I see this writing as no different from her post 
DH interviews, where Dumbledore also becomes gay and other abnormalities 
that don't fit the series as she wrote it. Sometimes I think Rowling forgets 
what she has written before, and that really becomes clear with this book. 
If you don't remember a single word of what she wrote in this book, it's 
probably because most of it is just horrible writing, at least Dumbledore's 
part of it, explaining to us the difference between Muggles and Wizards, and 
that some Wizards despise Muggles, as if we didn't get that at all from 
reading the first 7 books, and the real Wizards reading this book would have 
no need for such an explanation of their very culture!

I just think this is the worst piece of writing Rowling has done- it would 
make much more sense if she wrote the Tales of Beedle the Bard as stand 
alone stories, and left all of the commentary in her own voice. I expected 
any of Dumbledore's commentary to be small notes scribbled along the sides 
of the story (as far as I pictured it from the descriptions in DH), rather 
than these long rantings at the end of each story, spilling details of Mr. 
Malfoy's objection to remove a book from the school library- wait, what did 
that have to do with the tale anyway? Nope, again, this is Rowling adding 
her voice again, forgetting that it was supposed to be Dumbledore's voice 
telling us this, and that the real Dumbledore would have had no need to 
write this information in the first place.

Shelley