Dumbledore/LONG and bad, SKIP if you do not feel like reading it :-)

[dumbledore11214]

No: HPFGUIDX 190974














>  Lynda:
> 
>  Alla, I have read your posts for many years. I believe you are intelligent, knowledgable and under normal circumstances, logical.

Alla:

I am sorry Lynda, but do you realize that what you wrote is a little bit insulting to me? Under normal circumstances?

Lynda:
I also believe that when you read the HP books you read a completely different story than I did.


Alla:

Yes, as unbelievable as it may seem to you, sometimes readers interpret the story so differently that as Magpie pointed out it may feel that we are reading different books.

Lynda:
It appears to me that when JK Rowling said that Dumbledore was the epitome of goodness, you took that to mean that he was something of a benevolent god figure.

Alla:

No. I took it to mean that more often than not he would behave as somebody who would behave as a good person. It appears to me that in the character of Dumbledore myself and JKR have a difference of opinion as to how good person would behave, thats all.

Lynda:
Rowling made that clear in every interview I have seen or read that addressed the issue that was not meant to be the case.

Alla:

She made it clear that he is not a god? Sure. She did not make it clear that he is not an epithome of goodness as far as I know.

Lynda:
Your fallacy, if there is one here is that you set up a story in your mind that you wanted to read, outcomes that you desired, and when Ms. Rowling wrote a different story, you became unhappy with it.

Alla:

No, your reading of my mind is just plain wrong. Certain elements of the story did not work for me, that is very different from writing a different story in my mind and then critiquing a book based on what I wanted to happen. I wanted Harry to live, that is very true, but even if he died, I know I would not have judged the story based on what would have happened because it was different from what happened. Even when we were fighting about why Snape killed Dumbledore, while I was hoping he would be evil, of course I was keeping other possibility in my mind, it is not like signs were not there. I can go on and on and on. But the bottom line is I *did* go into seventh book with very open mind and trust me, the character of Dumbledore was the character whose fate I thought about the least out of all major characters before book seven started, I mean I thought about his fate mostly in regard to why Snape killed him.

Lynda:
Now that's okay. 

Alla:

What is okay exactly? Something you presumed I thought?

Lynda:
Certainly, I have read books, even entire series of books in which I disagree with the story that the author writes. One of them very, very popular. Still, not only will you never hear me yell "Vampires don't sparkle" when another person who doesn't like Meyers vampire story makes that argument I always say "Stephanie Meyers vampires do sparkle and that's okay. It's her story." Part of that is of course that I don't really care about whether vampires sparkle or not. That's up to the author. I have other problems with that set of books and I choose to simply not be involved with them other than in a very peripheral way. I believe that we as readers need to remember that someone else originally envisioned the story of the books we read. Sure, we can interpret and accept or not accept the story as written in the longterm, but the person who wrote the story had an idea of what she intended to say.

Alla:

And I always say that this is somebody else's story, not mine. However there is *nothing* that would stop me from explaining what elements of the story did not work for me and why and which elements would have worked better for me, which does NOT equal wanting to rewrite the books.


Lynda:
Let the writer say that thing with as open a mind as possible. If the process makes you feel that your mind is more like a wide open hole than a sieve that can collect something valuable, then maybe it's not the story for you.

Alla:

I hear loud and clear what writer has to say, Lynda. I do not HAVE to accept what she has to say without thinking critically about it. I am thinking about a book, a *product* that JKR sent out in the world, which readers can discuss and critique as they deemed fit. Please be assured that this IS the story for me. I just think that character of Dumbledore is quite an unpleasant bastard. Thats all. I read the story because I wanted to see what fate awaits the characters I liked and was invested in. There were plenty of those without Dumbledore.

Alla.