Silly Taglines and the Perils of Theorising

[carolynwhite2]

--- In the_old_crowd at yahoogroups.com, "annemehr" <annemehr at y...> 
wrote:
Unfortunately, this can be taken as a sarcastic comment on Carolyn's 
McGonagall ideas, which was not my intent at all, since I enjoyed her 
post and actually think there's a very good chance that she's right. 
Sorry, Carolyn! 

>>What I was thinking of when I wrote that is a kind of feeling of 
futility in trying to predict what may be coming next. It's a great 
contrast to the period between GoF and OoP which was a very fertile 
time for many well-thought-out and interesting theories, debated with 
sharp-eyed attention to canon. But now here we are with only two 
books to go, and after OoP I don't have much of a feeling at all 
about the direction JKR is headed with this.

>>>but, you know, I really do miss the theorising, now that I've 
thought about it. These days, my most
serious posts seem to be all about Theme and Characterisation. But I 
want to discuss the Story, too!


Carolyn:
No,no.. no offence taken, I do assure you ! It is really very 
relevant to ask what we think we are doing spinning these endless 
theories. Coincidentally, this evening I had an email from someone 
else, who, although she isn't a member of this group, I know will not 
mind me quoting it here, as it is relevant:

'I really *cannot* take all the Deep Thought and convoluted 
theorizing, especially since every time JKR weighs in on the topic, 
she mocks the theories mercilessly. These really *are* children's 
books; everything always turns out simpler than we think it is, and 
adolescent angst from the adult perspective is way tiresome.'

'Second, while we were geeking out online speculating on the reason 
for the delay in Book 5, Herself was out having a life. She dated, 
found a man, got married and had a baby. And did we learn our lesson? 
Hell, no. We're obsessing about Snape and James and hyphens, and JKR 
is getting laid. [Now] The woman is pregnant again.'

Some of you might be following the current 'Conspiracies & re-
assessment' thread started by Kneasy (111642) which addresses some of 
the same themes, (though naturally from a more briskly upbeat POV on 
Kneasy's part, if not other contributors <g>). 

However, up to a point, I agree with Anne that there seems to have 
been a sea-change in the nature of speculation this time round, 
compared to the feverish anticipation pre-OOP. I have just read part 
of the archives for this group, and it was really rather nice to 
revisit that fantastic excitement and realise I was definitely not 
alone at the time. My impression now though is that the level of 
expectation is much more under control, and this is not just because 
we are only two books from The End.

There seem to be three main causes:

- the plot options are closing down much faster than they need to due 
to the way JKR is choosing to use her website
- something of a consensus is emerging about where she is going with 
the story (few bangs; big moral, maybe even religious theme as the 
answer to it all)
- a niggling worry that she just might not be a good enough writer to 
deliver what are supposed to be two even deeper, more complex books

All this could make for a somewhat dull outlook IMO, but the thing 
that keeps many of us dyed-in-the-wool theorists going is that there 
still seem to be so many layers of meaning that can be extracted from 
the plot and the characters. Even more intriguingly (and amusingly), 
that JKR may have had no intention of putting this complexity there, 
and be pretty irritated that such theories can be supported 
convincingly from canon [so far].

Some people are so worried about this continuing 'bad behaviour' from 
the incurably suspicious that they have even attempted to draw up 
various rules to try and control speculation [111845, 111816]. I 
would be interested to know if people in this group thought it was 
high time theorising was reined in, or whether they thought the 
attempt sublimely ridiculous?

Carolyn
Who would like to award Boyd a catalogue group gold star for re-
hashing old posts to such splendid effect. As he knows, my current 
favourite post from the archives is the The Theory of Socks, read it 
here:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/17156

but his new theory takes it to new heights. BTW, all those of you 
worrying about who is the HBP, he'll be the one one wearing the 
purple socks - ignore any of her flim flam at the beginning of Book 
6, just look at their feet. You heard it here first.