Further thoughts

[Jen Reese]

Kneasy:
> I agree that while Jo probably had the main characters and 
> plotlines blocked out from the very start it's highly unlikely
> that the detailed mechanics of getting so-and-so from here to 
> there was faultlessly planned. And with the mass of detail and the
> inter-actions of a myriad of characters she presents us with it'd 
> be unrealistic to expect otherwise. IIRC she's talked of plotting
> problems, some major, some minor, before now. And lets face it, if
> say while writing book 5 she has second thoughts and sees a 
> neater/more devious line to take but is hampered by what's in
> previous books, then it'd be a bit of a bugger. 

Jen: I think you're right there. JKR seems to leave the details to 
labor over during the writing of each book. The fact that she 
continues to introduce important characters and plot concepts this 
late in the game makes it impossible not to shunt previous 
characters and plots to the background (or out of the books). Plus 
all the comments about the first thing she plans to do is edit the 
series!

I've been reading old interviews, 97-98, and was struck by the fact 
that even after COS, there was no mention of the plot. I'm curious 
to see if the questions started in 1999, after POA. Deconstructing 
the plot was mostly a fandom phenomenon, right? Not coming from the 
press or JKR, I mean. Most of the talk early on was about her rags-
to-riches story, and JKR didn't hint around about what was to come. 
You don't get the feeling plot construction was uppermost in her 
mind when she started. 

During the interviews this time around, it really struck me there 
can be a disconnect between the hints JKR thinks she's giving and 
what fans may hear. Like in the World Book Day chat:

Q: "What happened to Wormtail?"
JK Rowling replies -> "You'll find out in book six."

Technically JKR was entirely accurate in her answer. We did find out 
Wormtail was alive, and staying at Snape's (during the school year 
too?) and doing...something (spying on him?). I expected a pretty 
complete explanation of Wormtail's activities in Book 6 though, and 
obviously read more into the answer than JKR meant. 

Kneasy:
> But why would the adult Voldemort lie, and about what? His hench-
> wizards follow him more or less blindly, not daring to question 
> him or his aims, and those on the other side know him for what he
> is, what he wants and that he'll stop at nothing to get it. Lies
> are pointless and un-necessary.  Who is going to be fooled?

Jen: I don't know. And being a liar is countered by his obsessive 
need to verbalize his plans to anyone who will listen, so they'll 
realize how clever and scary he is. It's hard to tell the difference.

Kneasy: 
> Plonking down a statement like "You can't trust what Voldemort
> says" is a warning flag IMO. Like you I fear that some passage(s)
> in print have been reconsidered and have been found not to be 
> congruent with something yet to come - and that something is 
> important. Oh dear, hope it doesn't screw up too many of the 
> posted theories.

Jen: Very true. And everything remains pretty open-ended in my mind, 
like you mentioned upthread Kneasy. For every literal answer we got, 
a few more questions opened up: So there IS a DADA curse, but we're 
no closer to knowing how it works or to what end; does the curse 
help explain some of the inconsistencies we have with our DADA 
profs, Lupin and Snape especially? Voldemort IS relying on Horcruxes 
to be immortal, but we have only very scattered clues as to how the 
mechanism works for extracting a piece of the soul and sealing it. 

Jen, not sure what it all means at the moment.