[the_old_crowd] Themes and theories

[Mike & Susan Gray]

David wrote,

> But it doesn't matter if I'm wrong about the details here: where I
> think I will be vindicated is that the eventual resolution - the 
> defeat of Voldemort, the explanation of the events at Godric's 
> Hollow, the resolution of the old conflict among the founders, the 
> resolution of Snape's fate - will turn not on a mechanical juggling 
> by Dumbledore but on the themes of love, choice, loyalty, unity in 
> diversity, and acceptance of the place of death in the universe, 
> that have dominated the books to date.

Nice to see you around David - and I thought I'd welcome myself back to
active posting with a grand me too.

I agree about JKR's weak plotting. ("Sucks"? Well, that's maybe a little
tough? Maybe it's more like watching a top tennis player with a "weak"
backhand: weak by their standards, though it would blow a hack like me
right off the court.) I'd even stretch that weakness to include the
whole planning of her imaginary world. A long time ago, I remember
reading an article by Alan Richardson, where he claims that Rowling,
more like Tolkien than Lewis, has mythopeia "in spades."

At the time, I agreed. I don't any more. I would now say that JKR's
creativity is much more like Lewis' - if anything even patchier. (For
the record, I don't really give a rip. The special things about Jo's
writing are her fundamental values - which you mentioned -, her sense of
humor - which I think is devestating -, and a hyperactive, irrepresible
creativity that expresses itself more in clever, ad hoc plot devices
than in strategic, Tolkinien breadth.)

The humor and the plot devices alone could never carry her series home -
but I think - as you say - that her grasp of those basic human themes
will be enough to pull it through.

* * * *

The one thing I'd really like to see her wrestle with, though, is
freedom. Issues of freedom, character, choice and destiny are obviously
important to Jo. But the house system and sorting hat (otherwise known
as a charactometer - accent on the third syllable) either call the whole
thing into question or set the stage for some really compelling thinking
about the issues - and ambiguities thereof. (I'd love to see the Sorting
Hat turn out to be the great tragic figure of the whole series - even
more than Snape, defintely more than Pettigrew.)

Hope, they say, is the certainty of things not seen. Me, well, I'm doin
my best.

Baaaaaa!

Aberforth's Goat (a.k.a. Mike Gray) 
_______________________

"Of course, I'm not entirely sure he can read, 
so that may not have been bravery...."