[the_old_crowd] The Protection of the Prophecy Plot (Was: Themes and theories)

[Catherine Coleman]

--- naamagatus <naama_gat at ...> wrote:

> 
> --- In the_old_crowd at yahoogroups.com, "davewitley" 
> <dfrankiswork at n...> wrote:
> > 
> > My own feeling is that the 'big themes' and the 'central mystery' 
> > are the same thing.
> > 
> > My impression of JKR is that, despite the many elaborate 
> > speculations that have arisen in fandom, she just doesn't do 
> > complexity.  She also, IMO, mostly sucks at tight plot 
> construction -
> >  POA is the least bad, and even there Sirius' actions are hard to 
> > construe.  I am strongly suspicious that Dumbledore's 'screw-ups', 
> > for example, are really JKR's screw-ups - or rather, JKR's lack of 
> > concern for consistency in a magical fantasy series.
> > 
> 
> I couldn't agree more. The very diversity and complexity of the 
> conspiracy theories here are an indication of the number and variety 
> of the holes that beg to be plugged. Like you, I think they are 
> simply that - holes (rather than clues). 

I agree with this as well.  As much as I enjoyed OoP (and I'm surprised and intrigued to discover
that there are at least 3 newcomers to this list who cite it as their favourite of the series so
far), I was very dissatisfied with the whole prophecy plot line.  Not so much regarding the
prophecy itself, but I still cannot comprehend why exactly it was so important to guard the
prophecy - or even keep it in existence.  Yes, there is the whole insanity thing to get around,
but why on earth couldn't they have just smashed it?  Dumbledore, after all, had (allegedly)
perfect recollection of it.  I can only think of two reasons - one, that Voldemort wasted almost a
whole year trying to get hold of the prophecy, and so bought Dumbledore some time, and two, that
he was trying to lure Voldemort into revealing himself at the Ministry, which he presumably
expected only to work if Voldemort failed to lure Harry there first, hence the importance of
occlumency.  

I'm sure there has been much discussion on this over on HPFGU - as you can see, I haven't visited
there for while.

Catherine


		
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