Rowling's interviews (was A BIAS in the Pensieve)

[davewitley]

Mel wrote:
>
> Listening to/reading these interviews is guaranteed to bring on a 
> raging migraine.  I used to put it down to being stunned and 
> unprepared by her sudden celebrity status but she's had plenty of 
> time to get used to it now. Now she's just leading people along.

Um.  What do you expect?  What do you think she should do?  Spoil 
the plot, or just efuse to answer all questions?

 The 
> string of "almost" deaths in OoP was the last straw. For how many 
> years had she been bemoaning that "someone" was going to die in 
the 
> book, and "oh how horrible" it will be and "I cried when I wrote 
it" 
> blah blah--then she took every opportunity for a cheap fake-out of 
> her readership. 
> As a reader, I found that insulting, to be honest. I'd started 
> carefully vetting what interviews of hers I'd read (I'd stopped 
> listening a long time ago, "um....er....uh..." gets old fast) but 
> now I won't even *read* published interviews.

I don't understand.  Are you saying that she failed to deliver in 
proportion to the build-up?  While I was not personally upset by 
Sirius' death, the event certainly reverberated around the fandom, 
enough for the anniversary of OOP publication to be marked by 
memories of the shock.

I'm not sure what you mean by a 'cheap fake-out of her readership'.  
If you mean that we read OOP in expectation that somebody was going 
to die, and so got an extra frisson out of seeing Arthur, Hermione 
etc. injured, isn't she just doing her job?

David