[the_old_crowd] Spoiling the fun

[susiequsie23]

Kneasy:
Recently Jo has revealed stuff that tends to restrict the fun and  
games; snippets of information or very broad hints as to what is or  
isn't a fruitful line of enquiry. At base we don't really need to  
know just how mistaken our ideas are until the series is completed.  
The final wash-up would seem to be the most apposite time for  
comparing notes and totting up one's final score.  To have  
potentially entertaining speculations rip't untimely from the womb  
for no good or obvious reason is a bit disheartening for an habitual  
theoriser.


SSSusan:
I feel your... if not pain, Kneasy, certainly your annoyance or disappointment with JKR.  I don't share it as much as I understand it, though.

I believe JKR is a different kind of author than most.  Hell, this is a different kind of series than most, as well.  We are all in what is likely to be a once- or twice-in-a-lifetime kind of situation, in the sense of our being in the MIDST of a long series -- a series which includes mysteries large & small -- *while* it's being revealed, AND with an author who is certainly not detached at all from what's happening "out there" in her fandom.  JKR seems to me to be both quite interested in being interactive with her fans and in keeping abreast of what's being said, suggested and reported and hypothesized in her fandom.

JKR has stated that she's writing these books for herself and for no one else, and yet she has chosen to be involved and interactive
with her fans.  IOW, I believe she cares about her fan base and is at least somewhat concerned about how it reacts to her work.  I don't mean concerned in the sense that she'd ALTER things because of it but concerned in the sense of caring about the reaction.  Of course I don't know JKR -- I could be totally wrong -- but this is the sense I get from her because of her willingness and interest in communicating with her fans (many of whom, yes, are children).  

Anyhoo... for right or for wrong, I think the BIG revelations she's dropping -- the theory-stopping types -- she's doing because she either wants to help us along or because she wants to avoid huge segments of pissed-off fans at the end.  I mean, think about it.  EITHER she leaves it all under wraps -- thereby ensuring the Kneasys among us can have loads of fun by virtue of a gazillion open possibilities -- OR she shuts down a few possibilities to help guide us to "more fruitful lines of inquiry" (I put quotes there, but it's a paraphrase).  WHY would she do the latter at the risk of pissing off those who really don't want to have their possibilities limited, thankyouverymuch?  

I think she might because she also knows that to NOT shut down any possibilities might mean big disappointments for that OTHER group of fans which is inclined to be royally pissed that they spent hours & hours & hours of their time developing, crafting, arguing & defending their theories... only to find out not only were they wrong, JKR didn't even *address* their pet topic.  Sure, you can blame these folks for not just looking at it all as the fun of the game, for getting "overly invested," but can you not also see their annoyance when perhaps a simple sentence or two dropped by JKR along the way would've let them know that *that* one isn't going to be a big issue in the story?

This is how I took her remark about DROOBLES & the Longbottoms.  I'm sure JKR knew many fans were really into the possibility that the gum wrappers were a huge secret, a major clue to something that was going to happen.  Maybe she felt the time had come to let them down NOW?  Maybe it's a disappointment... but wouldn't it be easier to adjust to NOW, rather than waiting 'til the end and THEN going, "WTF?!?  She didn't even MENTION the gum wrappers!!"  

Look at the SHIPpers.  ("Gah!" says Kneasy.  "I can't bear to!")  Some of the H/H SHIPpers were *pissed* after HBP.  And JKR felt she'd done a pretty damn good job of dropping hints along the way to prevent people from going the wrong direction with that.  Yet, there were people who accused her of all kinds of things, including *deliberately* misleading them, once the truth was revealed in Book 6.  Maybe JKR shouldn't care about that kind of response -- and maybe she *doesn't.*  But it's possible that she does and that she's trying to avoid TOO much more of that at series' end.


Kneasy:
Ever entered a restaurant, looked over the menu, fancied a few of the  
items only to be told they're off? That's roughly how I feel. And one  
can't help wondering how long it will be before the next set of ex  
cathedra comments knock more items off the menu. A feeling like that  
is not the best frame of mind to be in to compose speculative posts,  
just the reverse.

SSSusan:
Yes, and I do understand what you're saying.  Like Ginger just wrote, I was a little sad to see [assuming Lexicon Steve's source is as reliable as it seems to be] that RAB has been confirmed to be Regulus.  Sure, that was nearly everyone's first thought, but dang, it was fun thinking of R___ Amy Benson or a member of the Bones family.  

So why did she "spoil the fun" [if she did] and tell us about that one?  Why NOT let the theories run wild?  Well, for right or wrong, fault her or not as you will, perhaps she felt, with only one book to go, she'd direct us a bit more to what's fruitful?  Maybe there's some BIG storyline, some major significance to the fact that it's Regulus, and she's steering us towards that.  If that's right, I can see it pissing off the people who love to consider it ALL, not have their avenues narrowed.  But maybe she's more concerned with getting people honed in to the general area.  Of course, I guess that *is* the gist of your complaint, Kneasy -- you just really wish she'd stay out of it and let fan imaginations GO.


Kneasy:
It'll be at least a couple of years before the last episode arrives  
and the greater the list of potential subjects for discussion during  
that stretch, the less likely it is that fans may get bored with  
repetitive postings and drift off.

SSSusan:
Oh, I agree with you here.  Look at TOL.  I still enjoy it, and there *are* some regulars there whose posts I wouldn't miss for the world.  But you're right -- the range of topics just now is pretty damn narrow.  It's Snape this and Horslut that, Snape this and Draco that, Snape this and Snape that.  It's frustrating.  Many of us FEEL the lack of new, elaborate, fun (and funny!) theories.  

It's hard to know how much is JKR's "fault", for the things she's chosen to reveal outside of canon, and how much of it is just from coming down to the end.  

I mean, there's a LOT I still want to know about that *isn't* just whether Snape is or isn't.  It's about GH and just what of Voldy is in Harry and Grindelwald and what Hermione and Ron and Neville are going to do and what the hell Lily & James were like in VWI and all of that.  Why does it matter that someone amongst the staff is/was married?  There's still meat there.  But.  Those things are not being talked about much, are they?


Kneasy:
Most of us fully expect a revised edition to  
appear sooner or later. Might even be helpful if the up-coming final  
volume had a few pages of appendices explaining/correcting some of  
the more ambiguous, dubious or contradictory bits of canon. Can't see  
that any reasonable reader would carp at that, can you? But these  
amendments by interview or by web-site - no, sorry, they don't impress.


SSSusan:
Do you really?  I guess I don't expect that, necessarily.  Not that I'd be disappointed, but I'm not expecting it.  I guess I'd rather she just get it as right as possible on the first go-round.

Siriusly Snapey Susan




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