Spoiling the fun

[Lyn J. Mangiameli]

--- In the_old_crowd at yahoogroups.com, "Barry Arrowsmith" <arrowsmithbt at b...> wrote:

> 
> Could be a combination of things - clearing the decks and damping down fan
> expectations. It's a possibility (no more) that although the basic plot thread
> was right there from the start, minor threads and sub-plots weren't, were added
> to provide the required complexity/depth - but that what at one time seemed 
> like a nice bit of background/detail/minor action has come back to bite her on 
> the bum, metaphorically speaking. It might be obstructing the resolution of
> something else that's more important to the books.
> 
> Rewrites have been done before - whole chapters dumped - holes discovered
> and fixed. Maybe it's happened again. Perhaps somewhere there's a not-quite
> satisfactory-enough version of HP where Frank and Alice live happily ever after, 
> but it had to go. Doesn't explain spilling the beans on RAB, though.
> 
> Nope. Like much else to do with HP we lack sufficient information to be sure.
> 

Lyn now:
Yes, as always with JKR, we lack sufficient information to be sure...but certainty of a sorts 
will come with Volume 7, and I think more than just some fans are beginning to dread that 
moment. Rowling has created a more complex world, and more subplots than she can 
possibly resolve and illuminate in the final book, even if it is 1200 pages. Frankly, I resent 
being drawn in to all these subplots to have her abandon them, sometimes with an air that 
it was foolish for me to have ever taken an interest in them. Afterall, what did she include 
them if not to have us attend to them with interest. And why oh why did she feel the need 
to clutter up the series with even more new contrivances in HBP when she already had 
more than she could handle. Did Inferi really add anything, did the HXs. My initial reaction 
to the HBP was positive, if for no other reason than I was starved for new HP material and I 
was able to obtain it without going through the drawn out angst of another Umbridge. My 
long term reaction to the HBP is increasingly negative. I don't like the fast paced, screen 
play tempo of this book. I don't think it carries its plot forward with much depth or even 
consistency. I think it short changed us on some of the most interesting character 
interactions that were set up over the rest of the series (I specifically point to the almost 
total lack of DADA classes with Snape, the development or abandonment of SPEW and the 
elves reaction to it, the evolution of DA as not only a source of student self improvement, 
but an arena where all houses could come together).  We are brought to see Luna and 
Neville as fuller characters in OOTP, yet they get short shrift in HBP so she can spend time 
bringing in a couple of relatively meaningless characters.

It seems to me that Rowling is all too aware the next book can't deliver  when it comes to 
providing a satisfactory closing on such characters as Luna, Dobby, Neville, Fred and 
George, Tonks and likely Firenze, Hagrid, Ginny and Lupin. If two of these characters get 
adequately developed in the final volume, I'll be surprised.  No, I think Rowling is growing 
aware that she has offered far too much in canon thus far, in part because of a lack of 
discipline in adding characters, than she can possible deal with in one final book. I also 
think, and don't blame her for this one, that she has seen that the products of 100s of fine 
minds (I'll try to ignore the  lesser drivel) can often offer richer and more compelling tales 
than what she originally put in print.

And as you already know, I was not at all pleased with her giddy performance before the 
select pair of syncophants. Waaay too much like a clique of pre-pubescent females 
gigging with each other and feeling superior in their standing to those outside the in-
crowd. Regardless of the motives for her "revelations" on this occasion, the process did 
not garner respect for any of the group. 

Sadly, I find myself enjoying the works, and liking the principle characters less after 
reading the last two books. I hope the trend can be reversed, but I'm growing to believe 
this is less likely with every passing "interview."