[the_old_crowd] A Look Back was Re: 'Clue to his vulnerability' (Coming to a conclusion )

[Parker Brown Nesbit]

>--- In the_old_crowd at yahoogroups.com, "Parker Brown Nesbit" <pbnesbit at m...> 
>wrote:
><snip>
> >  I'm hearing a *lot* of dissatisfation from certain quarters (I won't 
>name names, but you know who you are ;) ).

> > I'm wondering then, why read the books at all, if you don't like them?
> >
>
>Lyn here:
>I don't think we would find much in the way of music/film/literary 
>criticism and reviews if
>folks stopped listening/watching/reading the moment they found something 
>dissatisfying,
>or inconsistent, or poorly done.

Probably not, but I have, in the past, stopped reading/watching/listening to 
something that I found dissatisfying, inconsistent, and poorly done.  (Black 
Beauty--the book--comes to mind here.  I started reading it, and when I got 
to the part where the horse is abused, I threw the book across the room, and 
never have finished it.  And I won't.)    I left the movie version of The 
Shining because it was just too awful to sit through.
>
(Snip)

>Do you really think that expressing dissatisfaction with some, maybe even 
>many, aspects
>of an author's work means one doesn't like "the books at all"? Is it 
>required to see the
>works exactly as the author envisions them (or in alignment with the 
>majority of fans) in
>order to appreciate the story within. And might you not entertain the idea 
>that one might
>like some books in a series, or some characters, or some literary 
>contrivances, or some
>subplots, or some phrasing but find fault with others.

I agree--for me, OotP has replaced CoS as my least favourite book.  I've 
only read OotP twice, whereas I've read the others leading up to it many 
times (51 at last count).  I'm certainly not implying that one must love all 
the books in a series or overlook literary contrivances, plot holes, etc.

But I'm not hearing anything on the positive side here.  All I'm hearing is 
she's left holes here, there's plot inconsistencies there, and so on.  So 
I'll throw out another question--what do you *like* about the books?  What 
does she do well?

Parker