The List update

[Barry Arrowsmith]

--- In the_old_crowd at yahoogroups.com, "eloise_herisson" <eloiseherisson at a...> wrote:
> Kneasy:
> > Why is Hagrid called 'Keeper of Keys'? 
> 
> .............................................
> ES: Hagrid's Keeper of the Keys title: does that mean anything?
> 
> JKR: Just simply that he will let you in and out of Hogwarts, so it's 
> slightly more interesting than that but it's not loads more 
> interesting. So, again, that is something that people shouldn't get too 
> excited about.
> 

That's boring. Not to say irritating.
It seems that Jo has undergone a change of heart since the Paxman
interview in 2003. Jo's answers are responses to the pre-publication
secrecy and to a question about SHIPs, but many have believed that
this attitude had been there from the start so far as letting the cat
out of the bag prematurely was concerned. 

*
Pax: But do you find the whole secrecy issue, the need for secrecy, a
bit ridiculous?

JKR: [...] but I  don't  want the kids to know what's coming, because
that's part of the excitement of the story, and having sweated blood
to create all my red herrings and lay all my clues..
[...]
I don't really want to  say as it will ruin all the fan sites. They have
such fun with their theories...and it is fun, it is fun.
*

Except when the author blithely knocks harmless speculations on the
head for no good reason. What's next, I wonder? A re-assurance that
there won't be a Weasley cull after all? Or perhaps a judicious leak will
spare us the anxiety of worrying further about Snape's motivations?

Recent posts have wondered what's changed, why are there increasing
numbers of fans expressing doubts, concerns, pessimism about the
way things are going. Maybe it's because not only is there the always
present worry as to whether the inventiveness could be maintained
through 7 books, but now there is the awful possibilty that this 
inventiveness isn't as comprehensively inventive as we had hoped.
Worse - it's coming from Jo herself. 

Perhaps I'm being too demanding in my expectations. OK, that has 
always been a possibility. Maybe I'll end up disappointed with the
resolution - that's always been a real possibility too. But can't this 
disappointment be postponed until the last book is published? Then
I can vanish muttering into the sunset, but at least be able to reflect 
that the pointless theorising had been fun while it lasted. It seems to 
me that the ground is being laid (for the inevitable let down for some?)
by administering  the disillusionment in small doses in advance - 
"Don't concern yourself with that, and this means nothing and yes, 
you're right about that - ooh! aren't you clever!" 

Doubleplusungood. 
Not only do I not want to know what's coming, I don't want to know 
what isn't coming either. Each is as bad as the other IMO.

Way, way back on TOL I made a suggestion that Carolyn expanded into
what has become The Catalogue Project - it deserves capital letters,
it's bloody enormous. Anyway, originally it was a simple if sadistic idea
- list all the theories and score them right or wrong when it was all over.
A bit of harmless fun, replete with plaudits, pursed lips, embarassments
and moderate public ridicule for being so daft as to propose whatever. 
(If you can't bear to be seen to be wrong you shouldn't post your theories
for all to gaze at in open-mouthed disbelief.)

Looks like Jo has started on this exercise early.

Kneasy
with the Monday morning grumps.