How the HP Books Let Me Down: A Tragic Tale

[Eileen Rebstock]

Back in August of 2000, when I first read the four HP books then existing, I'd no idea of the depth of obsession the HP books would inspire in me. In fact, it wasn't until about a year later that I began to delve into their murky and ambiguous text and subtext to bring forth the marvelous treasures that lay hidden within it. I was just getting a handle on the secrets of the Potterverse when Hurricane Jo came along with OotP and laid waste to my careful interpretations. I'm still particularly annoyed by the way she slaughtered my intricate backstory for Avery by making Rabastan Lestrange the Fourth Man in the Pensieve scene. What has Rabastan Lestrange done since his introduction to merit that cruel crack down? Fourth Man!Avery had so much more potential, and yet all that theorizing has been cut off by the fiat of the author. 

 

It was at that point that I began to reconsider the much-scorned theory among HP fans that the HP books might very well be meant for children. I agree that there isn't much going for this theory. The fact that they're marketed to children says nothing about the author's actual intentions, and when Rowling says their children's books, it's quite obvious that she's engaging in some of her classic misdirection. In fact, I'm quite sure I remember some quote from an interview she made once that I can't find by googling but am absolutely sure of, something along the lines of, "I think the books are too complex for children."  Exactly. Furthermore, some of our best theorists have proved without a doubt that HP is actually a clever response to Umberto Eco, and how can you argue with that?

 

Still the nagging suspicion wouldn't go away, possibly due to the increasing infantilism of JKR's work. As each book grew shorter and shorter, with a more simplified vocabulary, and much less death, violence, or general havoc, it became very hard to ignore it. Words cannot explain how horribly devastated I was by the Pensieve scene in OotP, where it was demonstrated once and for all that Rowling mindlessly adored the Marauders and nothing they did could possibly ever be wrong. She continued this simplification, of course, by unambiguously turning Snape into an unconflicted worshipper of Voldemort in HBP.

 

Mainly, however, it's the way she tossed aside the promising Crouch subplot that irks me most. Sure, Barty Sr. was dead and Barty Jr. soul-sucked at the end of GoF, but Barty Sr. could have come back as a ghost, something that I proved beyond a doubt on HPFGU back in the day. I think it should be obvious how much this would have improved the plot, particularly if it'd turned out that Winky really had been sleeping with him. (As an example of how JKR likes to cut down on soi-disant pointless fan speculation, I refer you to an interview where she denied that Winky would ever get over her current alcoholic depression.) When I became a fan, I thought I was reading a Political Story, not some childish fantasy adventure, and that current volumes would feature less Ginny and more Percy. Incidentally, I'm still waiting for the latter to be justified in his complex political stance against his family's more naïve response to the situation. Suffice it to say, I sincerely doubt that JKR will redeem my faith in her by this last book.

 

The tipping point as agreed by our greatest fandom essayists was undoubtedly the interview in which JKR revealed that the J. in Remus J. Lupin stood for John. I must disagree, though, with a common assumption that this was outrageous because the initial so obviously stood for Jupiter. A more careful canon analysis reveals that the only middle name canonically indicated for Lupin is "Janus" ie. The Roman two-faced god of simultaneous beginnings and endings. The reasoning should be self-evident, but in case you are not read up on your canon discourse, remember that Lupin's appearance in PoA is both an end and a beginning for Harry, and that he also presents two faces in that book, the respectable, poor but honest teacher, and the reckless lying-to Dumbledore adventurer. John? I scoff at her John.

 

Ah well, let bygones be bygones. In truth, the middle name thing doesn't matter very much. It's just symbolic of a larger problem, the way all our favourite avenues of theorizing are being removed from us. Alas, this is not a new dilemma. I remember far too well the despair among Tolkien fans back in the late 1940s when the Return of the King came out, shattering our favourite theories. I'd figured that Faramir was going to play a very important part in defeating Sauron, and instead he spent most of the book lying about in the hospital. What's more, in a mark of disdain for his fans, the self-absorbed professor included a few hundred pages of Appendices, leaving *nothing* to the imagination. Gone were all my Sauron-origin theories, plus then he said in an interview that Aragorn did not mean "One Tree King" as had previously been widely accepted among fans. As you all know, the result of this disastrous move on the Professor's part, has been that no one likes his books today, well no one *intelligent*, and there is a complete dearth of theorizing about the gaps in what passes for a Tolkien fandom. Rowling should take heed of this dire warning.

 

I am exhausted and somewhat numbed by the existential grief that has filled me as I reflect on all this. I'd like to finish, however, by quoting a man who understood the numb pain that Rowling has provided her fans with. 

 

"I'm looking through you. Where did you go?

I thought I knew you. What did I know?

You don't look different, but that's the game.

I'm looking through you. You're not the same.

 

Why, tell me why, did you not treat me right?

Love has a nasty habit of disappearing overnight."

 

And so it has. 

 



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]