What do we lose?

[Lyn J. Mangiameli]

--- In the_old_crowd at yahoogroups.com, "entropymail" <entropymail at ...> wrote:
>snip

> But the bigger issue must be seen in the development of her 
> characters and the resolution of plotlines over the past two books. 
> Or should I say the lack of?  Looked at as a whole, books 1 through 4 
> surely showed a far more cohesive storyline than either OOP or HBP 
> came near to showing.

I totally agree.

 In fact, I think it could be said that, with a 
> few alterations, GOF might have made a fine ending to the series. 

Yes, the last book where I felt satisfied when it ended. It also was the last book, IMO, 
where HP's character was consistent in its development

> 
> But, Geez Louise, by the time OOP came around, we were being 
> subjected to unnecessary character anomalies like Grawp and Umbridge 
> (why? Why?), and don't even get me started on waiting until HBP to 
> mention horcruxes.  

Yes, new characters and props now seem to be contrived to maintain some arbitrary rule 
of X number of new characters and x number of new props and x number of new spells, 
etc. for each book. Could the "inferi" have been any more useless to the plot, or Grawp? 
Rather than better development of past themes and storylines (say DA), we have the page 
space stolen by useless additions that clutter up the story. The final straw came for me 
when Harry's interaction with Snape in the DADA class were essentially left out of the last 
book. So much rich interaction was there to be written, and instead she skirted the hard 
work for silliness like the inferi. 
> 
> All in all, the fun is out of it for me not so much because too much 
> has been resolved outside of the books' covers, but because not 
> enough has been resolved inside of them. 

Exactly.  This is what Pippin missed when she to exception to me complaining about the 
giggly revelations in that infamous interview. If your such a good story teller, and indeed 
she ofen has been, then give us the information in the context of the story. Have it 
revealed in the text.

 The storyline seems to be 
> heading more to a fine point (that is, Voldemort) but, at the same 
> time, is also more rambling, wandering and, I fear, will not end in a 
> satisfying, complex and cohesive way. What we all want when we read 
> the final page of the final book is an ending with something far more 
> intricate and surprising and cohesive than we could ever have 
> postulated. 

Yes, and if she truly pulls that off, she will have my greatest respect. But right now, I 
believe she has squandered her opportunity to write a truly great story. 

Lyn