Conflicts, cheats and credibility (with spoilers)

[Barry Arrowsmith]

--- In the_old_crowd at yahoogroups.com, ewe2 <ewetoo at ...> wrote:
>
> On 7/23/07, Barry Arrowsmith <arrowsmithbt at ...> wrote:
> > SPOILER.........................................
> > SPACE.............................................
> > THE...................................................
> > BOUNDARY....................................
> > BETWEEN.......................................
> > INNOCENCE..................................
> > AND..................................................
> > DISILLUSIONMENT......................
> >
> > A short rant that some may think is unfair.
> >
> 
> On the whole I think 6/10 is being quite kind. In my experience,
> laughing out loud should be reserved for genuinely funny writing, not
> an absurd plot. 
> snip
 
> Found myself singing songs from Monty Python and the Holy Grail during
> the apparently vital wandering-witless-in-a-forest sections. Why?
> Harry needs more frustration? So he and  Ron can have a
> Horcrux-induced argument about the bleeding obvious? Not enough time
> for whatever-the-hell had to go on elsewhere? No, because the
> Horcruxes ended up being ridiculously easy to find thanks to our old
> friend Deux Ex Machina. One book to sum up a seven book series and we
> still resort to page-filling because we'd already written the
> shortcuts. Coconuts indeed.
> 
> It has been partly due to these great lists that nothing in the book
> seriously surprised me at all. It was effectively a point summary of
> TBAY acronyms. I would not have minded this had there been a better
> plot, because I was already resigned to the ersatz characters but jeez
> Resurrected!Harry finally understands Pensieve!Snape?  If I wasn't
> laughing I was groaning, viz. the Bellatrix-Molly Aliens2 moment, the
> wtf-Neville-has-the-sword moment, the kill-Ginny-not-one-of-the-twins
> moment.
> 
> 5/10. Could do better.
> 

On Saturday afternoon, after I'd finished the book, I browsed through
that days newspaper. Naturally  the book had taken priority over
the dead tree press - but also a banner emblazoned across the top
of the Telegraph's front page advertised 'Reviews of Latest Harry Potter' 
and I wasn't about to risk encountering the smallest, most insignificant
spoiler until the book had been devoured.

As it turned out, I needn't have worried, they were suitably circumspect.
However, the reviews included one from an 11 year old (how the hell 
he'd managed to read the book and dictate a review in time to meet 
the print deadline defeats me) but he made a telling comment:
"It'll look great on film."

No doubt it will.
The set-piece fights, the English countryside  complete with quaint 
villages, the slick (dare one say superficial) resolution of plot puzzles,
teenage angst complete with cod philosophising, a modicum of tasteful
romantic stuff, the flash-backs, and so on, including the final fade out 
scene of the next generation toddling off to Hogwarts in a cloud of 
locomotive steam.
A director's delight.

And I bet that those facets of the book that some of us have been
grumping about would be totally un-noticeable if the book - as is 
- were transferred without change, to film. What we perceive as
failings might be seen as positive benefits to a film script writer.

There were occasional mutterings of the previous two books being
'filmic', this one is the most filmic of the lot IMO. Never forget that
Harry Potter is a business, a franchise, the bottom line matters, and
so far as the money is concerned the books are not the most 
important aspect.

Now I don't believe that Jo is a cats-paw for WB, that'd be silly, but 
the fact remains that the books are big films and Jo has advised and
still is advising - or so I believe. In this continuing situation it would 
be difficult if not downright impossible for a writer not to wonder 
how such-and-such a scene would look on the big screen and set
it up in those terms in her minds eye, even as it was being drafted 
in manuscript.

On the sites we dismiss theories based on 'film contamination'.
Is it possible for a book to suffer from a species of film contamination
or influence as it's being written?

Maybe I'm way off beam, but that quote from that 11 year old did
make me wonder.

Kneasy