I love your obsessiveness! I think that comment might have been to that hp_essays pieces about JKR not knowing what the f**k she was doing.:-) I would say that maybe it's not just about getting the reader involved, because maybe what makes us involved is that she herself is. I think she genuinely feels what she's writing, even if she's not always making that felt on the page. (I remember a friend of mine finishing Man in the Iron Mask and being so affected by Porthos' last scene; she said the way it was written she felt like the narrator was sobbing as he said it, and I'd recently read that Dumas WAS sobbing as he wrote it.) She seems to really enjoy stuff and be involved with it.
In fact, for me the parts that seem the least honest are the parts where she tries to have anyone speak about love. It's not that she can't write people loving each other. She can, and all these families prove it. It's just when she tries to reach some sort of Greater Love (for lack of a better word) I don't think it's really there. And that's mirrored in fandom discussions, imo. I've recently been reading a lot of things about what should happen to Snape, etc., and some people assume that the "love" thing means that Harry and Snape will have to reconcile (as Harry and Draco will, imo), and others are very against that because Snape must be punished as JKR's characters are.
It just occurs to me that you'd think at this point, one book away from the end of a 7 book series, that the "love" people should have more evidence for their side, or have more of an idea of how it will work not just in terms of telegraphing ideas but in seeing it actually played out. Instead it's more they (we) are reacting to stuff that characters have said and what we think that must mean. But there's very few examples in the books of anyone really having the sort of love or compassion we assume must be coming into play. Is it just that Harry hasn't developed it yet? But shouldn't he know people who have, or have had some glimpses of it? Instead this kind of love often seems attached to naivite-DD's plans for Snape and Sirius going wrong, for instance. Or his weird speech about wanting to give Harry house cups and not tell him about the prophecy. DD tries to talk about universal compassion, but even he doesn't seem to really have it.His speech claiming responsibility for a lot of what went wrong in OotP is actually a big explanation of how other people failed to live up to the chance he gave them. Not all compassion seems to come naturally to JKR. (By god, the woman thinks Ginny is compassionate and that says it all!)
The best example of the idea being dramatized for me is, ironically, Draco's story, but we don't even know where that will go. We've got two examples of boys sparing another's life. Draco is the villain, but his set up seems more connected to compassion--compassion he's tried to repress--and even so his scene is easily read as cowardice by many. The other is Harry sparing Peter, but it's so different a scene it just doesn't seem to get into quite the same issues. Plus it's even got that pesky life debt (like James and Snape) which also kind of makes it something else. Would DD have owed a life debt to Draco had he lived? Of course not, because the life debt depends on the other person deserving to die. The extra reward undercuts the compassionate ideal.
So I can understand why there's many people who feel no compassion for many characters and don't think Harry really should either, because those feelings are far more dramatized in the text while the "love stuff" seems just tacked on as a non-sequitor. As are many of the lessons in the books, imo. Harry rarely if ever has to choose between what is right and what is easy, and his choice of Gryffindor doesn't say much about his character at all.
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Part I
Date: 2005-12-17 06:00 pm (UTC)In fact, for me the parts that seem the least honest are the parts where she tries to have anyone speak about love. It's not that she can't write people loving each other. She can, and all these families prove it. It's just when she tries to reach some sort of Greater Love (for lack of a better word) I don't think it's really there. And that's mirrored in fandom discussions, imo. I've recently been reading a lot of things about what should happen to Snape, etc., and some people assume that the "love" thing means that Harry and Snape will have to reconcile (as Harry and Draco will, imo), and others are very against that because Snape must be punished as JKR's characters are.
It just occurs to me that you'd think at this point, one book away from the end of a 7 book series, that the "love" people should have more evidence for their side, or have more of an idea of how it will work not just in terms of telegraphing ideas but in seeing it actually played out. Instead it's more they (we) are reacting to stuff that characters have said and what we think that must mean. But there's very few examples in the books of anyone really having the sort of love or compassion we assume must be coming into play. Is it just that Harry hasn't developed it yet? But shouldn't he know people who have, or have had some glimpses of it? Instead this kind of love often seems attached to naivite-DD's plans for Snape and Sirius going wrong, for instance. Or his weird speech about wanting to give Harry house cups and not tell him about the prophecy. DD tries to talk about universal compassion, but even he doesn't seem to really have it.His speech claiming responsibility for a lot of what went wrong in OotP is actually a big explanation of how other people failed to live up to the chance he gave them. Not all compassion seems to come naturally to JKR. (By god, the woman thinks Ginny is compassionate and that says it all!)
The best example of the idea being dramatized for me is, ironically, Draco's story, but we don't even know where that will go. We've got two examples of boys sparing another's life. Draco is the villain, but his set up seems more connected to compassion--compassion he's tried to repress--and even so his scene is easily read as cowardice by many. The other is Harry sparing Peter, but it's so different a scene it just doesn't seem to get into quite the same issues. Plus it's even got that pesky life debt (like James and Snape) which also kind of makes it something else. Would DD have owed a life debt to Draco had he lived? Of course not, because the life debt depends on the other person deserving to die. The extra reward undercuts the compassionate ideal.
So I can understand why there's many people who feel no compassion for many characters and don't think Harry really should either, because those feelings are far more dramatized in the text while the "love stuff" seems just tacked on as a non-sequitor. As are many of the lessons in the books, imo. Harry rarely if ever has to choose between what is right and what is easy, and his choice of Gryffindor doesn't say much about his character at all.