Sometimes what's most interesting is to hear something said by a biased character that's sort of right
There's that, too; what I was thinking of was the theme of knowledge that is hanging over our heads still. What I love is how I (or anyone) can argue that the text hints equally at Snape being trustworthy and untrustworthy. We 'know' he's trustworthy through Dumbledore (Hermione's position), but we don't *know* for ourselves, the basis for Ron's skepticism. [I use that because it's the handiest example, but there are many others. I'd like to think Rowling knows what she's doing, stringing us along like that.]
I admit it is kind of funny to see fandom happily run from one extreme to the other based on whateve was said last
I, ummm, get a lot of kicks out of it. Which makes me a bad person, or something. :)
If you ever have the time and the inclination to masochism, let me again (blah blah blah) pimp the works of Iser, who talks about all of this in dense and impossible language with amazing little insights. They're like Easter eggs hidden in thornbushes. What he gets at so nicely is how texts provoke strong positions, which then run into other bits of text with equally strong and often disjunct positions, and the art of the reader lies in navigating the mess and figuring out the multiple possibilities of what's going on.
Now, back to the last bit of vacation...I always enjoy these discussions, though. :)
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Date: 2005-03-15 08:34 pm (UTC)There's that, too; what I was thinking of was the theme of knowledge that is hanging over our heads still. What I love is how I (or anyone) can argue that the text hints equally at Snape being trustworthy and untrustworthy. We 'know' he's trustworthy through Dumbledore (Hermione's position), but we don't *know* for ourselves, the basis for Ron's skepticism. [I use that because it's the handiest example, but there are many others. I'd like to think Rowling knows what she's doing, stringing us along like that.]
I admit it is kind of funny to see fandom happily run from one extreme to the other based on whateve was said last
I, ummm, get a lot of kicks out of it. Which makes me a bad person, or something. :)
If you ever have the time and the inclination to masochism, let me again (blah blah blah) pimp the works of Iser, who talks about all of this in dense and impossible language with amazing little insights. They're like Easter eggs hidden in thornbushes. What he gets at so nicely is how texts provoke strong positions, which then run into other bits of text with equally strong and often disjunct positions, and the art of the reader lies in navigating the mess and figuring out the multiple possibilities of what's going on.
Now, back to the last bit of vacation...I always enjoy these discussions, though. :)