I've spent a lot of time this month
rereading Harry Potter, watching the movies as I go along. And I find
it fascinating. Namely because after spending lots of times in the
HP fandom (movies, games, fanfiction, fourms, and yes, the virtual
Hogwarts were I took a semester of classes and was a staff writer for
the Ravenclaw monthly paper....two years ago) it's interesting to see
where my perceptions and memories had differed from the canon
material.
The first book in particular shocked
me, probably because I read it more as an author than as a fan. I
had forgotten just how big a part Neville plays, it's very downplayed
in the movies. He's with them when they find Fluffy, friends with
Harry before Hermonie is, and I'm pretty sure if he had just a bit
more of a curiosity streak we would be talking about a quartet
instead of a trio all the time.
I'd also forgotten how quick the seven
challenges at the end of the book were. Most of them, minus the
mirror at the end, aren't longer than a page and a half. That
chapter took less time to read than watching the events in the movie,
and the movie skipped two of them.
JK Rowling's writing is super, super
succinct. It's almost the opposite of a picture is worth a thousand
worlds. In 200, JK told use what it took the director of the first
film 5 minutes to show. My first time through, I don't remember
being taken with the shortness of the action, so now I'm trying to
figure out just why it's sticking with my mind. Am I just used to
the drawn out climaxes of movies and TV shows? Or since the book has
been published have more recent works had longer action scenes?
Another thing that struck me as a
writer was that what I remembered being the bulk of the book, in fact
wasn't. I remember being enamored with Hogwarts and the mystery of
what Fluffy was guarding, but maybe that's the fandom talking because
in much of it the visuals of the school and magic is striking and
says with you for a long time. But in reality, Harry doesn't even
get to Hogwarts until a third of the book, and you aren't introduced
to Fluffy and the mystery until just past halfway. The pattern is
similar for the Chamber of Secrets as well, though as the series goes
along the proportion of time spent with the Dursley's decreases. (I
have a feeling word count is the same, but the books get longer with
most of that time at Hogwarts.)
Is that normal, to have the memorable
plot not introduced until that late in the game? Or to have the
introduction last so long? As I read several books at once, I've
been comparing JK's style with other authors and I haven't found any
others that push back the main plot so far. And while I can recall
other books were I felt the exposition was a little long, none
where as pushed back as halfway through the book.
Maybe learning about the Stone is a
plot twist based on time, but there really wasn't much happening
prior to it.
Regardless, on my way to start book
four, I really enjoying reading the Harry Potter books again. I've
read them often enough where I'm not picking up on missed things in
the book and can solely focus on the writing and JK's construction of
the world. It's fascinating.
I know nothing about her life before HP, so I don't know if she was writing other things (novels, short stories etc). It's possible she wrote the way we wrote when we first started - she just happened to strike gold and have to learn the craft as she went along.
ReplyDeleteHmm ... clearly I need to re-read the books (again). I forgot all about that Neville stuff too.
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