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valis2I was just reading ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
perverse_idyll's fantastic reaction entry, and it reminded me of something I've been discussing with gillieweed and subrosax for the past few days.
One of JKR's biggest strengths as a writer is how much information she could pare out of her stories and still have them work. You get the sense that she stripped lots of crucial details out of the books. She even mentions that she excised a major plot out of CoS (I think it involved explaining Horcruxes).
The HP fandom reminds me just a little of what I've heard of the Matrix fandom. We have a unique fanbase, just like the Matrix...all because of the mysterious nature of the original work. We have the typical fan writers and artists, but we have lots of essayists and theorists as well, people who puzzle over and attempt to explicate the work.
I just have this feeling that, had she included more information, the books might have actually been a bit better, more fully fleshed out; however, there would have been less theorizing, and I think her popularity might have suffered. HP fandom on the internet would have been diminished somewhat had the mysteries been illuminated earlier, I think. I also think that her writing, while very good, isn't the greatest, and without the mysteries it might not have captured quite as many imaginations. The end result of this secretive method is that she has to completely overwhelm the reader with everything in the last book. I'm still trying to grasp the Elder Wand stuff.
perverse_idyll's fantastic reaction entry, and it reminded me of something I've been discussing with gillieweed and subrosax for the past few days.One of JKR's biggest strengths as a writer is how much information she could pare out of her stories and still have them work. You get the sense that she stripped lots of crucial details out of the books. She even mentions that she excised a major plot out of CoS (I think it involved explaining Horcruxes).
The HP fandom reminds me just a little of what I've heard of the Matrix fandom. We have a unique fanbase, just like the Matrix...all because of the mysterious nature of the original work. We have the typical fan writers and artists, but we have lots of essayists and theorists as well, people who puzzle over and attempt to explicate the work.
I just have this feeling that, had she included more information, the books might have actually been a bit better, more fully fleshed out; however, there would have been less theorizing, and I think her popularity might have suffered. HP fandom on the internet would have been diminished somewhat had the mysteries been illuminated earlier, I think. I also think that her writing, while very good, isn't the greatest, and without the mysteries it might not have captured quite as many imaginations. The end result of this secretive method is that she has to completely overwhelm the reader with everything in the last book. I'm still trying to grasp the Elder Wand stuff.
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Date: 2007-07-24 12:04 am (UTC)I think she plotted it all out, and then carefully pulled on this string and that until she knew which she could plant early, and which she could reserve. I have a feeling that she put it all together at first, and then pared away that which would have given anything away. Talk about holding your cards close to your chest!
But I really sympathize. Just my amateur efforts in tLS makes me appreciate what a nightmare having a lot of words to synch up can be. I am always amazed at how things grow as you're writing them...and how some things shrivel! *laughs* And to keep it all humming the same tune is pretty damned difficult.