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JK Rowling as Series Writer / Was: JKR As Mystery Writer
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From: Kathleen Horning <horning>
Date: Fri, 22 Sep 2000 07:54:36 -0500
As I recall, Christine's original message attempted only to make a case for "Chamber of Secrets" as a mystery, not every book in the Harry Potter sequence.
I believe it was in the "60 Minutes" interview from fall 1999 that JK Rowling made a comment that provides a lot of insight into the books themselves. She said then that she thinks of all seven books as one long book, broken down into seven separate volumes for the convenience of the reader. One can indeed see clues and foreshadowing in volume one, for example, that play out in volume three. (The role of Scabbers being an obvious example.) And lots of things are left purposely up in the air in volume four because we're actually only midway through the book as a whole. Harry, Ron and Hermione are growing and developing as characters as the story progresses, whereas typical series characters age very slowly, if at all.
I think this is one thing that makes evaluating/analyzing the books at this point especially tricky. We're actually reading a work in progress, not a finished book. Harry Potter is not a series, it's a serial. While we can make critical comments about each individual book, as Christine made a case for "Chamber of Secrets" as a mystery, it's difficult to make broad statements about the story as whole, at this point, because no one has read the whole story yet.
I read recently that there is already a thick reference book out, analyzing the HP books, and that a professor in Germany is offering a whole university seminar on HP! I honestly don't see how it's possible for people to engage in this level of scholarly discourse on an unfinished book. But I find it intriguing that people are attempting to do so.
Kathleen T. Horning (horning at education.wisc.edu) Cooperative Children's Book Center University of Wisconsin-School of Education 4290 Helen C. White Hall 600 North Park St. Madison, WI 53706 608&3930 FAX: 608&2I33
Received on Fri 22 Sep 2000 07:54:36 AM CDT
Date: Fri, 22 Sep 2000 07:54:36 -0500
As I recall, Christine's original message attempted only to make a case for "Chamber of Secrets" as a mystery, not every book in the Harry Potter sequence.
I believe it was in the "60 Minutes" interview from fall 1999 that JK Rowling made a comment that provides a lot of insight into the books themselves. She said then that she thinks of all seven books as one long book, broken down into seven separate volumes for the convenience of the reader. One can indeed see clues and foreshadowing in volume one, for example, that play out in volume three. (The role of Scabbers being an obvious example.) And lots of things are left purposely up in the air in volume four because we're actually only midway through the book as a whole. Harry, Ron and Hermione are growing and developing as characters as the story progresses, whereas typical series characters age very slowly, if at all.
I think this is one thing that makes evaluating/analyzing the books at this point especially tricky. We're actually reading a work in progress, not a finished book. Harry Potter is not a series, it's a serial. While we can make critical comments about each individual book, as Christine made a case for "Chamber of Secrets" as a mystery, it's difficult to make broad statements about the story as whole, at this point, because no one has read the whole story yet.
I read recently that there is already a thick reference book out, analyzing the HP books, and that a professor in Germany is offering a whole university seminar on HP! I honestly don't see how it's possible for people to engage in this level of scholarly discourse on an unfinished book. But I find it intriguing that people are attempting to do so.
Kathleen T. Horning (horning at education.wisc.edu) Cooperative Children's Book Center University of Wisconsin-School of Education 4290 Helen C. White Hall 600 North Park St. Madison, WI 53706 608&3930 FAX: 608&2I33
Received on Fri 22 Sep 2000 07:54:36 AM CDT
