Thursday, June 29, 2006

She wouldn't dare

Or would she?



12 comments:

Armagnac Esq said...

YES PLEASE!

And herniona too.

Ampersand Duck said...

I wouldn't dare bet either way.

I'd be very proud of her if she did, because it would free her for life, and show that she's got guts.

Mind you, it would be tragic. I cried over Dumbledore, who was my favorite character. Still, I guess he'll live on in his talking portrait.

Matthew da Silva said...

Who cares!

I mean, really...

I went to see the last Harry Potter movie when I was on holidays, in Queensland. It sucked so bad there was no oxygen left in the theatre. I ran for air. Whew! That was close.

Oh and, no, I've never read any of her productions, if you really want to know.

Kerryn Goldsworthy said...

Good to see you're not letting your lack of knowledge get in the way of having an opinion there, Dean.

Armaniac, sorry dude, but since you're to be a dad shortly then you're going to have to acquire a taste for JKR if you want the bub to approve of you.

The answer to the question 'who cares' is 'I do' (and clearly so does &D) -- but then, I've read all the books, several times, and know exactly how good they are, and why. Umpteen squillion children agree with me.

Melly` said...

Oh.. she mustn't and can't! Those books are SOLEY RESPONSIBLE for my son finally showing interest in books! I HATE reading aloud... and it was so FRUSTRATING to read to my small son when I desperately wanted to skip ahead and read it at my speed... AND THE JOY IN THE DAY HE READ FOR HIMSELF!!!! And the pain of overhearing him tell his sister that he was sick of me going quiet and suddenly skipping a few pages.....

I love an "escape from reality" read. NAH... it has to be a joke.

Although one day my girls told me that I reminded them of HAGRID! Cause I am big and hairy and love all animals! I wonder if that was a compliment?

tigtog said...

She has an amazing gift for plotting and weaving in allusions. I sometimes find her prose lumpen, but I race throught the books to find out what happens next anyway.

Kerryn Goldsworthy said...

Yeh, I've heard a few people say they don't like JKR's prose, but I don't have a problem with it (bearing in mind it is written for kids). It has a lot of deadpan humour in it -- sometimes in the word order itself, like Henry James -- that's clearly meant to keep the grownups awake but that many (though not all) kids would miss. I like it partly because she never, ever makes any kind of mistake with grammar or syntax!

tigtog said...

It would be a good move on her part in some ways to kill Harry off. It would be a definite end (sez A.C.Doyle).

It would give her a chance to write whatever her next book is without constant Harry speculation. (Assuming she can be bothered to keep on writing, but why wouldn't she?)

One thing I do very much admire is the way she's shifted her narrative/dialogue style to suit whatever age Harry is in the book, so that as Harry and his readers age, the books mature with them. That's clever.

Kerryn Goldsworthy said...

Ah yes -- Harry Potter and the Mystery of the Reichenbach Falls. Perhaps 'Voldemort' will turn out to have been short for 'Voldemoriarty', which will turn out to have been an anagram of 'Tarry, evil doom!'

Or not.

(Hmm ... need to watch those school reunion nights on the pish. Clearly they are bad for one.)

Ampersand Duck said...

Yes, PC. She's either good at grammar, or she's got a really good editor. I'm inclined to think it's option a, because a really good editor would have put her foot down by now about JKR's dreadful verses. I cringe whenever the Sorting Hat starts up or some other such 'poetic' moment appears, because she can't make a line scan to save her life! It's her Achilles Heel.

JahTeh said...

I love Harry Potter and can't wait for the next. They're my comfort books when I'm miserable and I've read worse 'grown-up' books than these.

Colour me non-intellectual.

Kerryn Goldsworthy said...

Au contraire, JahTeh! Rowling manages to write books that are both beloved of children and also full to the gunwales of literary and mythological allusions, unacknowledged literary quotations and samplings, and multilingual language jokes. It's the opposite of non-intellectual to like these books.