Thank you. There is hardly more I can say after reading this. I feel blown away, but you mention a great deal of point, which I perceived as well.
I was severely disappointed with Deathly Hallows, as a Snape fan, but also because of the lack of closure we got. Currently, I admit I am actually looking for other people who were disappointed because after all these inconsistencies and, worst of all, these horrible, random deaths (random in a narrative sense, mostly, which was not necessary, imo), it's like being poked with a needle over and over again to hear people swoon about it and say that DH was their favourite book in the series. I mean - OMG! Did you READ PoA? I still think the series up to OotP at least, but possibly even including HBP is a masterpiece of writing. There are flaws in it, but there has never before been such a lifelessness in them as I perceived in Deathly Hallows.
Your show vs. tell observation is spot on. I have come to loathe JK interviews because she keeps telling me things that are not even implied anywhere in the book.
“That the deaths are random and shocking may be appropriate; that they are dismissed in a sentence or two and seem to have no impact on the main characters is not appropriate at all” Yes! Exactly that! I was never able to put this into words, trying to face all those people who were arguing that war required this randomness. Of course it did, but the narration did not. In fact, DH as a novel SHOULD have treated them differently. For literary reasons. It actually IS a weakness of the book. I'll keep myself telling that. Argh!
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Date: 2007-10-12 03:47 pm (UTC)I was severely disappointed with Deathly Hallows, as a Snape fan, but also because of the lack of closure we got. Currently, I admit I am actually looking for other people who were disappointed because after all these inconsistencies and, worst of all, these horrible, random deaths (random in a narrative sense, mostly, which was not necessary, imo), it's like being poked with a needle over and over again to hear people swoon about it and say that DH was their favourite book in the series. I mean - OMG! Did you READ PoA?
I still think the series up to OotP at least, but possibly even including HBP is a masterpiece of writing. There are flaws in it, but there has never before been such a lifelessness in them as I perceived in Deathly Hallows.
Your show vs. tell observation is spot on. I have come to loathe JK interviews because she keeps telling me things that are not even implied anywhere in the book.
“That the deaths are random and shocking may be appropriate; that they are dismissed in a sentence or two and seem to have no impact on the main characters is not appropriate at all”
Yes! Exactly that! I was never able to put this into words, trying to face all those people who were arguing that war required this randomness. Of course it did, but the narration did not. In fact, DH as a novel SHOULD have treated them differently. For literary reasons. It actually IS a weakness of the book. I'll keep myself telling that.
Argh!