"But my chief problem with what Rowling actually wrote is the character of Harry, and how he did, and did not, develop. ... I thought these books were a coming-of-age tale, and that we'd actually get to see Harry grow up. He didn't. He didn't have to change, in a serious way, at all."
That one is right at the top of my list of gripes with DH, and with the series in general (tied, naturally, with the treatment of Severus.) For the longest time I couldn't understand WHY on earth JKR wouldn't see the problem here! Now, I think it may be that she CAN'T. I went to see HBP with a relative, someone who's only read the books through once and hasn't given much thought to the series. Afterwards we talked, and this was her opinion (makes a lot of sense to me):
JKR said HARRY was the character who just 'came to her,' right? And the books are at least 95% from Harry's POV. (Her interviews to me also seem skewed towards Harry's POV). So in essence they're written 'through' Harry. Dumbledore for instance is the child's idea of God when we first meet him; Snape is the child's vision of the 'nasty teacher,' etc. And while the characters develop some complexity over the course of the series, Harry's view of them never really matures in the sense of understanding them from an adult perspective. He never reaches maturity in any but a biological/legal sense...because JKR (either due to the fact that she's still stuck in the POV of Harry-the-kid-who-appeared-on-the-train, or because she actually isn't that mature herself) can't (or simply won't) actually move to that mature level. She can't write it if she won't go there.
And thus the total lack of reconciliation with Snape, the total lack even of a scene where Harry has to actually emotionally come to GRIPS with this new info, and the necessity of Snape's sudden death. To go there would require a more mature understanding of him and his relationship to Harry! And JKR seems insistent upon remaining within the narrow and immature vision of 'nasty Mr. Nettleship the mean teacher,' who she is thus revenged upon, despite Severus' best efforts at bursting that straightjacket.
Re: THE RUINING OF A CLASSIC
That one is right at the top of my list of gripes with DH, and with the series in general (tied, naturally, with the treatment of Severus.) For the longest time I couldn't understand WHY on earth JKR wouldn't see the problem here! Now, I think it may be that she CAN'T. I went to see HBP with a relative, someone who's only read the books through once and hasn't given much thought to the series. Afterwards we talked, and this was her opinion (makes a lot of sense to me):
JKR said HARRY was the character who just 'came to her,' right? And the books are at least 95% from Harry's POV. (Her interviews to me also seem skewed towards Harry's POV). So in essence they're written 'through' Harry. Dumbledore for instance is the child's idea of God when we first meet him; Snape is the child's vision of the 'nasty teacher,' etc. And while the characters develop some complexity over the course of the series, Harry's view of them never really matures in the sense of understanding them from an adult perspective. He never reaches maturity in any but a biological/legal sense...because JKR (either due to the fact that she's still stuck in the POV of Harry-the-kid-who-appeared-on-the-train, or because she actually isn't that mature herself) can't (or simply won't) actually move to that mature level. She can't write it if she won't go there.
And thus the total lack of reconciliation with Snape, the total lack even of a scene where Harry has to actually emotionally come to GRIPS with this new info, and the necessity of Snape's sudden death. To go there would require a more mature understanding of him and his relationship to Harry! And JKR seems insistent upon remaining within the narrow and immature vision of 'nasty Mr. Nettleship the mean teacher,' who she is thus revenged upon, despite Severus' best efforts at bursting that straightjacket.