Narrative Wedgies
The time has come for my very spoilerific review of Order of the Phoenix. So those who do not want to be spoiled may keep the spoiler space between them and knowledge of Book 5.
F
R
A
N
K
I
E
D
I
D
T
H
E
M
U
R
D
E
R
O
F
M
A
R
G
A
R
E
T
Was deeply impressed by Book 5. I hate phrases like "the author has really hit her stride" and so on, but I feel that JKR's craft has steadily improved since the first book, and with this book has made a visible improvement even over Goblet of Fire. She doesn't feel the need to spell every bloody thing out anymore; she lets the characters speak for themselves. A case in point: When Umbridge throws Trelawney out in front of the whole school, it is, Harry notices, Professor McGonagall who looks ill and then goes to comfort her and help her to get back to her rooms. JKR just narrates this scene; she feels no need to tell the reader, "And in case you weren't paying attention the last two books, McGonagall has no respect for Sybill Trelawney and her teaching methods. She must really hate Umbridge, to side with Trelawney like that." JKR has learned more how to let well alone, and her scenes are stronger for it. This is not to say that JKR does not still sometimes rely too heavily on the emotive adverbs and the italics--CAPITAL LETTERS--ITALICIZED CAPITAL LETTERS to carry the pitch of her scenes ("Harry said darkly", "said Hermione guiltily"); but even with this peccadillo (one I've come to have an affection for, so it can't be that bad), she is still letting her characters carry the burden of the story. Fred and George, for instance, bear the sad tidings of Percy; Hermione explains that Ginny's increased confidence around Harry is due to her getting a boyfriend; Ron's responses to his prefecture and his Quidditch responsibilities, taken all together over the course of the book, reflect his growth without too heavy a touch or too unbelievable a change.
Particularly gobsmacking was the scene in St. Mungo's where Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny meet Neville and his grandmother. Neville's grandmother explains their presence to Ron, Hermione, and Ginny; Neville's mother comes out to offer Neville a gum wrapper; Neville surreptitiously puts it into his pocket; and he and his grandmother leave the others in consternation and grief. Their silence is then broken by Lockhart saying, "Look, I didn't learn joined-up writing for nothing, you know!" This is one of the dexterities of JKR's writing: to introduce a little bit of humor at the end of a dark scene and make the darkness all the more satisfyingly moving.
I found myself -- well, not strangely -- unmoved at the scene of Sirius's death. I am not sure whether this is an index of my emotional disengagement, or if it's just really hard to write painful scenes and keep the reader coming with you through the fire. I do not cry at sad movies, weddings, funerals, or other horrific scenes. I did not cry when Francis Crawford was forced to sacrifice a child's life to win a human chess game in Dorothy Dunnett's Pawn in Frankincense. So I do not think necessarily that JKR wrote that part badly. Harry's response to this -- crowning his response to everything that has happened to him in this book -- is more powerful for me than it has been before. I find his grief for Sirius more believable than his previous hatred for Sirius and determination to kill him.
Which brings me to Harry and his anger. I think it's about time he started losing patience with his enforced ignorance. He was interrupted in his first-ever (that I recall) attempt at real weeping in the last book, by Hermione's capture of the Rita-beetle; and since then he has been held at the Dursleys' incommunicado -- from within and without. He bites off Ron's and Hermione's heads, and they keep their patience with him, but show him clearly where the line is. His "saving-people-thing" leads him to make plans that blow up in his face despite his very satisfying success at teaching other students Defense Against the Dark Arts. I am quite avid by now to find out how Harry will act next.
The Occlumency arc. Some very familiar things -- Snape's smooth contempt for Harry, Harry's mental block when studying something difficult -- combine with new things -- their mutual discovery that they have had equally difficult lives -- to create the brilliant chemistry between them that I have been hoping for for three years. Again, JKR doesn't lean too heavily on the implications of their confrontation; she lets them carry the burden of the change in their relationship. So that by the end, when Harry tells Snape explicitly that he was trying to curse Malfoy when Snape interrupted, Snape's response hardly achieves the irascible spite he's been known for the last four years, and in fact he requires the appearance of Professor McGonagall to carry off his attempt at punishing Harry believably. Both Harry and Snape are so startled by what's happened to their relationship that merely remaining in denial is not enough to keep them from struggling to maintain their appearance of enmity for the sake of the Order -- Harry in front of Umbridge and Snape in front of Malfoy. Not that they're all lovey-dovey or anything; I'm just saying that they've both been deeply unsettled, and again I'm avidly looking forward to the turns this chemistry of theirs will take.
Ginny and Ron. I cheered throughout the book at the emergence of Ginny's strength both as a character and as a player in the fight against Voldemort. Her calling Harry out when he avoided everyone in fear that he'd been possessed by Voldemort, her affinities with Fred and George -- all of them ringingly justify the brilliance of Arabella's fanfic "The Very Secret Diary" -- and more. Ron...well, I'd love to dwell a lot on Ron, but I think that will require a whole nother post and I want to get in some work on Chapter 15 this evening.
Oh, and I suppose I'd better explain the title of this post. I think RJA won't mind me quoting our IM conversation:
Me: I LOVED the whole Occlumency arc.
RJA: Yes, it's really cool, isn't it?
Me: I just loved the whole way JKR prolonged and prolonged the enmity between Snape and Harry, like stretching out this big rubber band, and then snapped them both with it. Very satisfying.
RJA: *snickers*
RJA: Sorry, that metaphor just made me think of an underwear waistband.
Me: narrative wedgies?
RJA: Zzzzing! "Ouch!"
And I think that JKR, having given us all another narrative wedgie, well deserves a shout of praise.
The time has come for my very spoilerific review of Order of the Phoenix. So those who do not want to be spoiled may keep the spoiler space between them and knowledge of Book 5.
F
R
A
N
K
I
E
D
I
D
T
H
E
M
U
R
D
E
R
O
F
M
A
R
G
A
R
E
T
Was deeply impressed by Book 5. I hate phrases like "the author has really hit her stride" and so on, but I feel that JKR's craft has steadily improved since the first book, and with this book has made a visible improvement even over Goblet of Fire. She doesn't feel the need to spell every bloody thing out anymore; she lets the characters speak for themselves. A case in point: When Umbridge throws Trelawney out in front of the whole school, it is, Harry notices, Professor McGonagall who looks ill and then goes to comfort her and help her to get back to her rooms. JKR just narrates this scene; she feels no need to tell the reader, "And in case you weren't paying attention the last two books, McGonagall has no respect for Sybill Trelawney and her teaching methods. She must really hate Umbridge, to side with Trelawney like that." JKR has learned more how to let well alone, and her scenes are stronger for it. This is not to say that JKR does not still sometimes rely too heavily on the emotive adverbs and the italics--CAPITAL LETTERS--ITALICIZED CAPITAL LETTERS to carry the pitch of her scenes ("Harry said darkly", "said Hermione guiltily"); but even with this peccadillo (one I've come to have an affection for, so it can't be that bad), she is still letting her characters carry the burden of the story. Fred and George, for instance, bear the sad tidings of Percy; Hermione explains that Ginny's increased confidence around Harry is due to her getting a boyfriend; Ron's responses to his prefecture and his Quidditch responsibilities, taken all together over the course of the book, reflect his growth without too heavy a touch or too unbelievable a change.
Particularly gobsmacking was the scene in St. Mungo's where Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny meet Neville and his grandmother. Neville's grandmother explains their presence to Ron, Hermione, and Ginny; Neville's mother comes out to offer Neville a gum wrapper; Neville surreptitiously puts it into his pocket; and he and his grandmother leave the others in consternation and grief. Their silence is then broken by Lockhart saying, "Look, I didn't learn joined-up writing for nothing, you know!" This is one of the dexterities of JKR's writing: to introduce a little bit of humor at the end of a dark scene and make the darkness all the more satisfyingly moving.
I found myself -- well, not strangely -- unmoved at the scene of Sirius's death. I am not sure whether this is an index of my emotional disengagement, or if it's just really hard to write painful scenes and keep the reader coming with you through the fire. I do not cry at sad movies, weddings, funerals, or other horrific scenes. I did not cry when Francis Crawford was forced to sacrifice a child's life to win a human chess game in Dorothy Dunnett's Pawn in Frankincense. So I do not think necessarily that JKR wrote that part badly. Harry's response to this -- crowning his response to everything that has happened to him in this book -- is more powerful for me than it has been before. I find his grief for Sirius more believable than his previous hatred for Sirius and determination to kill him.
Which brings me to Harry and his anger. I think it's about time he started losing patience with his enforced ignorance. He was interrupted in his first-ever (that I recall) attempt at real weeping in the last book, by Hermione's capture of the Rita-beetle; and since then he has been held at the Dursleys' incommunicado -- from within and without. He bites off Ron's and Hermione's heads, and they keep their patience with him, but show him clearly where the line is. His "saving-people-thing" leads him to make plans that blow up in his face despite his very satisfying success at teaching other students Defense Against the Dark Arts. I am quite avid by now to find out how Harry will act next.
The Occlumency arc. Some very familiar things -- Snape's smooth contempt for Harry, Harry's mental block when studying something difficult -- combine with new things -- their mutual discovery that they have had equally difficult lives -- to create the brilliant chemistry between them that I have been hoping for for three years. Again, JKR doesn't lean too heavily on the implications of their confrontation; she lets them carry the burden of the change in their relationship. So that by the end, when Harry tells Snape explicitly that he was trying to curse Malfoy when Snape interrupted, Snape's response hardly achieves the irascible spite he's been known for the last four years, and in fact he requires the appearance of Professor McGonagall to carry off his attempt at punishing Harry believably. Both Harry and Snape are so startled by what's happened to their relationship that merely remaining in denial is not enough to keep them from struggling to maintain their appearance of enmity for the sake of the Order -- Harry in front of Umbridge and Snape in front of Malfoy. Not that they're all lovey-dovey or anything; I'm just saying that they've both been deeply unsettled, and again I'm avidly looking forward to the turns this chemistry of theirs will take.
Ginny and Ron. I cheered throughout the book at the emergence of Ginny's strength both as a character and as a player in the fight against Voldemort. Her calling Harry out when he avoided everyone in fear that he'd been possessed by Voldemort, her affinities with Fred and George -- all of them ringingly justify the brilliance of Arabella's fanfic "The Very Secret Diary" -- and more. Ron...well, I'd love to dwell a lot on Ron, but I think that will require a whole nother post and I want to get in some work on Chapter 15 this evening.
Oh, and I suppose I'd better explain the title of this post. I think RJA won't mind me quoting our IM conversation:
Me: I LOVED the whole Occlumency arc.
RJA: Yes, it's really cool, isn't it?
Me: I just loved the whole way JKR prolonged and prolonged the enmity between Snape and Harry, like stretching out this big rubber band, and then snapped them both with it. Very satisfying.
RJA: *snickers*
RJA: Sorry, that metaphor just made me think of an underwear waistband.
Me: narrative wedgies?
RJA: Zzzzing! "Ouch!"
And I think that JKR, having given us all another narrative wedgie, well deserves a shout of praise.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home