He said, she said (HP)
Jun. 9th, 2004 02:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thistlechaserI'm rereading the series (which goes much faster when you have the books as files you can read at work), and I have confirmed that GoF is my favorite book by far. To me, it's way more scary and emotional than the other books, and many of my favorite characters had big parts in it.
Unfortunately I finished it last night, so now I'm reading my least favorite book of the series: OotP. (Can you believe I lost the hard copy of it? How can you lose a book as big as a phone book?) It's not just that I didn't like the book much, the lack of fulfilled potential makes me really really sad. She used... 700? 800? pages, and yet still we got lines like this:
"He's got the Cruciatus Curse for causing pain," said Harry, "he doesn't need anything more efficient than that."
Harry said? He said? My god, he just went through this a couple months ago, tortured by the most evil guy around, pain so bad it felt like "his bones were on fire", and he just says it? Maybe it stands out more when reading it on screen, or maybe I'm just watching for the bad writing more now, but this is just so sad. Quote, no lines cut out, as it appears on the page:
"The weapon Sirius mentioned?" said Harry.
"Let slip, more like," said Fred with relish, now sitting next to Ron. "We didn't hear about that on the old Extendables, did we?"
"What d'you reckon it is?" said Harry.
"Could be anything," said Fred.
"But there can't be anything worse than the Avada Kedavra Curse, can there?" said Ron. "What's worse than death?"
"Maybe it's something that can kill loads of people at once," suggested George.
"Maybe it's some particularly painful way of killing people," said Ron fearfully.
"He's got the Cruciatus Curse for causing pain," said Harry, "he doesn't need anything more efficient than that."
Said, said, said, said. What's with that? Why didn't an editor spot this and suggest changes? What beta reader (non-fandom people: a fanfic's editor) would let this slip through?
Yes, when I read Harry's line I project a lot into it: A tone of voice, a posture for him, how his eyes move, flatness of voice, but *I* shouldn't be the one to do that. I'm not saying JKR needs to supply every detail of the scene, but how about a general idea? I see Harry's voice as quiet on his line, subdued, flat-ish. I see his body as slightly curled inward, his face lowered, his eyes on no one... but someone could see it just the opposite: Angry tone, bitter, eyes hard, daring anyone to meet his gaze.
A small part of me wants to think that she did it on purpose, allowing the readers to read the scene/character as they want to... but that can't be. This isn't a Choose Your Own Adventures book where my seeing Harry as defeated in the scene and you seeing him as angry would lead us down different story paths. ...But then I wonder if it's actually some writing trick to make people connect with the character better (you project what you would feel in that situation onto Harry, and boom! Connection!) ...but mostly I just think it's poor writing. Sigh.
ETA: A line for you twincestors out there. Said by Fred or George (the book doesn't say which):
"Yeah, well, it's harder in the dark."
Unfortunately I finished it last night, so now I'm reading my least favorite book of the series: OotP. (Can you believe I lost the hard copy of it? How can you lose a book as big as a phone book?) It's not just that I didn't like the book much, the lack of fulfilled potential makes me really really sad. She used... 700? 800? pages, and yet still we got lines like this:
"He's got the Cruciatus Curse for causing pain," said Harry, "he doesn't need anything more efficient than that."
Harry said? He said? My god, he just went through this a couple months ago, tortured by the most evil guy around, pain so bad it felt like "his bones were on fire", and he just says it? Maybe it stands out more when reading it on screen, or maybe I'm just watching for the bad writing more now, but this is just so sad. Quote, no lines cut out, as it appears on the page:
"The weapon Sirius mentioned?" said Harry.
"Let slip, more like," said Fred with relish, now sitting next to Ron. "We didn't hear about that on the old Extendables, did we?"
"What d'you reckon it is?" said Harry.
"Could be anything," said Fred.
"But there can't be anything worse than the Avada Kedavra Curse, can there?" said Ron. "What's worse than death?"
"Maybe it's something that can kill loads of people at once," suggested George.
"Maybe it's some particularly painful way of killing people," said Ron fearfully.
"He's got the Cruciatus Curse for causing pain," said Harry, "he doesn't need anything more efficient than that."
Said, said, said, said. What's with that? Why didn't an editor spot this and suggest changes? What beta reader (non-fandom people: a fanfic's editor) would let this slip through?
Yes, when I read Harry's line I project a lot into it: A tone of voice, a posture for him, how his eyes move, flatness of voice, but *I* shouldn't be the one to do that. I'm not saying JKR needs to supply every detail of the scene, but how about a general idea? I see Harry's voice as quiet on his line, subdued, flat-ish. I see his body as slightly curled inward, his face lowered, his eyes on no one... but someone could see it just the opposite: Angry tone, bitter, eyes hard, daring anyone to meet his gaze.
A small part of me wants to think that she did it on purpose, allowing the readers to read the scene/character as they want to... but that can't be. This isn't a Choose Your Own Adventures book where my seeing Harry as defeated in the scene and you seeing him as angry would lead us down different story paths. ...But then I wonder if it's actually some writing trick to make people connect with the character better (you project what you would feel in that situation onto Harry, and boom! Connection!) ...but mostly I just think it's poor writing. Sigh.
ETA: A line for you twincestors out there. Said by Fred or George (the book doesn't say which):
"Yeah, well, it's harder in the dark."
