Quote:
Originally Posted by Elfwreck
Her entertainment-level storytelling is excellent. Her writing is competent, and much improved by a good editor--which she had in the first few books, and it became obvious that the later ones got a lot less attention.
The contradictions in her storyline should've been caught in edit. The concept that Parseltongue can be copied by listening to it & repeating the sounds contradicts the notion that it's a super-spooky magical language. The pacing in the final novel was atrocious... there was a war going on, and Our Heroes were staggering around in the woods, away from all the action. The whole supposed key theme of the series--"we are defined by our CHOICES!!!"--is contradicted by Snape's life, wherein the message is closer to "one bad choice as a teenager will ruin your whole life, even if you spend the next couple of decades trying to fix it. Unless, of course, your name is Malfoy." And that's before we get into all the nitpicky details.
The Harry Potter books are meant for a fairly noncritical YA audience; her worldbuilding falls apart when subject to in-depth review, and a lot of her underlying themes are contradicted by her overt plot events. They are wonderful stories, but they aren't examples of Fine Literature That Will Endure Through The Ages.
|
I would agree with that, especially the editing on the last book. I think there is a lot of really fun stuff out there that may never be considered literature, but that doesn't mean it's worthless. On the other hand I think we may be surprised out how long-lasting some of our "pop" literature becomes.