Rowling’s writing (spoiler free)
Grabbed a copy of the carpet!book floating online. I never doubted the legitimacy of the online copy, simply because it has every single flaw of Rowling’s writing in there. It’s very, very noticeable, and the patterns between books are astounding.
I’ve mentioned this before, but I’ll say it again: I’ve always thought Rowling’s writing was rather weak, and HP7 sealed it for me. Don’t get me wrong; the world she has created and the multiple characters she’s introduced fascinates me, but ironically enough, her writing just doesn’t do justice to her creations.
Death scenes are her main weakness. I nickname those scenes ‘the attack of the ellipses’. Whenever Rowling wants to convey grief or sadness, she pulls out the ellipses in epic style. I find it an extremely weak attempt to convey emotion - she never could quite phrase the feelings of grief properly, so she resorts to punctuation. Sirius’s and Dumbledore’s deaths all have multiple ellipses, and personally, I never quite could gauge the emotion felt from those two deaths. Harry’s reaction during Dumbledore’s funeral was awkwardly phrased and very badly worded. In HP7, the ellipses increases proportionately to the number of deaths.
Repetition. Rowling seems to have a limited vocabulary at her arsenal. Whenever Voldemort is introduced, his voice is repeatedly described as ‘high and cold’. Immense anger is always described as ‘mutinous’, or ‘the attack of the capital letters’. Bellatrix always has ‘heavily lidded eyes’, and Harry’s scar either ‘burns’ or ’sears’ through his forehead. In HP7, the phrase ‘high and cold’ increases proportionately to the number of introductions Voldemort has.
Characterization. Right now, I have no idea what Harry’s character is supposed to be like. I’ve always felt that he was just an empty vessel plodding along a path the author wrote out for him. Harry has no defining character in books 1-4, in 5 he suddenly does a 180 and becomes the EMO!kid, and in 6 all trace of angst has disappeared, reverting back to being the character in 1-4. Ron’s character fluctuates wildly between immense jealousy and being a bully, and Hermione has no other stereotypical label besides ‘the cautious smart girl’. Voldemort himself - while I loved the backstory given to him in book 6 - is a one-dimensional, typical villain who wants to rule the world (or just London, whatever). His Death Eaters are mostly the same, just varying in degrees of insanity. I don’t want to go into the characterization of Lupin at all - I adored him in book 3, and then Rowling just wound up not knowing what to do with his character subsequently, and just functioned as a sad shell of someone burdened with the ZOMGWEREWOLF (dude, you’ve had this condition since you were a teenager, and now you’re bringing on the angst?).
It seems that Rowling writes one-dimensional type of characters fine, but for those who she attempts to create complexity (Snape’s allegiance and Narcissa’s love for Draco are the two things that come to mind) she does it very weakly. In book 6, I was completely convinced that Snape was on Dumbledore’s side, simply because the arguments Snape made were phrased so badly and held absolutely no water. We’ve never seen Narcissa care for Draco until 6, and with Rowling already establishing all Death Eaters are scum and have no soul in 4 and 5, this little introduction to ‘the other side’ of Narcissa comes too late.
Deus ex machina. It is satisfying to have everything linked together at the end in a single hour in Dumbledore’s office, but I always found it odd why everything had to finish at the end of the school year (May? June?). One would think people would just be leaving Hogwarts whenever that month rolls around the corner, and come back later.
Rowling’s conception of the plot makes her writing tolerable. It’s always a similar pattern - there are multiple elements to unlock a ‘prize’, and Harry, through the course of the year, must figure it out. It’s the step-by-step plot that slowly unravels that keeps readers hooked (at least for me), but in HP7… there are no more books following this, and I can’t help but feel disappointed and simultaneously breathing a sigh of relief that the series is over.
I shall run away from the crazy HP supporters now.
oh elaine, i’ve been camping on msn waiting for u and u’ve skipped off to washington?!? ha.. my fault really, for not asking earlier. sigh anyway i hope u have fun and can’t wait for u to get back to s’pore- tho by then schl would have started. ha gosh u live next door, what does it matter. totally agree with u on rowling’s writing and one dimensional characters and poor writing. something i’ll never get over. ha but oh well.. ha are we still writing? and oh i had a dream about u.. lols. Anyway, shall be looking out for u, contact me when u can.