The two biggest flaws in Harry Potter

[lavivi]

I love the Harry Potter series.  I sincerely do.  I perhaps wouldn't call them my favorite series, but I've certainly obsessed over them far more than I have over any other book or movie.  I think J.K. Rowling is a fabulous, fabulous writer, one of the best of our day.

But despite this, I am forced to acknowledge flaws.  Not the Flints - the real, plot flaws, which make me very sad.  In my mind, there are really only two glaring ones.

1. Lord Voldemort.  It's so sad.  But at this stage, I, and many others, have to admit he has no depth.  Ms. Rowling grounded this when she said somewhere that he's never loved anyone.  That was a mistake.
   But the bigger issue is that his motivation for a pureblood world is cardboard.  He's more of a halfblood than Harry is!  I have difficulty, no matter how much else Voldemort has acomplished, seeing Lucius Malfoy truly respect him.  But his evil plan to kill everyone because his Muggle father was a bad man is a cliche and just doesn't fit with the rest of Ms. Rowling's well-rounded world
2. Peter Pettigrew, as seen in the fifth book.  Before the fifth book was published, I read a fanfic called There Is No Such Place by Liz Barr*.  In short, it's a Marauder-era fic.  And in it, Peter is an equal.  He banters with the rest of the Marauders, they don't mock him.  Yes, he has problems with schoolwork, that's canon, but he's part of the Marauders.  You may argue that McGonagall, who knew them for seven years, called him a "tag-along" - but isn't Colin Creevey Harry's tag-along, and if Harry, Ron, and Hermione made something, would they put Colin's name on it?
   But canon is canon, and what we saw in the Pensieve is how things were - with Peter's applause and Sirius' derision.  I accept it - but I have trouble believing that they would really trust him with James and Lily's life.  Unless he went under the miraculous personality change James allegedly suffered, too. 

But what do you think?  Am I crazy, did I miss even bigger ones?

* No Such Place is an abandoned WIP, so investigate at your own emotional risk. ;-)

Comments

[soharavsalienta.livejournal.com]

No, I think you're quite right about the flaws. But I don't agree with you about Rowling's being one of the best writers of our day. I firmly believe that she is brilliantly gifted with the ability to create another world, that she's amazing at playing with words (am still astounded at TOM MARVOLO RIDDLE = I AM LORD VOLDEMORT) and pulling mythology and all these other sub-meanings into her names and plot and everything (Grimmauld Place = Grim Old Place; not one of the most brilliant, but STILL!)...but...I don't know. I've never been completely fascinated by her writing, just the world behind the writing. Can't help it.

And I seriously, seriously agree with you about Peter. She made a huge mistake in book five. And about Lord Voldemort.

[lavinialavender.livejournal.com]

*nods thoughtfully* Being dense, I never saw that "Grim Old Place."

Well, concerning actual writing vs. imagination/creativity and the like, I have this to say: When you consider that, Tolkien certainly isn't one of the best writers, is he? His style is plain and simple; nothing especially eloquent or dazzling. But I maintain his mind equals the great scientists we hear about, like Newton.

And I do like her writing style. She's funny. Take the fifth book, when Harry's having dreams about the Corridor of Doom, and it says he pushed it to the back of his mind, then: "Unfortunately, the back of his mind was no longer the safe place it once was." (followed by, "Get up, Potter. ... What was that place?" and "You are not trying nearly hard enough!" Haha, I do love being able to quote lines without even trying.)

[driedplums.livejournal.com]

I never saw Grim Old Place either, and it took me ages to see Diagonnally.

That said, I don't like reading Tolkien. To me, it reads: and then they took 15 paces. And sat. And ate some bread which was very good.

I don't think JKR is a particularly gifted author in the construction sense (though most "real" authors don't write a series that spans a decade of their real life), but I agree that she's exceptional at the development of an alternative world and tremendously intuitive imagination.

I believe she's "clued in" to the human psyche, and that's why she's so resonant (and relatively poor at writing the bad guys).

[slinkhard.livejournal.com]

But bad guys are humans, too, so she should be equally good at making them believable, three-dimensional characters, whether they're sympathetic or not.

[demosthenes42.livejournal.com]

My bookshelves are organized by how much I enjoyed each book, starting at the top with my all-time favorites and going all the way down to the real clinkers on the bottom shelf. (Because I'm just a dork like that).

I have two top shelves. On the right side are the exquisitely written books, the masterpieces of writing as a craft and an art form. They're the ones that, when I feel like rereading, I never start from the beginning, but just wander around the text and enjoy the writing for itself, screw plot.

The left side is where my multiple copies of the HP books sit, and certainly where Tolkein belongs. The books that maybe aren't great works of art, where the writing is a little clunky at times and nothing particularly special. But damn, they are great stories.

And I think it's precisely why JK's universe is such rich fodder for fanfiction, as is the LotR-verse. We get to do the good writing, the character study and the artsy poetry, because they haven't. If you ask me, it's a pretty good deal. :D

[imkalena.livejournal.com]

I never saw that "Grim Old Place."

I never did until I heard it spoken on the audio book. I just don't see "auld" and hear it as "old".