So the new Harry Potter book is out. And I've read it. So I'll just tell you how it turns out. It turns out like this: I'm not really going to tell you.
I want someone else to have read it so I can say, "Did you think it was as well written? Did you find any inconsistencies in the plot? Why do you think..." And so forth.
Reading a book like this is a bit like having a secret. You want to talk about it because it's on you mind, but you aren't talking about it because it's not what you're supposed to do. So I'm all shifty and squiggly and twitchy waiting for someone to tell me what they think. I can then choose to ignore them or change my mind entirely based upon that opinion or listen to it and move on gracefully with my Harry Potter life.
I tend to read books more than once. So I should be diving in to Harry Potter again soon. I also watch movies more than once. I've been watching Monk lately. Knowing the end of those is like knowing a secret. So watching it again is like watching for the little signs that someone has a secret.
You know, the second time I read or watch a thing, it doesn't seem so mysterious. Yes, I know that's because I already know what happens, but the foreshadowing and whatnot seems so much less mysterious and so much more obvious. I'm curious to know if authors have a magical scale upon which they can measure the power of their foreshadowing.
On a scale from one to ten, ten being the most obvious:
One: Gertrude Stein
Two:
Three: James Joyce
Four:Virginia Woolf
Five: Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Six: Vladimir Nabokov
Seven:
Eight: O. Henry
Nine: Charles Dickens
Ten: Beatrix Potter
I will leave you the honor of filling in the two empty spaces. And I'm not sure I'm happy with it anyway. I'm thinking that maybe J. K. Rowling is in at seven.
It's too late to think so much, I say! Off to pretend to sleep! Huzzah!
Posted by dotty at July 18, 2005 11:13 PM