How do the readers influence JK Rowling's work? |
 Jun 26 2007, 02:31 PM
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Daily Prophet Photographer  Posts: 861 Joined: 10:04am June 8, 2005 Location: Yes, it's a stuffed Homer in towel. You can stop staring now.  |
In the chapter fifteen of Half-Blood Prince, "The Unbreakable Vow", I wondered something.
The chapter in question involves a lot of "shipping". Ron/Hermione, Hermione/McLaggen, Harry/Luna, Harry/Ginny, Hermione/Krum, Ron/Lavender, Harry/Romilda, even Filch/Pince. I remember when reading it for the first time, I put down my book right after Harry asks Luna to accompany him to the party, and I thought "This is a shipping nightmare!" Then I got this very funny feeling, that Rowling had written this to have a bit of fun and mock all the shipping sites and fanatics. Of course, she needs to take her readers into consideration whenever she writes, but I couldn't help but think that she had written this chapter specially for the shippers delight, and that the speed that Peeves used to yell "Potter luuuurves Loony!" kinda reflects how gossip travels on the net... --------------------  |
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Jun 26 2007, 03:14 PM
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Buying a Half-Kneazle Posts: 522 Joined: 7:18pm April 29, 2007 Location: stealing last memories with snape in the penseive |
lol
 maybe she was having fun with us.but since she knows about shippers and has known for a long time and since what we read, whatever we read, has some kind of effect on us, i dont see how it cant have some sort of result. but then arent these books supposed to have mostly been already written? i think it depends on whether or not this was written before or after she read about the shippers. --------------------   avatar by theonlysong** |
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Jun 26 2007, 03:35 PM
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Just Through the Brick Wall Posts: 2 Joined: 11:23am June 26, 2007 |
I believe she was "trying out" writing romance into the HP series and she needed all the shipping to actually see and take note of how exactly it fits in with the overall plot.
There was a lot of needless fooling around with the mingling of different people who are a big part of the flowing plot. |
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Jun 27 2007, 10:55 AM
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#4
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Playing dominoes with the Fat Friar Posts: 2,189 Joined: 1:22pm June 3, 2006 Location: Visiting Luna to have wrackspurts removed  |
Wow! This topic is really fascinating. I've always wondered how much Jo reacts to fans in the writing and development of the series. While we know she's planned out the main scheme from the very beginning, I think there are things that she's included in the writing simply as a nod to us fans who analyze every little detail. I remember the great "How do Order members communicate?" debate. After fans posed the question, she tantalized us with some hints, message boards were in a frenzy, and then we see the answer (patronuses) very clearly defined in HBP. From a literary standpoint, I think Jo does tend to respond to her fans. Generally, it seems she addresses it, has a little laugh, then moves on with the story. The real story has been set in stone in Jo's mind for too long to be influenced by the fans, although I think she does like to insert little jokes or references that only her obsessive fans are likely to catch. -------------------- |
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Jun 28 2007, 11:00 AM
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Daily Prophet Photographer  Posts: 866 Joined: 7:26pm June 10, 2005 Location: Curled up on the sofa with coffee, my dog, and Harry Potter  |
A lot of readers see Rita Skeeter as Rowling's answer to the annoying side of journalists, the ones ready to write anything, true or false, about her and her family. With that in mind, I could see how the mad combinations in that chapter could be a poke at all the shippers; all we needed was for Ginny to bring Draco to the party for it to be complete!
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Jun 28 2007, 11:13 AM
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#6
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Daily Prophet Photographer Posts: 861 Joined: 10:04am June 8, 2005 Location: Yes, it's a stuffed Homer in towel. You can stop staring now. |
 Haha, that'd be the ultimate slap.  Hmm.. well, some authors do include references to some of their readers on their books. For example, in The Vampire Earth Novels, there's a character called RC (Arsie), and it got her name from the winner of a contest in the vampire earth website. Wonder if Rowling has done the same? -------------------- |
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Jun 28 2007, 11:31 AM
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#7
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Just Through the Brick Wall Posts: 1 Joined: 12:18pm June 26, 2007 Location: Austin, Texas |
QUOTE(Kaiser-Kun @ Jun 26 2007, 02:31 PM) [snapback]1275987[/snapback] In the chapter fifteen of Half-Blood Prince, "The Unbreakable Vow", I wondered something. The chapter in question involves a lot of "shipping". Ron/Hermione, Hermione/McLaggen, Harry/Luna, Harry/Ginny, Hermione/Krum, Ron/Lavender, Harry/Romilda, even Filch/Pince. I remember when reading it for the first time, I put down my book right after Harry asks Luna to accompany him to the party, and I thought "This is a shipping nightmare!" Then I got this very funny feeling, that Rowling had written this to have a bit of fun and mock all the shipping sites and fanatics. Of course, she needs to take her readers into consideration whenever she writes, but I couldn't help but think that she had written this chapter specially for the shippers delight, and that the speed that Peeves used to yell "Potter luuuurves Loony!" kinda reflects how gossip travels on the net... it had never occured to me before that Rowling would have ever responded to the fans in her novels. But it does make sense now that've read it. I like that thought. What about the Remus/Tonks? Do you think she had planned that all along, and was encouraged by the fans who loved that ship? And then my other thought was, of course she would use Peeves to spread around gossip, he's done that a lot. he love everything to do with gossip and creating chaos. --------------------  "It's lucky it's dark. I haven't blushed so much since Madam Pomfrey told me she liked my new earmuffs." --Dumbledore, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. |
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Jun 28 2007, 12:01 PM
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Ollivander's Phoenix Feather Plucker  Posts: 4,232 Joined: 9:37am January 29, 2005 Location: In Ammoro, where the hearts are pure, and filled with love |
Rowling has indeed included fans in her books, the last girl to be sorted in GoF was a fan of hers that died from cancer, and in honor of her Rowling put her in the ceremony and had her sorted into gryffindor. As for the shipping thing, like that chapter, Rowling had put all sorts of hints in the previous books for such ships to even exsist, so i think she did indeed have quite a bit of fun with that chapter, and she does indeed give little jokes and nods to us. like slughorn accedetally calling Ron "rupert" and "demelza" is Daniel Radcliffes charity of choice. But i dont think she would ever change anything just for us. i would hope she wouldnt either.
-------------------- of course it is happening inside your head Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?"
I am Hans. Proud CoC staff member. I SUPPORT JO ROWLING. No Day But Today.Harry Potter does not bow down to Edward Cullen |
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Jun 28 2007, 12:33 PM
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#9
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Daily Prophet Photographer Posts: 861 Joined: 10:04am June 8, 2005 Location: Yes, it's a stuffed Homer in towel. You can stop staring now. |
Oh yeah, I caught the "Rupert" one, too... I didn't knew about Demelza, tough.
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 Jun 28 2007, 01:13 PM
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#10
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Buying a Half-Kneazle Posts: 530 Joined: 3:09pm February 8, 2006 Location: Getting a tetanus jab. Ouch, those scratches hurt! |
This is a very interesting topic. It occurs to me that anything that we theorised in this and other fora can have been put into DH.
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