Surprises
NO plot-spoilers in this blog.
The new Harry Potter book, The Deathly Hallows is surprising. Not so much the plot, which is what I've loved Rowling for up till now, but the writing itself. Okay, so the details of the plot are complicated and it takes some concentration to figure out what on earth's going on; but more excitingly, the way the plot is conveyed is completely different to the other books. It's densely packed, there aren't all that many superfluous clauses, and there is subtlety. It's only just over 600 pages long, but took me a good 12 hours to read (compare that to the almost-800 page 5th book, which took about 7 hours). For the first time, I think, Rowling demanded concentration and effort on the part of the reader, and it was such a better book for that - hooray! Not going so far as to say it's 'literary', it's not; but as a first toe-dip into reading tricky books, it's got something. I'm also emotionally drained having got through it. Which is probably a bit sad, but indicative - not every book can do that.
She uses a lot of ellipses, and virtually no semi-colons (I should learn from that latter). Ellipses are funny things. I use them a lot, because I'm lazy. The time for elliptical experiment has gone (cf: Ulysses and, say, Ford Madox Ford's Parades End), and it's generally it's my feeling that they shouldn't be used too much, unless they are doing something other than simply filling a space where the writer should in fact be writing words (that's how I use them, which is Bad). So Rowling uses too many ellipses, she uses them as much as Ford, but with a lesser effect. A small problem in a really good book, though. In Deathly Hallows, Rowling has demonstrated not just that she's a fantastic story-teller with an incredible imagination (that's been proved before), but that she is capable of writing concisely, delicately and densely to say her stuff. A good note to end on.
Apparently around half of Bloomsbury's revenue is Potter-related (according to the Guardian) - what on earth are they going to do in the coming years? Some investment in another type of book would be welcome - come on Bloomsbury, put some of your millions into 'unpopular' writers and make them popular.
3 comments:
I always find my mind sliding away when I try to concentrate on Rowling's writing; my eyes jump from dialogue to dialogue and miss the describy bits in between. I'm on Chapter Five of Half-Blood Prince and I can't stick at it for more than 20 minutes. This could be my attention span having being reduced to that of a gnat with underuse, but I lay for a good 6 hours on the settee the other week and read 'Good Omens' cover to cover, getting up once to use the bathroom and again to make a sandwich. Then again, maybe I just need to get back into it; I've not read any Potterverse since OOTP came out.
Also, can you fill me in.... my LJ friend Soph posted that she had to look up on wikipedia why Voldey wanted to kill the Potters in the first place, because she suddenly realised she had no idea. Reading that, I had the same realisation. Help!?
And another thing, did somebody decide overnight without my knowledge to change the word 'bracket' to 'ellipse' because suddenly everybody is using it, and I've never heard it used that way before in my life!!
I can't believe I'm doing this, it makes me a PotterGeek(TM). But essentially, Voldy wants to kill Harry firstly simply because Harry survived the first time (V wanted to kill H's parents just because of their activity against him, in the Original Order of the Phoenix). And then there's the Prophesy, which I think appears in Book 5 (and probably 6) - this says something like 'someone' will be born who will defeat V. V interprets that as H, and as H is then marked out as Nemesis, that role becomes defined. Or something.
The simpler reason is that Rowling needed a plot. ;)
More familiar territory is the punctuation - a bracket is not an ellipsis, no. 'Parentheses' is often used instead of 'brackets'. Ellipses are the '...'s indicating words missing, or a trailed-off thought (amongst other things). So anyone using 'ellipses' as a straight synonym for 'bracket' is wrong. You're not going mad.
Oh... ok! I am a dingbat. Thanks for clearing that up... on both counts. Dots, will do for me... as I use them alllllll the time. :D
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