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Yvettep
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Yvettep
Post Number: 2394
Registered: 01-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, October 24, 2007 - 11:35 am: | 
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http://www.cnn.com/2007/SHOWBIZ/books/10/22/books.potter.dumbledore.ap/index.htm l
I admit to never having read any of the Potter books. But I thought I heard that there will be no more of them. Is it useful revealing elements about a character when readers will not get a chance to read further works with the now-revealed character? |
Chrishayden
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 5565
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, October 24, 2007 - 12:13 pm: |
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Is it useful revealing elements about a character when readers will not get a chance to read further works with the now-revealed character?
(What are you driving at?) |
Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 10436
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, October 24, 2007 - 12:37 pm: |
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If keeping her Harry Potter body of work in the public eye was her intent, J.K. Rowling has succeeded. After revealing that the wizard Dumbledore is gay, her fans will now be re-reading the books, looking for clues. Next year, will she reveal that Harry was molested by his menancing uncle who took him in as a child? |
Yvettep
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Yvettep
Post Number: 2395
Registered: 01-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, October 24, 2007 - 01:18 pm: |
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Chris, I find this kind of extra-novel revelation fascinating. I know fans do this kind of thing all the time (e.g., w/"fan fiction"). And of course critics and literary scholars read things into characters all the time. But I hadn't really heard of authors themselves doing it. Are there other examples that anyone can think of?
Yes, Cynique, she certainly has succeeded in keeping the series fresh. It just seems to me: If you have all these extra insights about characters--write it down in a new book! I mean, the way she did it was like "outing" a real person instead of a fictional character. |
Chrishayden
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 5568
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, October 24, 2007 - 01:39 pm: |
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Chris, I find this kind of extra-novel revelation fascinating. I know fans do this kind of thing all the time (e.g., w/"fan fiction"). And of course critics and literary scholars read things into characters all the time. But I hadn't really heard of authors themselves doing it. Are there other examples that anyone can think of?
(Happens all the time, but mostly during the writing of the manuscript) |
Crystal
Veteran Poster
Username: Crystal
Post Number: 349
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, October 24, 2007 - 03:43 pm: |
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Yvettep – a couple of weeks after the last HP book came out Rowlings had a long question/answer session on the internet. Everyone knew this was the last book and it left a lot of questions. She also answered questions about the previous books. I don’t know if she was making this up as she went along or if it’s a lot of stuff that she had to cut out of the books. I enjoyed the series and was glad to see the answers to some of the questions – it was sort of like closure since you know there’s no more coming. My gaydar must have been off when reading because I didn’t pick up on the Dumbledore thing – but it makes sense now.
I don’t think I’ve seen other authors do this but HP is so big it has a life of it’s own.
Here’s the web chat for anyone interested: http://www.mugglenet.com/app/news/full_story/1156
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Yvettep
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Yvettep
Post Number: 2396
Registered: 01-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, October 25, 2007 - 07:44 am: |
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Crystal, thank you so much for these insights. Like I said--this move by the author is very interesting to me. Do you plan to re-read the novels with this new information in mind?
My gut reation is still that this kind of thing is most satisfying to readers when revealed in a book. Hey--I know she said "No more Potter books," but have you heard anything about any spin-offs? Maybe a series of "prequels" a la Lucas' Star Wars movies? Now that would be intriguing. Maybe we could see a young, sexuality-exploring Dumbledore...
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Crystal
Veteran Poster
Username: Crystal
Post Number: 351
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, October 25, 2007 - 12:47 pm: |
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I doubt I'd read them again and I don't think the new info makes much of a difference to the stories. People were asking questions about particular characters and events from the whole series and she wouldn’t have been able to include everything everybody asked about in the books. I’m not sure if she was making up some of the responses as she went along on the webcast or not but I think she was on some of them. Some of them were funny.
No way could she “out” Dumbledore in the book! It’s a children’s story and she was already getting a lot of flak on the the witches issue. I’m sure some of the HP fan fiction [which is HUGH] will explore this if they haven’t already.
I haven’t heard anything about a sequel but I haven’t been paying much attention. You should read them, I think you’d like them.
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Chrishayden
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 5593
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, October 25, 2007 - 02:30 pm: |
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My gut reation is still that this kind of thing is most satisfying to readers when revealed in a book. Hey--I know she said "No more Potter books," but have you heard anything about any spin-offs? Maybe a series of "prequels" a la Lucas' Star Wars movies? Now that would be intriguing. Maybe we could see a young, sexuality-exploring Dumbledore...
(She might not have necessarily been trying to put one over. She might have read it and thought, "Hey, this guy is gay)
She might have really discovered it when she was finished. I wrote a Sci Fi story once where everybody was supposed to be white and after I re read it I realilzed they were all black
Funny stuff like that does happen to a writer) |
Chrishayden
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 5604
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, October 26, 2007 - 12:31 pm: |
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This is part of the story I wrote where I discovered that the characters were black instead of white.
What do you think? Do you think they are white or black?
The Prophet
By
Chris Hayden
Qubit, C-Loc, Babe, and Doof sat in the Charlestown Mall food court eating and discussing the big Fermi Brothers video disaster.
“Can you believe it?” C-Loc said, his mouth full of Triple Humongous burger. “They got every set in da house tuned to the big game. Elston College vs. Waverley U. The Conference title and a bowl bid are on the line. Elston is down by three points. They’re on the Waverly 20, with six seconds left in the game and no time outs remaining. The ball is snapped; Evers fades back for a pass and then, BAM! Blackout! 100 screens of straight up zilch! You’re taking it pretty calmly, Que-Ball. ” He punched Qubit, who was sitting at the table across from him, on the arm
“I wasn’t watching the game. I was checking out the radio controlled model cars,” Qubit said.
“So what else is new?” C-Loc said, slurping from his super size soda. “Nerd!”
“The screens did not, however, go blank,” Qubit said.
“Maybe we should sue,” Doof said. “We could claim intentional infliction of emotional distress.” He stuffed French fries in his mouth and clutched his faithful ever-present skateboard between his knees.
“You can’t sue for that, Doofhead,” C-Loc said, throwing a balled up napkin at him, which Doof ducked, giggling.
“Why not? We might be traumatized. The experience might have stunted our emotional development,” Doof said. “They might be willing to make a settlement to avoid bad publicity. A lawsuit might have, what do they call it, nuisance value. Yeah. That’s the ticket. Might be a free TV in it for us.”
“Us? I wouldn’t want one of those crappy TVs! Not after a clusterfuck like that,” C Loc said, slurping the last of his Coke. Doof tossed a French fry at him, which sailed over C-Loc’s shoulder and hit a fat lady sitting behind them square in the back.
“Those TVs did not go blank,” Qubit, said. “They were still transmitting…”
C-Loc ignored him; fake tossed his empty cup at Doof.
“Can’t you guys give it a rest?” Babe said, sipping daintily at a strawberry shake.
“You’re scaring off the foxes. Maybe you should try to clone some maturity in Chemlab.”
“Merry Christmas! Hoe! Hoe! Hoe!” C-Loc and Doof brayed in unison, blowing raspberries at her for good measure. She flipped them the bird for their efforts.
Ordinarily at this juncture Qubit would have put on his earphones and zoned out listening to Orson Welles’ 1938 radio broadcast of War of the Worlds on his iPod.
“Did any of you see what was on those screens?” he asked them instead.
“I know what I didn’t see Q-brain. A wide open Chance drop Evers’ pass in the end zone,” C-Loc said.
“May be for the best, Dude,” Doof laughed. “You might have had a myocardial infarction.” He started faking a heart attack. Loudly. A few other food court patrons started staring at them and grumbling in annoyance.
“Damn you guys!” Qubit shouted slamming the table top with his fist so hard the trays and cups on it jumped. More patrons were staring and grumbling now. The food court manager stopped clearing tables and moved in their direction.
“Don’t have a cow!” Babe said. “The screens filled up with squirmy shapes. Like coiled ropes made of light.”
“Double helixes” Qubit said.
“What, perfesser, is the cosmic significance of it? “C-Loc said.
“You tell me,” Qubit fired back
“Test patterns,” C-Loc said. “Only this and nothing more.”
“Please accept our apologies for the interruption of this broadcast,” Doof said through cupped hands in an announcer’s voice.
“Guys,” the Food Court manager warned.
“Sor-ry,” Doof announced through cupped hands in his direction.
“DNA molecules are arranged like a double helix. DNA is . . .”
“. . .deoxyribonucleic acid. The main constituent in the chromosomes of all organisms,” Babe said. Maybe you don’t remember school’s out on Saturdays, Mr. Cockedoodle Qubit!”
C-Loc and Doof slapped high fives, and then cracked up recounting, for about the millionth time since it had happened Wednesday, how Reece “Rhesus” Clark had been so uptight about making an oral presentation Ms. Hallmacks 4th period calculus class he upchucked all over the floor. Babe, a dozen copper bracelets jangling, flipped her hair at and tried to catch the eyes of some college boys sauntering by, and Qubit, defeated, put on his earphones and listened to the Mercury Theater do the Martians trashing New Jersey.
“You have properly pointed out the phenomenon for them,” he could hear Mr. Prezhatsky, his physics teacher, saying to him. “But you have failed to explain why it is important.” He had failed, Qubit knew, because he did not know himself.
Later that night Qubit lay awake in bed thinking. Everything is digital these days. The TV signal that carried the Elston/Waverly game probably came over a cable that had masses of bandwidth available for carrying Internet data. The cash registers, the cookers, the refrigerators the clocks at the food court had digital controls.
His computer monitor, which he left on 24/7, was crackling and popping loud as a wooden log burning in a fireplace. They got electronic fireplaces these days too, Qubit thought. Probably time to spring for a new monitor. Then he fell asleep
That night he dreamed that he was working at his computer, when suddenly something started pressing against the screen from the inside. It stretched and bulged outward toward him ominously . . .
He woke up in a cold sweat.
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Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 10469
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, October 26, 2007 - 01:25 pm: |
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Your charcters were an extension of their setting and they came across as white Gen Xers to me. {white people do give each other high-fives.)
Your narrative is not that dis-similar to "New England White", the book by your favorite author Stephen Carter. The only way readers could tell the characters in this book were black was because the author told us they were. |
Chrishayden
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 5610
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, October 26, 2007 - 03:22 pm: |
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I thought they were white at this point too. By the time I finished I knew they were black.
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