Stephen King says in his book On Writing that reading Harry Potter is good training in writing: "It's all story."
Yes! Rereading HP this summer, I thought, How does J K Rowling weave all these elements together and move the plot forward almost seamlessly? Impressive.
I always miss psychological insight in those books though. This exchange, below, is one of the few with any step-outside-the-action insight, and it's a good one. (It's in the last book, HP and the Deathly Hallows.) I'd photographed the paragraphs and just found them now, going through my photos for a 2022 Year in Review.
Ron saves Harry, and then brushes off Harry's thanks, saying "That makes me sound a lot cooler than I was."
Harry replies [my italics], "Stuff like that always sounds cooler than it really was. I've been trying to tell you that for years."
Yes, we may do what we do because we find ourselves in circumstances where we feel we have to do it, not because we're "cool".
BUT... the way we ascribe coolness to others but not to ourselves, even when we do cool stuff (and sometimes it is cool--Harry is both right and wrong) may be related to how we discount our beauty in the present moment. We may look back with kinder eyes, as Moira Rose says in Schitt's Creek, and think,
"Dear god, I was a beautiful thing."
This is true even for us old bloggers. We may not be in our reproductive prime, but sometimes we truly are beautiful, cool old people.
The trick is to collapse time, to step outside of time, so you can see your beauty & coolness objectively now.
Some trick! Moira advises the young woman Stevie...
BUT... the way we ascribe coolness to others but not to ourselves, even when we do cool stuff (and sometimes it is cool--Harry is both right and wrong) may be related to how we discount our beauty in the present moment. We may look back with kinder eyes, as Moira Rose says in Schitt's Creek, and think,
"Dear god, I was a beautiful thing."
This is true even for us old bloggers. We may not be in our reproductive prime, but sometimes we truly are beautiful, cool old people.
The trick is to collapse time, to step outside of time, so you can see your beauty & coolness objectively now.
Some trick! Moira advises the young woman Stevie...
I just love this so much.
ReplyDeleteMS MOON: Thanks. Did you like the show Schitt's Creek? Or Harry Potter books or movies?
ReplyDeletemoira, turns out was relevant! I have a=watched the series twice and howled heartily for weeks1 Best medicine ever.
ReplyDeleteHaven't read HP since Erik was little- it is , to me, like OK I know the story and the characters, I am done.
four bucks for a cuppa tea is outrageous. Must be city prices !
LINDA SUE: I love Moira! “Stop acting like a disgruntled pelican.” 😄
ReplyDeleteExactly what you say about HP—there’s not much to it (for an adult). I did LOVE Alan Rickman’s Snape.
City prices are high and getting higher, but this coffee shop is extreme. Sadly it’s the only one close to me. I go once in a blue moon