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author_by_nightOkay, so this time, a question dimity_blue actually asked: What do you think about them (the books) being limited to Harry's POV?
I can see why JK Rowling chose that method, honestly. It allows her to focus on just one character without going off the rails. I think to her, it's very much Harry's story, more so than anyone else's.
On the other hand, I think more POV from other characters could have given us more perspective on the world, beyond only Harry's POV. I don't think it needed to be split up, but I think the occasional scene would have been good. A few of the books actually start out with different POVs - and in PS/SS, one of the Quidditch chapters is told, in part, from Ron and Hermione's eyes. I would love to have gotten into their heads more, though, and think we could have used more chapters like that. What if we'd had Ron's POV in DH? Sirius's in OoTP? Or, horrifyingly yet possibly spectacularly, getting into Umbridge or Bellatrix's head? *Brr*
I think this is especially true given the vastness of the wizarding world. On one hand, I do like that so much is left for fanfic to the imagination. On the other hand, I do, as a reader, have a lot of questions, and i think the occasional outside perspective would have answered them.
I can see why JK Rowling chose that method, honestly. It allows her to focus on just one character without going off the rails. I think to her, it's very much Harry's story, more so than anyone else's.
On the other hand, I think more POV from other characters could have given us more perspective on the world, beyond only Harry's POV. I don't think it needed to be split up, but I think the occasional scene would have been good. A few of the books actually start out with different POVs - and in PS/SS, one of the Quidditch chapters is told, in part, from Ron and Hermione's eyes. I would love to have gotten into their heads more, though, and think we could have used more chapters like that. What if we'd had Ron's POV in DH? Sirius's in OoTP? Or, horrifyingly yet possibly spectacularly, getting into Umbridge or Bellatrix's head? *Brr*
I think this is especially true given the vastness of the wizarding world. On one hand, I do like that so much is left for fanfic to the imagination. On the other hand, I do, as a reader, have a lot of questions, and i think the occasional outside perspective would have answered them.
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Date: 2017-05-30 03:48 pm (UTC)But as we got more comfortable with the setting, and as the plot expanded and became about so much more than a boy learning he's a wizard, I think the POV started to become awkward and overly limiting. I gather that JKR was feeling the constraints, because she did start to make those exceptions, and they became vital. Imagine HBP without the Spinner's End chapter! I agree she could have stood to do even more of this.
It gets into what we talked about earlier, how some of the structural problems in DH had to do with Harry too often being elsewhere while important and interesting things were happening without him. Bringing in additional POVs could have helped with this.
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Date: 2017-05-30 07:48 pm (UTC)