JKR may be thinking of writing more, apparently

[author_by_night]

Not that I'd take this too seriously, as from what I read her response was more "hm, maybe!" than the "I'm hiinnnnnting at you" as the initial headlines imply. There's planning and there's thinking "hm."

I am also in the "hm, maybe" camp - not just because I'm sure by now she's completely moved on, but because I'm not sure I'd like what could come of it. On one hand, it would be nice to see more of her universe, because it's huge and I think only one story has been told when there's many. On the other hand, I've sort of decided sometimes it's best to let sleeping dogs lie.

I've looked at the possible ways in which she could continue, and the pros/cons. Note that I use other series as examples, specifically The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and the Archie comics. My spoilers are as vague as I could possibly be, but they're there, so if you really hate spoilers, you've been warned.

1. Harry, grown up

Pros: We might learn more in-depth information about the universe - after all, Harry's POV was limited to what he knew, which was actually not much. Even in the fourth book he's very much a "newbie", as is lampshaded several times. He's a little distracted the rest of the series. Moreover,a book covering the nineteen years between the end of DH and the epilogue might satisfy fans who felt there should have been another few chapters.

Cons: When YA characters become adults for the sake of their readers/viewers, who are coincidentally all grown up themselves, the outcome isn't always positive. Writers sometimes try too hard to insert grown up problems into the mix, except often they come across as forced and dark to be dark. For example, in the adult sequel to the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series, a character is thought to have committed suicide, and another character almost has an abortion but opts out, and it's completed by someone meeting a guy whose wife just died. In the adult edition of the Archie comics book, a beloved adult character dies of cancer. In the post-high school seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, an adult also dies of a natural illness, a main characters gets into vampire BDSM, and another main character becomes addicted to magic as a metaphor for drugs. The same character's girlfriend gets shot. 

The intention of the writers seemed to be to give their characters more adult problems and put them in more adult situations - even if it's not really necessary, which it wasn't, for instance, with Buffy. I do think there's ways they could've eased up on the horrors of adulthood, and I think there's ways JK Rowling could avoid it. But I'm skeptical, because I really don't want to read a book where all of my characters are permanently stuck in The Darkest Timeline.

2. JKR fleshs out other characters/backstories

Pros: Well, JKR has already written a lot of backstory on certain characters, so she has something to go with. I think it would answer a lot of questions, and it could be a great way to explore the world further.

Cons: See #1. Also, I'm not sure how much interest there would be - it always seemed the majority of fans (with fandom as the small minority, because I think,  believe it or not, it was), their main focus was on the trio and Dumbledore. Would people even remember who some of them were if JKR wrote about them?

3. The Prequel

Pros: Would we learn more about the Marauders? The Founders? Dumbledore's story? And actually, if she did the Founders it would feel like Monty Python with her British humor... *pictures Gryffindor as a red-headed Michael Palin* Hm.

Cons:  I read so many MWPP/Marauder fic when I first got into fandom that I'm completely bored of the Marauders now. :P Plus, I have a feeling my and the rest of fandom's picture of MWPP is way different from what JKR would come up with. Even in DH it was like, oh right, Remus can be an asshole. Oh, sorry, is that a selfish reason? :P I don't see cons about any other prequels though.

I'm also not sure a prequel wouldn't also end up contradicting a lot of things like the Star Wars prequels did. After all, JKR has contradicted herself in a single book. (Hermione can't do memory charms, but she can do memory modification... I can let that slide, but it's a very narrow slide you have to really squeeze past and hold your breath all the while.)

4. Harry's Children

Pros: Well, it would be fun to have Albus Severus realize how screwed up the people he was named after were.

Cons: Fandomers and casual fans alike generally loathed the epilogue. I think I must have been one of five fans or something who liked it, and even then, the more I read it the more I actually kinda see their point. Besides, there's way too much potential for characters to be Harry 2.0 or Hermione 2.0 and so forth.

I think #3 is actually the safest, although #2 could work too. I'm not a fan of #1 and #4, although I sometimes read next gen fic. But I don't have to go to a store and buy next gen fic - if it's what I just said #4 could be, I can backspace the hell outta there with no need for a refund.

What do you guys think?

Comments

[kakeochi-umai.livejournal.com]

Re #1: I found Sweet Valley Confidential disappointing too, though in this case it wasn't that it was too heavy, it was just boring relationship angst all the way through. I haven't even bothered to check out the series that followed. Sweet Valley also makes me wary of #4 because they did these books about major characters' ancestors that were FULL of X 2.0s (and 3.0s and 4.0s...)

My favourite out of the 4 options is definitely #2. I've always loved fanfics that flesh out the trio's classmates' characters, especially stories that make you look at things in a different way, like my friend's fanfic showing good Slytherins who have to deal with being hated for the actions of the vocal assholes (and worse) in their house. Second choice would probably be a story about the Founders.

[white-serpent.livejournal.com]

#4 bleeds into #1, I think. I'll also read next gen fic, but I like it less the more it bleeds into showing Harry (et al) as adults. I don't mind the epilogue overall; my husband really disliked it (and he's certainly not a member of online fandom, doesn't care about minor characters, isn't a fan of Snape or other Slytherins, etc etc).

#2, I suppose you could write a story about Dean. It seems that he's the character whose backstory she invested the most in and had to cut out of existing books. But, if you write an alternate perspective on the events in book 7, I think it gets darker any which way you go. Who's the target market.

#3, Well, again, what's the target market? The Marauders are destined for tragedy. If you write happy stories of their youth (which aren't so happy as fandom made them out), they still have the Sword of Damocles hovering overhead. We all know what happens to all of them in the end. If you go earlier, e.g., Founders, you still have the problem of having enough information on them included in existing books that it might not be a particularly fun read. I don't know; I tend to think this wouldn't work.

(As for Buffy: In my mental universe, Buffy ended mysteriously at the end of season 3, except for the musical television special a few years later. Similarly, the Highlander TV series cut off mysteriously just before the finale of season 5.)

[author-by-night.livejournal.com]

... Late reply is late.

You have a great point about the target market. I actually had that with The Hobbit - I'm not a huge LOTR buff and my dad likes the books a lot, but not in the way the huge hardcore fans do, so we didn't really like the movie. But a lot of huge fandomy/hardcore fans did, because at the end of the day, I think that's who it was made for. Maybe any other books for HP would have a similar issue.

I just see Buffy 1-3 and Buffy 4-7 as two separate shows, honestly. So take what you want as canon. I like both sets for what they are, but I can't see them as being the same series. The first was basically a high school horror parody, and I liked that about it. I have the same thing with Angel after seasons two or three. (Which I seem to differ with a lot of fans on, apparently... am I the only one who liked the first season of Angel?)

[parsimonia.livejournal.com]

I think I would only really be interested in a Marauders-era prequel, even now. My attitudes toward the Marauders, Lily, and Snape, as well as my views/understanding of them, has changed a lot since I first got into HP and was all fannishly in love with MWPP, haha.

I think there's a lot of complexity there.

Only I could never stand it if it were done solely from one character's point of view. I think it would be cool to have a book with a series of short stories all connected, each from a different character's point of view. Each of the four Marauders, Lily, Petunia, Snape, Dumbledore, McGonagall, Hagrid, Lucius Malfoy, Voldemort, maybe the Longbottoms or the Lestranges?

[chocolatepot.livejournal.com]

2 - not sure about the cons, I think there are a good number of second-tier characters that are well-remembered by non-fanfom-fans.

3. NO I WANT THIS. I want a Marauders book of short stories like burning. I have no doubt that it would be strongly different from popular fanon, so in addition to indulging my own desires it would definitely cause a lot of wank. Oh god, if she just wrote an offhand mention of Sirius making out with a girl it could satisfy some of my wildest dreams.

4. Yeah, I liked the epilogue, but I'm lackluster on reading about the next generation (apart from maybe Teddy).

[13oct.livejournal.com]

What ever JKR does, she is going to get slammed by fans. So, she's pretty much screwed no matter what she writes. Imho, she should just leave things along in the HPverse.

But then, think of all the millions she'd make if she wrote any more HP books. That's a difficult fact for anyone to overlook.