Soccer Dad

The rowling uncertainty principle

If someone is going to write a seven book series, the author would have mapped out an overall plot before writing the first book. She also would have likely decided on some specific events and characters who would appear throughout the series.

However not everything would be set in stone. Success could change the course of events. So could the opportunity of a movie deal.

While none of the first three Harry Potter books is particularly short, none of them approach the length of the subsequent 3 - nor that of the upcoming book #7. Part of the reason for the longer book lengths is that JK Rowling was successful. If people are interested in her story, she'll give them more story. And she has been remarkably successful giving her fans what they want. Surely success spurred her on to write longer books.

But also the appeal of movies has had some effect on what JK Rowling has written. While I was reading Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, it twice struck me, that Rowling was writing with a movie in mind. The first time was when the Order was introduced. There was something about that introduction that struck me as, "that's a scene from a movie."
I felt the same way about the final battle in the Ministry of Magic. It might be incredibly difficult to stage such a complicated battle, but it would be an amazing scene to watch too.

Something I've wondered about generally which characters/events/concepts came about or were more fully developed because of the success of Harry Potter? It's possible that Harry Potter would have been a moderate success that didn't spawn any movies. If that had happened, books 4 - 7 wouldn't have as long (and filled with as much narrative detail.) Who or what benefited from the success of Harry Potter?

1) Delores Umbridge - I'm certain that there would have been a Professor Umbridge anyway. I just don't think that she would have been the main character of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. It's hard to make a petty bureaucrat interesting, but that's what Rowling did with this obnoxious woman. More intent in preserving the internal order of the wizarding world than in protecting it from an external threat, Umbridge demonstrated the danger that an ambitious bureaucrat could present, as she manipulated the rules to frustrate original thought (and action). Had Rowling not had as many pages to work with, Umbridge probably still would have been Fudge's emissary at Hogwarts and perhaps would have even deposed Dumbledore, but she'd have been a lot more reactive.

2) Horcruxes - Until I read Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, my least favorite book had been Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Why? Because the idea of Tom Riddle somehow living through the diary seemed too weird, even for the wizarding world. It didn't seem consistent with any other magic we'd seen. By explaining that the diary was a horcrux, all of sudden, Rowling made that oddity makes sense. So why wasn't the diary identified as such earlier on? My guess is that Rowling didn't settle on the concept of a horcrux until much later.

3) The Quidditch World Cup - Sure it introduced Victor Krum and portkeys. The violence allowed us to learn about the Death Eaters. But these all could have been introduced through exposition, the Quidditch World Cup by itself wasn't that essential to the overall story.

4) Thestrals - The idea of having enchanted carriages that moved on their own was cute. Discovering that there were really creatures that pulled them, was a bit of a disappointment for me. Still thestrals became essential to the plot of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix allowing Harry and his friends to race to London in time to thwart Lord Voldemort. I don't think that they were part of Rowlings' original conception of the wizarding world.

On the other hand whatever happened to knuts, sickles and galleons? Currencies whose units are composed of prime number multiples of smaller units are illogical. But fun. The currency lesson was a fun diversion for a series of one book. While there have been discussions of money in subsequent books, nothing that required Hagrid's involved lesson in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.

What people/events/objects do you think have been added or expanded from the original conception of Harry Potter? Either leave an answer in the comments or blog it and send me an e-mail to link to you. Thanks.

Over the past year and a half I've written a number of other Harry Potter related posts, lately the Deathly Hallow Dead Pool has been rather popular, but I asked her for some happy news has been one of the most popular posts (maybe the most popular post) ever on Soccer Dad:
Is harry potter nobel worthy?
Deathly hallows dead pool
Of portkeys, thestrals and more
Harry potter and book #7
I never did believe in the ways of magic
I asked her for some happy news
Reading harry potter is fun
Kill the spare

Harry Potter.

Posted by SoccerDad at June 25, 2007 11:14 PM