Harry Potter and the Power of an Editor

[cathschaffstump]

A couple of weeks back, I went to see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2. My history with the Potter franchise has been long. I've been a fan fiction writer, a moderator on a site, a member of a board that helped put on Potter conventions, and an academic researcher about Potter. I used to have, before we moved English to our new building, the Potterized office. Yup, I had the Potter bug, and I had it bad.

I became involved with Potterdom about the time the first movie came out. I was thick in the throes of my PhD, but I was certain I wasn't going to see that movie without reading the books first. Bryon and I read them together, and by the time movie one was released, we had read the first three books. I was hooded in December, 2001, and I decided I wanted to know about Potter. I also had serious doubts about my ability to still write, so I thought fan fiction might be a way to see if I still could. And I stuck around for a while until I decided I needed to be writing my own stuff.

I also have to admit to dwindling interest. I felt pretty okay with the books up through book 4. Then characters I sort of assumed things about were revealed to be jerks, the movies were hamfisted Hermione Granger fantasies, and well, meh.

But, here's the thing. A couple of the movies have had what Rowling seemed to lack in her later books--editing. My favorites were 1, 5 (ironic because it is the book I detest), and 7, Part 2. Some of the most problematic parts of Rowling's 7th book were dealt with well in the movie (Steve Kloves, you may live. You are forgiven for some of your earlier mistakes...for now).

Here there be spoilers.

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Mirrored from Writer Tamago.