Expectation; we all have them (Post #1)

In response to the second prompt, the first two books of the Harry Potter series is a great example of Iser's argument that “expectations are scarcely ever fulfilled in truly literary texts.” 

            In Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone we, as the reader, are introduced into the world of magic, a world that Harry himself is for the first time experiencing and we are filled with all kinds of questions about this magic and its history and social practices.  We hold all of the same questions as Harry, and like-wise expect all of them to be answered.  We expect to know why Harry didn't die all those years ago, and where Voldemort has been sense that night, and why Snape hates Harry so much, and how come Hermione is such a great wizard born of muggle parents, and Neville whom is a “pure-blood” can’t seem to do anything right.  By the end of the book we are still wondering about Harrys past, and know next to nothing about Voldemort and where he has been or if he is coming back.  It still makes little sense as why Hermione is so naturally talented and Neville struggles so much.  There are questions from every area in this world that are left unanswered and are meant to be that way.  In this series especially the element of mystery and surprise is what keeps us as readers indulged.  However knowing this is a series also gives us the expectation that these questions will be answered at some point.

            When we enter into book two Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, we are introduced to new characters and new bits of magic that enchant us all over again.  We become more familiar with our leading characters and ones that were hiding in the background for most of the first book.  We see How Ron’s bad luck gets him into some sticky (or slimy) situations, how Hermione cleverness always comes in handy with their adventures, and Harry, while brave and a true has a knack for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.  The more we get to know them the more find ourselves caring for these characters.  We start to expect things of them, to stay out of trouble for once, to find out what bad things are happening and be able to stop it before anyone gets hurt.  We expect that teachers will be on their side and that these three will stick together through anything they have to face.  We expect that Malfoy is the heir to Slytherin that has opened the chamber of secrets and is helping attack people in the school.  We are surprised to learn in the end that it was actually little Ginny Weasley who had opened that chamber of secrets, possessed of course by Voldemort himself.  Harry is there of course to fight Voldemort away again and save poor Ginny before it is too late.  We do get a little more information on Harry’s past as well as Voldemorts in the final chapters of this book.  We now understand that Voldemort is the heir to Slytherin and that Harry can speak to snakes because of a connection he has to Voldemort (one greater than we first expected.)

            J.K. Rowling builds up our expectations and the fails to fulfill them to keep us wanting more, so keep us wondering and to force us to try and solve the mysteries on our own.  It encourages us to look at the story lines and all the information given in every way to try and unravel the mystery knowing we can never be sure until we finish the series.  Fulfilling expectations is not exciting while failing to answer our most despite of questions is an intentional action that keeps us coming back.   

Blog #1: Always on Our Toes

            Rowling writes the Harry Potter series in a mystery genre in some aspects. All books have clues and they are trying to discover where someone, or something is. In the first book, our expectations held that Professor Severus Snape was trying to hurt Harry Potter, and we expected that he wished to find the Sorceror’s Stone. Though there were very strong clues to suggest that Snape was behind all the mischief, our expectations failed when we learned that Professor Quirrell was the evil one. This also shown in the Chamber of Secrets while trying to find the heir of Slytherin; though Harry, Ron and Hermione thought that Draco Malfoy was behind it all, they were proven false when they used the Polyjuice Potion and informed that Malfoy was indeed not the heir.

            It is important for an author to raise our expectations and then fail to fulfill it because it keeps us, the readers, on our toes. It is what keeps us reading. If the readers could guess everything that was going to happen and have a certain expectation about some characters then there would be no point in reading something that we could guess the ending to. Rowling does a marvelous job in Harry Potter by keeping the readers on their toes, as the books go on, we have discovered things that we would have never guessed by ourselves. For example, I know the first time I read Harry Potter, I did not expect Tom Riddle to be in the chamber, nor did I expect Ginny Weasley to have the diary and the one behind all of the attacks.  Those are simply two of the reasons that I was initially drawn in to Harry Potter. With my expectations never coming true, everything is always a mystery and that is what readers enjoy because of the fact that they are always learning something on expected, leaving them on their toes and not allowing them to put the book down.

-Megan Sparks

Prompt 1.1: J.K. Rowling, Author or Puppet-master?

In the Harry Potter series, as with many books I've read, there is a seamless inclusion of me, the reader, into the text. Rowling accomplishes this by not telling you every little thing. It’s true I can relate directly due to similar experiences as a child in an impoverished household - while I did not live under the stairs, my bedroom was (at one point) in a closet. Though, this is not all that draws me into the story. My mind enjoys filling in the blanks, as I imagine many minds do, and it’s those blanks that allow us to be in the story and to experience it with Harry Potter himself. As a result, the character I most identify with is Harry. After all, he gets the most attention, and we know a lot about him, but not enough to alienate anyone without similar experiences.

I believe this comes down to what the author chooses to keep or leave out of their texts. Rowling gives us facts about the lives of the characters, but never enough to keep us from being engaged with filling in bits and pieces. What she does reveal, and often in fine detail to draw us in, is emotion. Humans are programmed to empathize. Our mirror neurons allow us to understand and, in some cases, even feel echos of what others are going through. In engaging us with the feel of the magical world, Rowling can draw us in with no objection from our subconscious. Rowling is emotionally hijacking each reader.

While I can see other people of differing experiences not getting the same out of the books that I experience, I can’t imagine their understanding is all that different. The parts of our psychology that Rowling is appealing to exist in all people. Though they can be reinterpreted on a conscious level, I would argue that it’s the subconscious understanding and empathy Rowling guides us to that allows Harry Potter to reach and touch such a vast multitude of readers - far apart in space, age, and time.

I wouldn't argue Rowling is a neuroscientist, but I think she knows how to pull our heartstrings, which is just as good.

-Carrie Callahan

Response to Prompt #1

      Isner's "The Reading Process" points out a blurred division between the reader and the writer. Because I'm recently reading the Harry Potter series for the first time, I strongly agree with Isner's idea that (in an effective text) readers immerse themselves in someone else's (the writer's) ideas and create new identities for themselves. Before beginning the series, I expected to be entertained, but not to empathize or identify with any of the characters.

     The character that I've identified with the strongest throughout the first and second book is Hermione. When reading about Hermione's background, the first of her family to go to a wizarding school, I felt oddly familiar with the feeling because I'm the first of my family to go to college. I've always felt a pressure to excel academically because I've been the first to have the opportunity. When starting college, I had to become an independent "know-it-all" because I didn't have anyone else to know it all for me. When reading about Hermione's muggle parents, I pictured my own. My parents have no idea what a FASFA form is, or that Blackboard is online and not in the classroom. I also identify with her socially. It's hard for me to make friends because a lot of my peers can be laid back and just enjoy being in college. For me, it's an opportunity to learn that my parents didn't have, and I'm not taking it for granted. I saw a lot of my own emotion in Hermione, which helped me to adopt Hogwarts and other fantastical elements almost seamlessly.

     The interesting thing about my experience with Harry Potter is that many of the parts of the story I assume to be true (i.e. Hermione must feel the same as I do) have no solid textual evidence. It's something that I've seen in between the lines, and I'm sure other readers have filled in the blanks differently. For example, in class someone mentioned Ron being the glue that holds his group together. I'm not so sure I agree, but I think it would be difficult to provide evidence either way. I haven't seen the films either, however, so that could be giving me a different impression all together.

     It's been difficult to find a character that I don't empathize with in books one and two. I consider myself a highly empathetic person, and I think Rowling is extremely deft at making characters so well-rounded that its hard to label them as "good" or "evil". As strange as it seems, I've developed my own back stories for almost all the characters, including Uncle Vernon, Aunt Petunia, Lucius, etc. This may be a benefit of coming to the Harry Potter series as an adult. I really enjoy the complexities of the characters, and "psychoanalyzing" them if you will. Sometimes it's hard to differentiate between what I've read and what I've created myself which is exactly what I think Isner is arguing.
   

   

Blog Post One Response – Books and Cleverness

When I first read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, I was drawn to the character Hermione.  I found her easy to relate to, not because she is one of the strong female leads through the series, but because of her personality.  While I may not possess the exact same qualities as Hermione, I share enough similarities with her that I have come to create a bond with the character.  I love that she has an opinion she is not afraid to voice, that she is intelligent, and that she has a huge heart.  Her friendship with Ron and Harry is one of the most important things to her, and I respond heavily to that.  She can be a bit bossy, which can get irritating, yet I feel we can all be a bit bossy at times, especially eleven-year-old girls.

While reading an article that J.K. Rowling did with TIME Magazine in October 2000, I found it shocking in some ways that only once had anyone told Rowling to not kill Hermione.  Hermione gives off this sense of self-confidence and bravery that is linked to her smarts and cleverness.  Yet I feel, as Rowling also stated, that she has this sort of vulnerability that not many people come to realize. Hermione is able to put on a hard shell to hide her emotions, mind you with both sass and brilliance.  It is not that she does not possess bravery and courage, but that she does become scared when dealing with the dark times that they are faced with.  Hermione is both strong and brilliant, merely trying to work hard in order to have everything go as smoothly as possible.  Hermione has taught me the importance of standing up for what you believe in and to always be yourself.

Link to TIME Magazine article (if interested).

Prompt 2: Things are not as they seem

This statement about how expectations are not fulfilled in literary books can be seen quite true in the first two Harry Potter books.  The books make it seem that things are going to go a certain way, and you are swept up into thinking one way and it goes into a completely different direction.  One big example that can be seen in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, where you do not know who is actually trying to steal the sorcerer’s stone from Hogwarts.  The whole book makes it seem that Snape is the one after the stone and all its glory, when in reality; it is Quirrell who is helping out Voldemort.  The way that J.K. Rowling paints Snape’s character as a mean and scary professor with whom you would never want to be on their bad side helps to make the reader believe that he is the one that is trying to steal the stone.  Making Quirrell out to be the professor who seems like he would be afraid to even hurt a fly doesn’t give the reader any indication that he may be the one who is helping Voldemort out.  On a smaller scale, as well, the book makes the readers believe that Snape is the one trying to kill Harry at the Quidditch match, when in reality he is trying to save his life.

            Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets also has a big example of how expectations are not fulfilled and first impressions are not always correct.  One would never have assumed Ginny Weasley would be the one opening the Chamber of Secrets and releasing the monster to purge the school of those who some believe are “not worthy.”  The readers of the Harry Potter books have probably figured out by now that things are most definitely not what they seem and sometimes the culprit is the least likely person.  With this in mind, reading the books with a much more open-mindedness can help the reader think of other options to how situations may turn out.

Expect the Unexpected. #1

In the beginning of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, Professor Snape gives Harry a feeling of dread when he first looks at him. Consequently, throughout the book, Harry suspects Snape of trying to steal the Sorcerer’s Stone. Granted, Snape’s demeanor, greasy hair, and piercing look towards Harry does little to quell this notion. The readers, too, are led to believe that Snape tried to steal the stone and was behind the troll attack. Yet, the readers and Harry find that it is Professor Quirrell that is after Stone, not Snape. Quirrell may seem weak and scared, but he is far from that. He is the man with two faces, his own and Lord Voldemort’s.

In Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Harry focuses all his time on finding the true Heir of Slytherin. He believes the Heir to be Draco Malfoy, a fellow classmate from Slytherin. Malfoy continuously harasses Harry, Ron, and Hermione, even going so far as to call Hermione a “mudblood.” At the same time, the rest of the school thinks Harry is the Heir because he is a Parselmouth. After the Chambers are opened, Harry comes face to face with the memory of Tom Marvolo Riddle, a young student from fifty years ago. It is in a conversation with Riddle that Harry finds out that not only is Riddle Lord Voldemort, but he is the Heir of Slytherin. Who would have guessed that a young boy from fifty years prior was the Heir?

Expect the unexpected. Expectations are raised while reading Harry Potter, but what would be the fun if the expected happened? Failing to fulfill expectations keeps the readers on their toes and keeps them reading the next books. The readers are more alert in the next book, but even then, most expectations are false.