And our story begins...
Right now it's still a refresher course. I remember a decent amount of this from the movies and from the first time I read it. Strange how many of these jokes I didn't catch the first time, though. Rowling really shows a sharp wit early on in the text.
The Dursleys do seem quite two-dimensional, but they are the only characters that suffer from this problem. Every other character in the book feels like they have an entire backstory already written about them (which they might have by now). Rowling uses foreshadowing, but not to the point where you can predict her story. Each character hints at an iceberg of possibilities under his/her surface, just waiting for the right moment to let them out.
Soon we'll arrive at Hogwarts. For now, it's time for a quick break.
All the characters did in fact have an entire backstory at that point. J.K. Rowling posted a few snippets on her website a while ago of very early notes and drawings she made about some characters, and she frequently references the piles of notebooks where she has every detail written down about each of the characters in Harry Potter.
ReplyDeleteWell I'll be darned. Doesn't really surprise me though, by the way she talks about them.
ReplyDelete