Rowling and the MS Word Developers both confound our collective intelligence, eh?
I thought the new Potter book came out today. But that would be silly - that's Simpsons movie weekend.
Thanks to Mankiw's blog, I found this interesting article on the books.
This quote right here nails on the head a problem that was bothering me for a while, but I had not articulated:
"JK Rowling is not, to put it mildly, known for her seamless plotting or
the gripping realism of her characters, most of whom spend the latter
books pointlessly withholding information from each other that, if
shared, would end the installment somewhere around page ten."
Thank you, Megan. That's it exactly. Needless secrets, gah. It's irritating.
I'll probably end up reading the last book anyway to see what happens. I'll probably end up getting irritated anyway though.
In response to additional comments that lambaste the Potter series for glaring plot holes big enough to drive a truck through - and a completely dysfunctional economy, several people wrote in to complain that complaining about the books' brilliance, or lack thereof, is a Bad Thing.
The first comment in response belies how I react when I watch most Hollywood fodder:
"Ever hear the phrase "Too smart for your own good?"
About my third year of uni, I realised that my acquired knowledge
was sucking the fun out of many forms of entertainment. Hollywood
blockbusters, for example, ceased being a visual feast and just began
to seem stupid and contrived.
A few bitter and jaded years later, I, learned to sit back and stop thinking so much."
Unlike the commenter, I do keep thinking while watching movies. My friends teased me for laughing too hard at too many "wrong times" during Die Hard 4.0 (a.k.a. Live Free or Die Hard), but I couldn't help it.
The difference is that I didn't get upset at the glaring flights of fancy, like the 18-wheeler fighting a jet (what is this, Transformers?) and other plot problems, I found them to be sources of awesome comedy.
And so I laugh. Not out of haughty superiority - well, maybe because of a little bit of that - but mainly because I find it amusing that the writers or directors either A. thought someone would find this realistic, or B. were so lazy or tired that they just handed in this version of the script/cut and called it 'good enough'.
And their budget was how many millions of dollars?
This all brings to mind a completely unrelated article about how the MS Word style of writing on computers destroys productivity. Some people tease me for staying true to WordPerfect despite its pathetic market share.
I consider it a not-so-secret weapon in allowing me to be more productive than any given Word user.