I've never heard of Patricia Wrede. I may need to rectify this gap in my knowledge at some future date. >_>
It's true that Rowling makes a lot of...I don't know, "oversights", for lack of a better word. But she does know how to spin a good mystery, and that involves a certain amount of depth in planning - the first three books managed to keep me wondering all the way. The later ones not so much, but enh.
Granted, being able to weave a mystery plot isn't the same thing as...good strategic and tactical planning. And I'm fairly sure she simply doesn't consider the minutiae and implications like, well, many of us reader types do. I suspect she's also the sort of writer who subordinates little things like details to the demands of the plot.
If you consider the basic premise, no, it doesn't make sense for Harry to have been locked up and mistreated for all of his childhood, without anyone looking in on him. But it does make for an interesting and sympathetic background for our hero. Shades of Cinderella and all that.
-- Acyl
It's true that Rowling makes a lot of...I don't know, "oversights", for lack of a better word. But she does know how to spin a good mystery, and that involves a certain amount of depth in planning - the first three books managed to keep me wondering all the way. The later ones not so much, but enh.
Granted, being able to weave a mystery plot isn't the same thing as...good strategic and tactical planning. And I'm fairly sure she simply doesn't consider the minutiae and implications like, well, many of us reader types do. I suspect she's also the sort of writer who subordinates little things like details to the demands of the plot.
If you consider the basic premise, no, it doesn't make sense for Harry to have been locked up and mistreated for all of his childhood, without anyone looking in on him. But it does make for an interesting and sympathetic background for our hero. Shades of Cinderella and all that.
-- Acyl