> Yeah, and I hate to be the one not "getting it". I think it just appeared to me as I read the story that the first half of the book was merely a string of interesting episodes (which could also be said of much of the first book) that, alas, failed to interest me much. No accounting for taste, as you said.
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> The turning point for me came when things began to seem less episodic (ex. Nearly Headless Nick's spectral social woes, Draco's bid to join the Quidditch team) and more focused on discovering the Chamber of Secrets. By the end, I saw how some of those earlier elements did indeed set up the main plot, as you pointed out. And even if the early chapters had been there merely to give a little of the "flavor of Hogwart's", that too would be enough reason to justify their existence. But for whatever reason, the early material just seemed very ho-hum to me. Can't really say why.


They're not there to give "flavour of Hogwarts". They're the real story.

See, I think everyone's got Harry Potter wrong. It's not a fantasy novel or anything like that. It's a boarding school story. Of course there's large amounts of 'just school', because that's the real story. If you look at it, the bulk of the books is just an (extremely good) school story in the tradition of all those ripping yarns about Terrence and Toby of George Smethwycke's Boarding School for Good Little Boys who go off to boarding school, have loads of wizard adventures after lights-out, and one of whom is an exceptionally good sportsman and shows that beastly Rooke what for on the rugby or cricket field. These books also have a sub-plot entwined around regular school to show how GOOD and PUBLIC-SPIRITED the boys are. Perhaps some dastardly cad is sneaking about after lights-out and stealing Mr Prestwick's board erasers, or someone's cheating on his exams, or the bay just below the school is being used by smugglers. Of course, the boys have to sneak about and uncover this mystery, and it all ends in a confrontation and our heroes come out on top. The sub-plot is normally introduced near the beginning and jumps into the story every so often, getting more and more prominent as the story goes on, and then a large space is dedicated at the end as the sub-plot becomes as important as the main plot.

Sound familiar? All Rowling really changes from that basic formula is to set it in a wizarding school instead of a wizard school, have the sub-plots all tie in with the Voldemort's-coming-back theme, and change the sport to Quidditch. At its core, it's just another boarding school story.

Zarniwoop