Harry Potter as a Trilogy / Noam Jen Nov

[noamjen]

As many of us know, most fantasy books come in series. That is because in fantasy stories you have to present the readers with a new world, different from the one they live in, make the new world understood by them and also tell a story. All that is very hard to do in just one book.

Today, everything that comes in three is called a trilogy,

Comments

[tree_and_leaf]

Why shouldn't there be seven books? It fits the English school system. And it's not as if there haven't been popular fantasy series that had seven books - the obvious example is the Chronicles of Narnia, which would have been the most prominent example of 'children's fantasy' when Rowling was growing up.

[sollersuk]

Seven is as magical a number as any other and has psychological implications (George Miller in "The Magic Number Seven Plus or Minus Two" stresses the fact that seven is about the largest number of things that can be grasped without subdividing.

The thing about trilogies is that the whole idea dates back to Greek tragedy, where in practical terms you could fit into one day the three parts of a tragic story plus a satyr play.

[maidenform]

I don't see why any of this matters.

[wings13]

Agreed!!!!

[noamjen]

I don't see why any of this should matter.

But I guess topic like why do women like writing slash, or writing an essay proving almost every guy was in love with Lily are essential for your understating of Harry Potter

This is just a thought I had, some ideas potted together. You don't have to like it, you don't have to agree, you don't have to read and you don’t have to comment.
Last time I checked anyone was free to post his/her essays here.

I'd appreciate *some* respect for that, if not for me.

[kali_kali]

I would have to disagree with you on your grouping, as well as to how you relate things to Lord of the Rings

[eir_de_scania]

Tolkien actually saw LOTR as SIX books, not three. Each published volume contains two "books".

Early on, many aspiring fantasy writer wrote trilogies because Tolkien did. Nowadays, most series are far longer. Sometimes you wish they didn't... :-)