Posted on 07/21/2007 5:18:11 PM PDT by JenB
So you finally know what happens to Harry. All our questions are answered. Or not. What are your reactions? Whose death hurt the most? Do you want more, and about whom?
SPOILERS are ok on this thread! You have been warned!
Wow. It's over.
J.K. Rowlings surprised us in this final book by not emphasizing Ron’s most amazing gift....he’s a SEER!
In the previous books, Ron would make a funny, dread-filled remark and it would come true.
fanfic writers, get busy!!
I would like to see Ron take out more bad guys with his wand, personally. A few Stupefies here and there, ya know.
Actually, I'd forgotten that part. But she was a very powerful witch, and his most loyal supporter. In my universe, I'm going to assume no sex.
I think he must have..it's an irony thing..In HBP, Pansy strokes Draco's hair while the Hogwart's Express makes it's way to the school.
In DH, in the epilogue, Draco is described as having a receding hairline. Maybe Pansy stroked it so much, he developed male pattern baldness.
One of the disappointing things that I found about the series (and this post personifies that reaction) is that I think that hardcore Harry Potter fans think that everyone must think that everyone must react the same way they do. This is unhealthy because books are meant to be critiqued and debated.
In fact, I don’t think that a fourteen year old fan reading Harry Potter could really analyze the themes of the book or debate the books’ strengths and weaknesses... It doesn’t seem like they have any reaction beyond OMIGOD Harry Potter is the best or OMIGOD Ron and Hermione forever... squee!!
Rowlings did a good job getting children to read, but it seems that they’re unfortunately reading the books the same way they watch a sitcom on T.V. I think that unfortunately the ending (especially the ridiculous epilogue) pandered to this lazy reading style.
You obviously haven't read much of the stuff being written by teenagers about the books. Obviously, teenagers are not going to have the life experiences of 40 year olds, but you expectations are simply wrong.
As odd as this may sound to you, not every book was written to have someone critique or debate it. Nor do all people read books with nothing in mind but scoring intelligence points over someone else in a debate.
Sometimes books are just meant to be fun.
Personally, I haven’t noticed in any of the discussion here that “everyone” reacted to same way to any part of the book. Most people see things differently in real life, why shouldn’t they with fictional characters and plots?
Or maybe I just don’t know any hardcore Harry Potter fans that think everyone has to react the same way they do. Its too bad that those are the only people you seem to run into.
Try reading a book just for the fun of it and see how liberating it is sometime. :)
So then don’t...
I think that there’s nothing wrong with fifteen year olds writing fanfiction.. I am going to be critical of a multi-millionaire author choosing to end her book with a piece of fanfiction that reads like it was written by a fifteen year old author... One’s an amateur author who isn’t going to get his/ her work published; the other is getting paid millions of dollars. I expect the latter author to come up with something of greater quality than the former. As for Rowlings name, I’ve seen it mis-spelled quite a few times by newspapers, etc. I’m amused that this is the best argument that you can come up with. This suggests that my criticisms about the final book are relevant.
That was a nice touch.
You stated that in modern tragedy... the death has no meaning. That is the definition of existentialism. In existentialist writings, people live and die for no reason. Some so-called “modern tragedy” is either a pure (or a bastardized form of existentialism. The rest should not be considered a “tragedy” either modern or classic because the death has meaning and it is not due to a fatal character flaw. Generally, the so-called tragic death is not the main character, but an important supporting character who spurs the main characters growth.
“It depends on how and when Harry died. If his apparent death in the books had been his real death then it would have turned the series into a modern tragedy, a pointless death where none of his growth mattered in the end. Had he died in the final conflict and succeeded at taking down Voldy in the process it wouldn’t have been a tragedy, I don’t know if it would have been existentialism but it would have left the tragedy realm because his death and life would have mattered, he would have learned and grown and accomplished.”
They way he died did matter, did show his growth, and was necessary to defeat Voldemort. In fact, Rowling could have written Voldemort and Harry in the Forest Again as the final conflict very easily. Voldemort could have been killed himself right after he killed Harry. The so-called final battle seemed to be slapped on at the end... Frankly, the fact that Harry wasn’t the last horcrux to be destroyed didn’t make much dramatic scene.
“As for the “commercialism”, guess what, people write for money. The idea that something is inherently bad because it bows to commercial pressures is the most pathetic kind of literati elitism.”
I’m all for popular art... Lots of popular artistic movements have started with the “plebs,” not the Upper East Side crowd. However, that being said I believe that an artist should remain true to their idea and not be swayed because his/ her editor, agent, etc. tells her to do X... The Epilogue struck me as that sort of pandering in its most naked form.
Voldemort could have been killed himself right after he killed Harry. That would have been a quite cool way for him to go. And with keeping with the story.
“I wouldn’t have been happy if Dumbledore had actually been raising Harry to be a lamb to be led to the slaughter. But, apparently, he acted similar to another Lamb that I could think of, but won’t mention in case the Fundamentalists are reading this thread. ;-)”
Dumbledore has pointed out again and again that one has free will. Harry could have easily made the choice to run and hide, and Dumbledore pointed out that he had that right. What made the sacrifice so powerful, is that Harry chose to die.. Which makes him alot like another Lamb.
I don’t think the curse was that they would die. I think it was just that no one would stay in that post for more than a year.
I was sure that Moody was going to come back as an Inferi when they couldn’t find his body.
I'm thinking that was the case. In Harry's case, there was no one else to take him, since Sirius was in Azkaban, so Dumbledore took him to his only living relative, Petunia.
Heh, could be.
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