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.
Aka most children have no imaginations and couldn’t think of a satisfactory conclusion themselves.
They were a great showcase for Nazi Germany in 1936...
OTOH, they would pretty much have to be...
Beyond the fact that I think Rowling understands that, that was not my point.
Rowlings and other artists should be allowed to create as they please...
I'm pretty sure she did.
My point was, and continues to be, that Rowling knows her fan base. I don't think a healthy understanding of that harmed the books in any way.
Jesse Owens would disagree.
It’s very sad that in our society fifteen/ sixteen year olds don’t understand that sometimes death is necessary in literature. Apparently, high schools have stopped teaching Romeo and Juliet, Of Mice and Men, and To Kill a Mockingbird in their freshman literature classes.
Yeah!
I am entitled to my opinion. There is no need to be snide.
Unfortunately, I do think that Rowlings (or more likely her publishers) were servicing her base... Tweens and Teens. But I think that most of Rowlings eleven - sixteen year old fanbase could have survived a darker ending. It’s a pity that instead of exposing these teens to a darker ending and thereby getting them excited about classic literature, Rowlings decided to pander to them and make her ending.. like Disney teen.
Ohfercryinoutloud, Mommy never read you any "happily ever after stories" did she?
As Jen said upthread. It's a fairy tale. Awful things happen, but good wins in the end. I seriously doubt J.K. Rowling was "afraid that eight-year-olds might be upset."
But I think that she, obviously unlike you, understood the audience for which she was writing.
It wasn't me. It wasn't you.
Yes, Imperius is an unforgiveable curse, but do you see any other way for them to get the horcrux from the vault?
I'm not typically one for "ends justify the means", but when you're talking about Voldemort taking over and all the deaths...so, Harry made a goblin open some doors and another guy go and hide himself. It doesn't seem THAT bad to me.
Interesting take.
I thought when he said "Look...at...me" he was imploring Harry to "see the real me" when he put his thoughts into the pensieve.
So sad to see Snape go, but so glad to know the truth about him.
Great complex character.
Alan Rickman plays him so well.
If the cup was goblin-made, I'm not sure it would have made any difference.
How do you know this? Maybe, just maybe, Jo wrote the story the way she wanted to. No pandering, no editorial pressure, etc.
I suspect that at this stage of the game, JKRowling is calling all the shots.
To paraphrase Dumbledore: "This is, as they say, her party."
And the last name is Rowling, not Rowlings.
Her name is Rowling, if you’d read most of the thread, you ought to respect her enough to use the right name.
Romeo and Juliet as an example of death being necessary? Fer cyin’ out loud, that play’s like a PSA on “this is your brain on teenager”. None of those deaths were necessary if the characters hadn’t all been stupid thoughtless morons.
It seemed quite certain that she was pandering. (I would have been more impressed if she had auctioned the ending off to the highest bidder to benefit the Red Cross. The epilogue would have been the same, but it would have been for a good cause at least). While Rowlings might have been in charge, I’m sure that both she and the editors might have wanted to maxmize the amount of teenagers who went to the last two Potter movies.
Dang! I want some!
It’s not a matter of putting stock in how Irving ends his books, it’s understanding that of the writers that write his style, modern tragedy, he is the most financially successful, and quite critically successful too.
We’re not just discussing books that “work”, we’re discussing overall structures. Modern tragedies probably don’t “work” which has a lot to do with why they aren’t popular. But it is a legitimate form of drama that exists and has a defined structure.
Harry could have died in a way that wasn’t meaningless, but if he’d died in the story when he appeared to die it would have been it would have been the perfect example of a modern tragic story. A meaningless death that failed to accomplish the primary goal of his life. The other problem with Harry dieing, even if he does take out Voldy in the process, is his life sucked so bad, that would have been the part that made it so sad, his life had so few happy moments, he really deserved to survive the darkness and experience a good life.
I would disagree. Grimms Fairy Tales is simply chock full of imagery that couldn't make an R rating today.
Or childrens' prayers taught for many years:
Now I lay me down to sleep. I pray the Lord my soul to keep. If I should die before I wake I pray to God my soul to take.
"If I should die before I wake"?? What sort of message is that for children? :-)
I don't see the goblins at Gringotts as innocent. They knew perfectly well that Bellatrix was a Death Eater and acting in the service of Voldemort. They are about as innocent as the Swiss bankers that did business with the Third Reich.
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