After thinking it over (Don't read if you haven't finished book 7)
SPOILER ALERT. DON'T READ IF YOU'RE NOT DONE WITH THE DEATHLY HALLOWS
Well, what else could she do?
If you haven't seen the movie Stranger than Fiction, you should watch it. One of the lessons learned in that movie is that the "right" ending ... the ending that makes a book perfect, a classic, a masterpiece, is the ending that no one wants (except the literary snobs like me). Most readers want a happy ending. We want the hero to win.
Rowling attempted a kind of compromise. She gave me my ending, but then recanted it. But, as I told Jebbo: doesn't she have to? I mean it's a children's book, after all. Doesn't she have to teach children that the one who does the right thing is going to come out alright in the end?
So, while I think she did the wrong thing, she made the "weaker" choice from a literary standpoint, she also did the thing that made her rich and popular in the first place...she gave Harry the ending we all wanted...he lives.
What makes this okay (at least to some degree) with me is that she does kill him. As I read chapter 34 (The Forest Again), I loved her...there he was sacrificing himself willingly to save all of us. I cried and thought, "It is perfect, she's going to do it; I can't believe it." It was perfect. And this is the same dilemma we see in Stranger than Fiction. Thompson's character (Crick) writes the perfect book with the perfect ending. In that ending, Ferrell's character dies. But what happens when we all (including the author) have fallen in love with the character? What happens when we want him to live? You can choose not to kill him, and everyone will be happy. If an author makes that choice, the "perfect" story is sacrificed rather than the character.
Rowling chose differently than I would. In the adult version of the Harry Potter series that I have running in my head parallel to the real stories she's given us, Harry died. No rebirth, no resurrection. But that is why she is rich instead of me. No one would love my book.
What is most interesting is that the perfect ending is not the popular one. How is it that that has happened?
Well, what else could she do?
If you haven't seen the movie Stranger than Fiction, you should watch it. One of the lessons learned in that movie is that the "right" ending ... the ending that makes a book perfect, a classic, a masterpiece, is the ending that no one wants (except the literary snobs like me). Most readers want a happy ending. We want the hero to win.
Rowling attempted a kind of compromise. She gave me my ending, but then recanted it. But, as I told Jebbo: doesn't she have to? I mean it's a children's book, after all. Doesn't she have to teach children that the one who does the right thing is going to come out alright in the end?
So, while I think she did the wrong thing, she made the "weaker" choice from a literary standpoint, she also did the thing that made her rich and popular in the first place...she gave Harry the ending we all wanted...he lives.
What makes this okay (at least to some degree) with me is that she does kill him. As I read chapter 34 (The Forest Again), I loved her...there he was sacrificing himself willingly to save all of us. I cried and thought, "It is perfect, she's going to do it; I can't believe it." It was perfect. And this is the same dilemma we see in Stranger than Fiction. Thompson's character (Crick) writes the perfect book with the perfect ending. In that ending, Ferrell's character dies. But what happens when we all (including the author) have fallen in love with the character? What happens when we want him to live? You can choose not to kill him, and everyone will be happy. If an author makes that choice, the "perfect" story is sacrificed rather than the character.
Rowling chose differently than I would. In the adult version of the Harry Potter series that I have running in my head parallel to the real stories she's given us, Harry died. No rebirth, no resurrection. But that is why she is rich instead of me. No one would love my book.
What is most interesting is that the perfect ending is not the popular one. How is it that that has happened?
posted by perrykat at
2:47 PM
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