Anger towards JKR (was Re: Great group / Quoted text)

[arielock2001]

> Susan McGee wrote:
> > I guess it's fine that lots of people don't like DH, but how can you be so 
> > nasty towards an author who has created a universe that you care so deeply 
> > about?
 
I (Arianna) replied:
> Because she callously destroyed that universe in DH.  

Susan McGee responded:
> Well, really Arianna, your response encapsulates the severe problems I have  
> with the list.

Arianna:
I've never said anything bad about JKR.  All I am saying is that I understand why people are 
angry at her (IMHO, She's a perfectly lovely woman who happened to write a book that I 
detest).
DH has ruined my enjoyment of all things HP.  PoA was my favorite book.  I don't think I'll 
ever want to read it again.

(Snip)

Susan McGee:
>( JKR)'s written wonderful books  
> about love, trust, fighting for justice and tolerance. 

Arianna:
That is where we disagree. 

Without playing Harry-Potter-as-Rorschach-Test (though that actually might be fun...) or 
addressing plot holes, inconsistencies and the plain fact that she hadn't set up the 
"Deathly Hallows" properly (JKR might realize that her NAQ about why Dumbledore had 
James' invisibility cloak showed that she hadn't given readers any indication that it was 
unique), I found DH filled with fear, betrayals, abuses of trust (Dumbledore much?), 
inheritance over choice (at the end of the seven book series, Harry's ancestry is CRUCIAL 
to the plot line of the story as JKR wrote it: Harry didn't earn the cloak, he inherited it 
through his father's bloodline), intolerance and death after needless, senseless, 
heartbreaking death.  

We get enough of that just turning on the news. 


Susan McGee:
(snip)
> Gosh, it's fine to be annoyed -- but then to turn around and viciously  
> attack the author? 
>Ychhh....To impute that she "callously destroyed" the  universe? 
> Callously means that she did it to be nasty and mean? 

Arianna:
Actually, that is not quite what callous means.  It means, "showing or having an insensitive 
and cruel disregard for others. i.e.  his callous comments about the murder made me 
shiver. His callous disregard for other people's feelings"

If you are able, please watch this Dateline interview with JKR http://video.the-leaky-
cauldron.org/video/828.  In another (I'm sorry, I do not know which one) she admitted 
(jokingly, granted) that she must be "ruthless" in order to create a heartwarming children's 
story. She also acknowledged that some people would absolutely hate this book: I'm one 
of them.

I stand by my opinion that JKR acted callously by killing off beloved characters. 

Stating this opinion is not a vicious attack on the author.

Susan McGee:
>Do you really think that? Goodness gracious me!

Arianna:
Well, she killed two characters she hadn't originally intended to kill (Lupin and Tonks) so 
that she could have an orphan.  That's pretty callous to me.
  
JKR said that she wanted to mirror Harry's situation by creating another orphan (Dateline, 
other interviews) so we, the readers, could see the true horror of what Voldemort is doing. 

I don't think any neurologically normal person needs a book ::cough:: to tell them that 
murder is bad. 

The deaths of Lupin (a long-suffering young man who had lived a lonely life and finally 
found love and a family), Tonks (a young woman who had recently married and had a 
baby), Fred (a teenager who had his whole life ahead of him), Colin (a child!), Dobby (the 
lone symbol of freedom for an enslaved race), Ted Tonks (because Andromeda wouldn't 
have suffered enough just losing her daughter? She now has no family other than Teddy 
and Narcissa.) were not necessary for the final outcome of the story.  Mad-Eye, Harry's pet 
Hedwig, Crabbe... Ugh... 

It gets worse; she didn't need to kill Sirius. She just needed him out of the way (so that he 
couldn't give Harry any bad advice or recognize Regalus' handwriting).  She could have 
gotten him out of the way by having him arrested at the end of OotP (he was in the 
Ministry) and sent back to Azkaban for the duration of the last two books (was he ever 
acquitted?  In the U.S., aren't wrongfully convicted people accused of murder kept in 
prison until the verdict is officially overturned? Disbelief has been suspended:
It would have worked just fine.

::shakes head::


Here's the deal: if JKR intended for readers to care about the characters, then it shouldn't 
be surprising that readers saddened or disgusted when kills them.

-Arianna