Re: Harry’s fate according to the bookies

[Steve]

---  "eggplant107" <eggplant107 at ...> wrote:
>
> "Steve" <bboyminn@> wrote:
> 
> > In how many books has the clear
> > hero died in the end?

> eggplant:
> 
> All of the Greek tragedies and most of Shakespeare.
> 

bboyminn:

OK, in how many books published in the last 400 years
has the CLEAR hero died? Certainly some, but I think
more where he has not.

> > bboyminn:
> > In how many books in which the clear
> > hero was a very young man, has the
> > hero died in the end? 

> eggplant:
> 
> Romeo and Juliet, not to mention Titanic, the most 
> profitable movie of all time.
> 

bboyminn:

Let's keep in confined to books in this or similar genres. 

> > Well certainly even I can think of a few,
> > but the odds, using literature as the basis,
> > are greatly in favor of Harry living. 

> eggplant:
> 
> Do you think JKR's goal is to do something everybody
> else does?
> 

bboyminn:

Do you think JKR is specifically writing anti-literature?
Is she specifically trying to NOT do what everybody else
does?

JKR is not methodically and willfully constructing great
literature or anti-literature. She has a story to tell
and she is not going to be swayed from that story; not
by fans, not by critics, not by preconceive notions of
'literature'.

Whether Harry lives or dies is determined by the story,
and was determined long ago, and I believe, and I truly
want, JKR to stay the course regardless of consequences.
If she kills Harry, which I dearly hope she does not,
then I trust her to weave it into the story in a
painful but satisfying way. I trust her to make Harry's
life and death mean something, and for it to be something
noble and heroic, something to be admired. I'm not buying
any wishy-washy baloney about kids not being able to 
understand it or take it, or to get romantic notions
of killing themselves. I trust her to do a better job
than that.

While I hope she does not kill him, I acknowledge that
it is a very real possibility. Like I said there are
only two choices; either he does or he doesn't. It's
just that I'm going to be so sad if she does.


> >bboyminn: 
> > if Harry does die. Grieving at a level
> > that exceeds best-love kings, queens,
> > princesses, and presidents. I see the
> > world at near stand still. 
> 
> Yes, and how could any writer resist doing that?
> 
> Eggplant
>

bboyminn:
Again, while you aren't actually saying it, you are
implying that JKR is very calculating in the 
mechanics of the books. That is, if she kills Harry
it will be because she thinks it's a cool thing to
do. I don't think so. I think, in a way, the story 
just appears out of the ether, JKR is merely 
chronicling the story as it comes to her, the way
a historian chronicles history. She will take it
as it comes, if Harry was destine to die then he
will die, but JKR won't do it to serve some external
secondary purpose. Does that make sense?

Steve/bboyminn