Happy Endings

[Penny & Bryce Linsenmayer]

No: HPFGUIDX 7894

Hi --

Scott wrote:

> I am by no means saying that we shall come to the end of book VII and
> find all the characters living "Happily Ever After". I do think
> however that Jo is aware that a lot of her readers are children,
> including her own daughter. (Notice I didn't say that most or all of
> her readers were children just a lot.)  She HAS to be aware of that so
> that even if she's not writing for children she's not going to be
> writing books that are comparable to R-rated movies.  The books as
> someone else wrote won't become Horror Films.  If there are numerous
> deaths it doesn't mean that the story is going to be reduced to a
> violent bloody massacre.
>

Oh, I'm definitely not saying that they will turn into the horror
genre.  But, what I am saying is that she's been planning the story
(divided into 7 books) she wants to write since 1990, and she doesn't
intend to change course/deviate from her intended path just because she
has children readers. Being aware that you have a younger audience &
deciding to change your story to suit the sensibilities of those younger
readers are 2 different things.  Here's a sneak peak at a portion of one
of the FAQs that addresses this topic (footnotes omitted):

<<<<After the release of Goblet of Fire, Rowling was asked if the
remaining books would continue to have dark plots or if she was inclined
to "tone down" the plots to suit her younger readers.  She emphatically
stated that she will not change the course of the stories (which she's
spent 10 years mapping out and writing so far).  She believes that a
realistic depiction of evil is necessary to the core theme of her work,
and she steadfastly refuses so far to compromise her artistic integrity
by changing course to suit her youngest readers.   She has said in
several interviews that she has never been in favor of parents
introducing 6 and 7 year old children to the books.  She said that she
thought "Well, that's great that he loved Sorcerer's Stone but I know
what's coming and I'm not sure he'll be ready for it."   Goblet of Fire
in fact convinced many readers and fans that the series was in fact more
than just a "children's series." >>>>>>

In one of those interviews, she also said that she couldn't look herself
in the mirror if she changed the story now to suit other people.  She
says she'll be sorry if she loses some of her readers along the way, but
that it's a price she's willing to pay to stick to artistic integrity.

So .... I guess I still just don't see how you can have a series with
increasingly dark tones & truly portray evil for what it is and yet
still end it realistically with all the good guys still around & all
paired up romantically so that everyone is one big happy family.  My
perception is that JKR just isn't the type of author who will take this
route.  I'm not saying she'll kill off everyone & that it will be
violent, bloody & R-rated but ... I also don't think we'll see an ending
scene at the Burrow with Harry & Ginny Potter chatting happily with Ron
& Hermione Weasley (and surrounded by all the other Weasleys, happily
married all, and Hagrid, Sirius, Remus, etc.).  That just sounds too
sugar-coated to me, despite being the hopeless romantic that I am.  :--)

Penny


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]