The Limits of Tragedy in HP (WAS Sadness in books/fav books)

[cindysphynx]

No: HPFGUIDX 32422

Katze wrote:

> I'm really at odds here.
> 
> I like dark stories and dark books, but there has to be a light at 
the
> end for me to enjoy the darkness. <snip interesting remarks about 
>how the series should end>

>I can deal with the next 3 books being
> dark, provided the last book ends on an upbeat (yes...that would
> includes Harry being alive and mostly undamaged - another scar 
might be
> fun. 

I take your points, and I would guess that the majority of readers 
feel that way, as people do like happy endings.  It makes sense and 
is quite reasonable.  

On the other hand, it would be immensely fun to see if JKR could pull 
of a series ending that is tragic rather than happy.  Happy really 
isn't that difficult to do because that is what the reader wants 
anyway.  The reader is expecting Happy and is pulling for Happy.  To 
do Tragic well and sell it has to be really hard, particularly with a 
main character like Harry, who is good and kind and young.

On the third hand, I would be very unhappy if Harry is just very 
seriously injured.  Having him languish at St. Mungos or Azkaban 
certainly will not do.  No, it is all or nothing.  He either escapes 
with a happy ending, or he dies.  I don't think I can handle anything 
in between, although I could tolerate Harry surviving but being 
emotionally scarred from the losses of his friends, etc.

So a part of me wants to see JKR take on the challenge of a tragic 
ending.  It would really be like watching a high wire act with no 
net.  Like watching the team go for the two-point conversion rather 
than the tie.  Like taking the three-point shot instead of the 
layup . . . well, you get the point.  If she blows it and the ending 
is unbelievable, too depressing or otherwise clunky, she risks 
soiling the entire 15-year (by then) project.  If she pulls it off, 
her work will stand apart from a great deal of other fiction I've 
read, and no one could ever make the claim that HP is a children's 
book.  

Bottom line:  I like to see people take chances, so I'd vote for a 
disturbing, tragic ending that causes all of her fans to wail, "But 
*why, why, why* did Harry have to die?"

Cindy (who likes to encourage other people to take chances because 
she never takes chances)