Evil--Lewis and JKR

[Andrea]

No: HPFGUIDX 19875

--- JamiDeise at aol.com wrote:
> "Deus ex machina"
> is usually a criticism 
> for a literary piece of work whose ending seems to
> have been drawn out of the 
> air by its author. And it doesn't necessary involve
> God, another diety or 
> magical creature arriving to solve everything.
> Actually, the Second Coming 
> wouldn't even be considered deus ex machina because
> it's already supported by 
> the religion.    

A bit of background might make this a little clearer. 
The usage of "deus ex machina" dates back to the old
Greek plays.  Whenever the author had completely
painted himself into a corner with his plot, he'd use
this big crane thing to bring a god in to solve
everything.  ie, the hero is supposed to end up at the
Trojan War, according to prophesy (and every *other*
Trojan War story <g>), but he still refuses to go even
after the guys sent after him have exhausted every
single argument they know of to get him to go.  So in
swings a god and he simply declares that the hero WILL
go and he will LIKE it, darn it! <g>  End of story. :)

Why am I rattling all this out?  Well, the whole point
of these deus ex machinas is that the god just popped
up out of thin air to solve things, without having
been part of any of the action previously, and just
makes everything right with a wave of a hand.  Now,
it's been quite a while since I've read any of the
Narnia books, but Aslan's sacrifice doesn't quite fall
into the realm of deus ex machina.  He's been a part
of the action for a while and is working with everyone
to solve the problem.  It's more a resolution of the
action than just a god coming down and solving
everything.

So to bring it all back to HP, Harry managing to
defeat Voldie at the end of Book 7 wouldn't be deus ex
machina.  Dumbledore beating Voldie at the end of Book
7 wouldn't be deus ex machina.  Heck, Colin Creevy
could do it and it wouldn't necessarily be a deus ex
machina. (Though it might be amusing to read. <g>) 
What *would* be a deus ex machina would be for the
Great Spirit of Godric Gryffindor to show up, say
"Tom, you've been a very bad boy.  Go to your room!",
then make Voldie disappear in a little poof of smoke. 



Andrea


=====
"Reality is for people who lack imagination."

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