All a dream (was End of Harry Potter Series)

[Amy Z]

No: HPFGUIDX 44765

Barb wrote:

> Why would the magical world not being "real" 
> mean JKR has a lack of imagination?  As you pointed out, we have 
ample 
> evidence to the contrary.  It wouldn't even have to be a matter of 
a 
> boy named Harry waking up from a dream; it could be that all along 
she    
> intended the epilogue to be about a girl named Joanne waking up and 
> preparing to take her first book manuscript, about a boy wizard 
named 
> Harry Potter, to an agent, in hopes that she would escape her 
dreary 
> life and find success as a writer.

I find the idea upsetting for two reasons:

(1) It's been done a zillion times and is trite.  This, of course, is 
a matter of opinion, and it can be done beautifully, as in The Wizard 
of Oz <ducks can[n]on fire from Davehoz>.  JKR certainly has a knack 
for taking things that would be trite in other hands and giving them 
a satisfying twist.  But this one's mighty hard to twist enough for 
my satisfaction.

(2) The wizarding world is REAL.  Anyone who wakes up and says he 
dreamed the whole thing, or anyone who claims to have written it down 
out of her own imagination, is threatening this cherished belief and 
will have me to answer to.

<g>

But really, isn't that one of the reasons the it-was-all-a-dream idea 
is so chilling?  Go ahead and do that with Newhart or Dallas--who 
cares what happens there?--but don't go telling me that Hogwarts 
isn't really out there somewhere.

Amy Z