Dying and age-appropriate fiction

[Tyler Hewitt]

No: HPFGUIDX 52294

Shiro wrote:

So.. there's pretty much a fixation on death for each
character now? Name a character, and a group is
obsessed with the idea that they'll die? 
Look, JKR wrote this series for children, as good as
it might be for adults too. You really think she's
going to subject kids aged 7 to 12 to the very 
possible fact that Harry will die? I rememebr sitting
in on some 12 year olds being read CoS. When Harry was
near-death, the poor kids fairly gasped and screamed..
what if he DOES die?


ME:
This turned out longer than I expected. Oh well! 
A few things to say on this, it's probably easiest to
nunber them. 

1.  I think the 'fixation on death' you claim is
largely due to to two things-Cedric's sudden death in
GoF (it came out of nowhere,and could happen again)
and JKR's staing that there would be at least one
death in OoP. People are just speculating.

2. I'm not necessarily in favor of Harry dying in any
of the books, but it could make sense in literary
terms to have him die at the end of the series. As far
as upsetting kids is concerned, JKR has said that
she's writing for herself, not to make her readers
feel good. Do I "really think she's going to subject
kids aged 7 to 12 to the very  possible fact that
Harry will die?" Sure, if that's what she wants for
the story. I'm trusting JKR to deliver an entertaining
story. I've read many novels wherein things happen I
don't like. If it fits the story, I can accept that.

3. Point 2 brings me to something I was discussing
just last night with my partner-literary structure in
the HP books.
It seems to me that JKR is following some interesting
literary devices in her books. The first is Frietag's
triangle, which I picked up on easily on my first
reading of the books (Don't know Frietag's triangle?
Where were you during freshman literature classes?:)
Check out John Barth's "Lost in the Funhouse"
paperback edition, pg. 91.  I also found a short link:
http://aliscot.com/ensenanza/1302/conflict.htm).
I'm wondering if the series of seven novels will form
some sort of meta-Frietag's triangle. If so, I imagine
GoF being about midway between points b and c.

More importantly to my discussion of dying charecters,
I'm wondering about another literary device JKR might
be using. The ageing of charecters in 'real time'
seems pretty unique to the HPbooks. I can't think of
any other children's book series where the charecters
age from story to story. Most stay the same age for as
long as the author cares to write them. 
I'm wondering if JKR is purposefully moving the
reading level of her books up as well as the series
progresses.  Age appropriateness as far as language,
vocabulary, etc. seems about the same in the books so
far (I'm not an expert at this, however). What is
changing is the complexity of the larger story. Plots
are more complicated, more and more charecters are
introduced, ideas of 'good' and 'bad' actions and
charecters are often slipping into gray areas. My
feeling is that JKR may be purposefully writing her
books for older readers thematically, while
technically leaving them accessable to younger
readers. If this is the case, adult themes such as
death, suffering and (dare I say it?) romance will
become more prevalent as the series advances.

Comments?


Tyler


__________________________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Shopping - Send Flowers for Valentine's Day
http://shopping.yahoo.com