OOP:Death--Point or Pointless?

[sharonlibrarian]

No: HPFGUIDX 64587

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "curly_of_oster" <lkadlec at p...> 
wrote:
> There has been much discussion, here and elsewhere, as to 
> the 'point' of Sirius' death.  A number of people have suggested 
> that the 'point' is that there is no point.  That in real life, 
> that's the way death is.  In her appearance at Royal Albert Hall 
> (and before Stephen Frye gave away the identity of 'the death'), 
JKR 
> confirms that this was at least some of what was going on.  She 
said 
> that she was trying to show how sudden and arbitrary death can be.  
> She pointed out that there is no deathbed scene, and that the whole 
> thing seems almost accidental.  She noted that the characters are 
> going into a war, and that in war, one moment you can be standing 
> next to your friend, and the next the friend can be gone.  
> 
> I understand that all of this is true.  I understand that all of 
> this is, indeed, demonstrated in the strange, almost non-event that 
> is Sirius' death scene.  However, I must admit that if that's all 
> she was getting at, I will be extremely disappointed, disillusioned 
> even.  I say this in part because she's *already* shown us all of 
> these things, at the end of GoF.  Cedric's death was sudden and 
> arbitrary.  He was in the wrong place at the wrong time, at what 
was 
> to prove to be the event that sets the upcoming war in motion.  He 
> was standing there, next to Harry, and one minute he was alive, the 
> next he was dead.  If that was JKR's point, it's already been made, 
> and it seems like a rather flimsy explanation for the emotional 
> devastation she's put on Harry, as well as many readers, with 
> Sirius' death in OotP.
> 
> I do realize that if there *is* some greater purpose, she wasn't 
> likely to explain that on stage, while being webcast around the 
> globe.  However, it would have been reassuring to have some 
> indication that killing off a character who has so much unfinished 
> business, and whose death was about the cruelest thing to Harry I 
> could think of to do, wasn't just an emotionally manipulative 
> repetition of a lesson we, and Harry, have already learned.
> 
> Lisa

Me:

The thing that has been bugging me about the death of Sirius is that 
it cancels out almost all the good things that happened in PoA.  PoA 
remains my favorite HP book, and I think a lot of people agree with 
me.  And JKR herself [in some interview, don't remember which] said 
that PoA is her favorite, partly due to the introduction of Sirius.

But all of those wonderful things that made PoA special, particularly 
Harry and Hermione saving Sirius from the dementor's kiss, seem 
cancelled out now.  Sure, Sirus got to live for two more years, but 
he lived as a fugitive whose name was not cleared, and so much is 
still unresolved.  And, as you say, Lisa, his death was presented as 
such an "almost non-event."  Cedric was largely just an acquaintance, 
of ours and of Harry's.  But Sirius was in our hearts.

The more I think about it, there has got to be more to this.  If 
there is not, it is, indeed, disappointing.  I like to think that JKR 
would not leave this event as-is.

Guess I could rant more, but I'll stop.

Sharon