[HPforGrownups] Re: book covers of OoTP

[Patricia Bullington-McGuire]

No: HPFGUIDX 54071

On Fri, 21 Mar 2003, grace701 wrote:

> bboy_mn:
> 
> >Isn't there an old fairytale about a hero who has to choose a door,
> >and behind one door is the classic beautiful princess, and behind 
> >one of the other doors is a tiger, and I can't remember what's 
> >behind the others, but I seem to remember there were 7 doors?
> 
> >Maybe it's a situation like that, choose the right door and save 
> >your friend; chooose the wrong door and be prepared to save your 
> >own life.
>  
> I remember a story just like that Steve.  For some reason Narnia 
> came to my head, but I have only read one book: The Lion, The Witch 
> and the Wardrobe, so I don't know if I'm correct.  But I remember 
> it, too.  Hmmm....where can we find out this information?

It's "The Lady, or the Tiger?" by Frank R. Stockton.  It's a classic, and
forunately it is available online:

http://www139.pair.com/read/Frank_R_Stockton/The_Lady_or_the_Tiger/The_Lady_or_the_Tiger_p1.html

The most intriguing aspect of the story is that whatever choice the man
makes, he loses, as does his beloved who knows which door the tiger waits
behind.  The question raised by the story is whether she would rather
direct him to a quick but gruesome death or to marriage to another, which
she would have to jealously witness for the rest of her days.  One choice
prolongs her suffering, the other compounds his.  

If OoP mirrors "The Lady, or the Tiger?" it will be interesting to see how
that dilemma translates to Harry's life.

----
Patricia Bullington-McGuire	<patricia at obscure.org>

The brilliant Cerebron, attacking the problem analytically, discovered
three distinct kinds of dragon: the mythical, the chimerical, and the
purely hypothetical.  They were all, one might say, nonexistent, but each
nonexisted in an entirely different way ... 
                -- Stanislaw Lem, "Cyberiad"