TBAY: Failure and Melodrama

[derannimer]

No: HPFGUIDX 54526

Derannimer stares in profound annoyance at the now-empty bag of 
marshmallows. Darn it. And just when she'd got her toasting fork 
fixed up too. 

Abigail is sitting above her on a stool, and is disrupting more than 
just the marshmallows. 

"I'm not so certain that I agree with the statement that Harry is
perfect," she says thoughtfully. "At least, I'm pretty certain
that Harry doesn't perceive himself as infallible. In fact, if you
asked Harry to describe himself, I suspect that 'average' would be
the operative word. He doesn't think of himself as very bright or
very interesting or very special."

"Who cares," points out Derannimer. "Harry's not got a big head, you 
know."

"Absolutely," agrees Mel, "Harry is notoriously self-depreciating and 
hyper-critical of himself. Not to mention that we weren't discussing 
whether or not Harry would acknowledge his failure, but whether JKR 
would objectively show him failing to achieve a goal strictly through 
his own fault. In that sense, Harry has been infallible."

Abigail blows on a smoking marshmallow. "That depends."

"On what?" Meg asks.

"On your definition of failure."

There is a minute of silence, until Captain Cindy breaks it with the 
words: "A lack of success. Duh." 

"Yeah, but, see," says Abigail earnestly, "here's the thing: you seem 
to have separated failure into two distinct categories. There's 
failure as Harry perceives it, such as losing the Quidditch match in 
PoA and not being able to save Cedric's life. We, and the people 
around Harry, know that he had no power over these events, but he 
won't accept that, and judges himself very harshly. What you seem to 
be lamenting is the absence of a failure that is actually Harry's 
fault."

"Well, yeah," begins Derannimer, "because--"

"I just don't really understand why."

"Well, it's because--"

"I mean," continues Abigail, seemingly on a roll, "Harry already 
beats himself up too much--does it really matter if he does it 
without justification? The emotional result is the same."

"Yeah but who the--"

"Harry *resolves to do better*--in PoA, for example, he seeks out a 
form of defense against the Dementors, and perseveres with it far 
past the bounds of reason, simply so that he won't fail his team in 
another Quidditch match. And that's the point of failure, isn't it?"

"Well, not li--"

"We learn from our mistakes, if we survive them. They galvanize us 
and encourage us to do and be better. Harry's already got that 
dynamic, and in fact it's working in overdrive, so I find it 
interesting that you're all so eager to see him genuinely fall on his 
face. It suggests an ulterior motive."

"IF YOU'D JUST SHUT UP I'D TELL YOU!" Derannimer waves her toasting 
fork angrily in Abigail's direction. 

Abigail doesn't seem to mind. Her face takes on an impish 
expression. "Perhaps what we're looking at is a secret desire for 
Angst, or even... Hurt-Comfort?"

As Derannimer mouths speechlessly at her, Abigail grins and 
continues. "Yup," she says smugly, "we're looking at Hurt-Comfort 
here, aren't we?"

"We are blasted well *not*!" exclaims Derannimer. "I don't crush on 
*Harry!* Come off it! I'm a Bent SnapeFan!"

"You *are*?" says Captain Cindy, in tones of the utmost revulsion. 

"Yeah," says Derannimer defiantly, and then, catching the look on the 
Captain's face, hastily continues. "But that's not really the point. 
Abigail, I am now going to explain to you why *I,* at any rate, want 
Harry to fail. 

"I want Harry to fail for the same reason I want Dumbledore to make a 
stupid mistake, and not be Omniscient!Dumbledore. For the same reason 
I want Voldemort to be occasionally half-way competent. For the same 
reason I want the Dementors to escape from Azkaban--they're going to, 
anyway, want to take a bet?--and for the same reason I really *don't* 
want forces sympathetic to Dumbledore to take over the Ministry of 
Magic and rid the magical community of the idiot Fudge."

"You're a Death Eater?" essays Captain Cindy.

"No," says Derannimer, glaring at her, "I want the fight against 
Voldemort to be *hard.* And I want the good guys to be fallible. I 
*hate* it when the good guys never do anything wrong or stupid. It's 
so *simplistic.* I've *always* hated it; when I was a little girl and 
watched my brother play with his green Army men, I used to tell him 
that the good guys shouldn't always win the battles. They should lose 
some of them. They should win in the end, but they should lose some 
of them. They should *fail,* every once in a while.

"The good guys *should* fail; as a matter of fact, they should screw 
up *big time.* And since Harry is the chief good guy--he's the 
*hero,* for Pete's sake--that means that *he* is going to have to 
fail. He is going to have to screw up big time."

"So basically," says Abigail, "the reason that merely *perceived* 
failures won't cut it, for you, is that you don't care about the 
emotional effect of the failure. You just care about the failure 
itself."

"Yeah," says Derannimer, nodding. "I don't want him to fail because I 
want him to build character, or something; I want him to fail because 
I want him to have *failed.* And not just failed in Quidditch, but 
failed *as a good guy in the fight against the bad guys.* Failed in 
the context of the major struggle of the books."

Derannimer thinks for a minute and then says: "And Dumbledore too, of 
course. Maybe especially Dumbledore. I'm quite encouraged by that one 
quote we've seen out of OOP; we need more 'He had expected Dumbledore 
to pull some amazing solution out of the air. But no. . . ' moments."

She is silent for another moment and then adds, sounding quite 
irritated, "Only this time, Dumbledore needs to actually *be* 
fallible, and not immediately pull some amazing solution out of the 
air *anyway.*" 

"Well, he's gonna be dead soon enough," points out Captain Cindy 
cheerfully. "He'll be plenty fallible then."

Abigail frowns. 

"And that's another thing," she begins crossly. "You people seem to 
have this bizarre fascination with killing all the characters."

"Well, yeah," says Captain Cindy. "It Bangs." 

"Well, maybe. But what you four have been calling Bangs, I call 
melodrama."

There is a silence. It is the kind of silence you could scoop bits 
out of with a spoon. [1] 

"What." The Captain's voice is absolutely deadly. 

Derannimer, who has no wish to see a human being lose her life before 
her very eyes, hastily says: "She means. . . uh. . . that we're not 
really Banging. That these are false Bangs. She isn't actually 
disparaging Banging itself, I'm sure."

"She's not?" the Captain asks grimly. "'Cause from what *I* just 
heard, it sure sounds like--"

"All I'm saying," says Abigail, who appears to have realized the 
dreadful peril she has just talked herself into, "is that even if I 
were to accept that Hermione might die (and it would definitely be in 
book 7 if it happens at all) I certainly wouldn't accept the scenario 
that you lot cooked up."

"Now hang on here a minute," begins Derannimer, "When you say 'you 
lot,' who excactly are you--" 

"You mean," cried Melody, eyes glittering in the firelight, "The one
where Hermione is held ransom? And they come to get her, but then
there is a choice that must be made, and she seeing what has to be
done, sacrifices herself to keep Harry from having to make it?"

"And Harry could be in the dark. Wand raised. Lit by candles
looking for her..." Cindy says lost in thought.

"Eeurgh," Derannimer states, "No, look, Abigail, I wouldn't--" 

Abigail doesn't seem to be listening. "What is wrong with you guys!" 
she yells. "Have you both lost your mind?!" She leaps from her
seat and scatters marshmallows every which way. "Where, in the
entirety of canon, has there ever been a scene of such obvious...
such obscene... such..."

"Pathos?" offers Meg.

"Spine-chilling terror?" muses Cindy.

"Soul-shattering, cinema-like sadness?" volunteers Melody, with a
happy smile.

"Schlock?" suggests Derannimer. She apparently is not heard by 
Abigail. 

"Pap!" Abigail spits out, finally. "Cliche! Puerile, B-movie
death-fetish!"

"I dunno about death-fetish," says Derannimer doubtfully, "but it 
seems kinda tacky to me." 

"Tacky?" inquires Mel, hurt.

"Well, you know." Derannimer shrugs apologetically. "Over-the-top." 

Abigail seems to be calming down somewhat, apparently slightly 
mollified that at least one person in the room does agree with her. 
Certainly she isn't actually frothing at the mouth any more. She 
takes several deep breaths, and looks at the three-shocked-and-one-
mildly-approving faces surrounding her. "I apologize," she says 
finally, a bit weakly. "That was a bit more... strongly worded then I 
had originally planned. But I do stand by my words, or a more 
reasonably stated version thereof. JKR doesn't deal in melodrama, 
which can be defined as..." Like a conjurer, Abigail pulls a doorstop-
sized dictionary from a coat pocket. "A drama, such as a play, film, 
or television program, characterized by exaggerated emotions, 
stereotypical characters, and interpersonal conflicts." She closes 
the book with a satisfying thump. "Snape dying in Harry's arms, after 
taking an AK for him, and saying with his last breath 'You have your 
mother's eyes' is a melodrama, and so is Hermione valiantly 
sacrificing herself for Harry's sake." Abigail suddenly frowns. "And 
anyway, don't you think we have quite enough sacrificial females in 
this series already?"

"Absolutely," agrees Derannimer cheerfully, "go talk to Elkins about 
it. But look, I don't want any lousy sacrificial females; I just want 
a good hideous death or too." 

Abigail wrinkles her nose. "That's what I was *saying* though, before 
we got onto this whole thing about the B--about the melodrama. Why is 
it that you all seem to think that a whole bunch of characters are 
going to die? Why, by the time we get to book 7, there are more dead 
characters then living ones. It just seems to belittle the importance 
of death. How shattering is it that a character dies if it happens 
every other week?"

"Hang on!" cries Cindy. "This is too much! You barge in here, you
derail our discussion with disjointed musings, you scarf up all the
marshmallows, and now you're seriously going to suggest that Harry's
great failure is going to about... *Quidditch*?" Have you taken
leave of your senses?"

Abigail glances down at the empty marshmallow bag she seems to be
holding. "Are you sure this was all me?" she asks. "I mean, I
think I saw Derannimer take one."

"That was an hour ago," Derannimer says coldly. "I *just* got my 
toasting fork to work properly, and then you came in here and ate 
*all the marshmallows.*" 

"Oh. Ah. Sorry."

Abigail smiles rather sheepishly and then continues. 

"But I really don't think anyone has to die."

"Except Hagrid," interjects Derannimer, "because Hagrid's *going* to 
die." 

"And Dumbledore," adds Captain Cindy. "And Snape!" she says, 
brightening. Derannimer glares at her. 

"You guys are hopeless," says Abigail, shaking her head. "But look, I 
do think that I can offer a big failure for Harry that is about
Quidditch and isn't insignificant. We're all wondering who the next
Quidditch captain is going to be, right? And I don't think I'm alone
in concluding that it will be Harry."

"Are you going to suggest that Harry will mismanage the team?" asks
Melody scornfully. "You think that's meaningful, in the grand scheme
of things?"

"Actually, I do. Think about it - Harry's first role as a leader, and 
he fails. That's big."

"Well, but only to *him,*" Derannimer points out. "It doesn't cause 
the good guys to suffer in any way." 

"But look," says Abigail earnestly, "I was actually going to make it 
bigger then that. What if Harry neglects the Quidditch team, because 
he's too busy fighting evil on Dumbledore's team? He has to choose 
between what's perceived as important and what he knows is important, 
and he loses out, because his teammates are angry at him (and 
probably the rest of the house too). This is a grown-up's problem, 
and that's another thing that failures are good for - they force us 
to grow up. Only children think that they, or anyone else, is 
infallible. That's why I liked Derannimer's suggestion that Harry 
will witness Snape allowing Hagrid to die. Because even though I 
think Hagrid's actual death in this scenario is overwrought, the idea 
that Harry should learn that sometimes you have to choose the lesser 
evil, and that he should learn this lesson from Snape, is 
compelling." 

"Well, it's certainly unpleasant for Harry, but it doesn't really 
solve the problem of the good guys always winning," says 
Derannimer. "And that's really the reason I want to see Harry fail in 
the first place. 

"And I certainly don't know what you mean by 'overwrought.' I've a 
mind to take significant umbrage at that." 

Abigail digs in one of her bottomless pockets and produces another 
bag of marshmallows.

"But I don't think I'll bother," adds Derannimer happily, grabbing 
the bag out of Abigail's hand. There ensues a brief scuffle between 
her and the Captain. The Captain wins. 

"But look," says Cindy, tossing a marshmallow generously at 
Derannimer, "Even if Quidditch failure did answer Derannimer's 
objection, how does it Bang? How does is motivate Harry to
get Voldemort?"

"Since when does Harry need motivation to get Voldemort?" Abigail
asks with a quizzical expression. "Isn't it enough that Voldemort
killed Harry's parents and brought untold suffering to thousands? 
Harry sees every day the unhealed scars of Voldemort's reign of
terror. It seems silly to suggest that he needs yet another death of
a loved one to have a personal stake in Voldemort's demise."

"No, but," objects Derannimer, "I agree with the Captain here. Harry 
isn't trying to get Voldemort. He never has. He's fought back when 
attacked; but even at the end of GOF, he doesn't really seem to have 
gone on the *offensive.* And he's going to need to, for the light 
side to win." 

"Well, maybe." Abigail shrugs. "I'm not sure I agree though. And as
for Bangs. Not all Bangs involve death and destruction. Growing up
is as painful and difficult as rescuing a Hippogriff or facing a
deranged Dark wizard."

"But not Bangy," interjects Captain Cindy. 

Abigail ignores her and continues. "I think that Harry finding 
himself in a situation where he simply cannot succeed, despite doing 
all the right things, reverberates as deeply as any Bang you could 
suggest. And by keeping it relatively low-key, JKR avoids the pitfall 
of cheapening true horror - death and evil - by giving it to us too 
often."

"Yeah, but," points out the Captain, "we're not going to have true 
horror *at all* if someone doesn't die."

The theorists are silent for a moment. Captain Cindy has already 
eaten almost all the marshmallows.

The door suddenly creaks open. 

Pippin stands in the doorway, not-so-dramatically framed by the 
nightlight. 

"Guys?" she says. "You know, the Royal George is still open. Want to 
come have a drink? I've been eavesdropping on this conversation, and 
I've got a couple of ideas. . . " 




Derannimer (who really does think Hagrid's going to die. And who 
really does hope Snape isn't, but thinks that he might be.)

-------------------------

[1] P.G.Wodehouse, at some point or other.