I *love* tragic endings ! -- With an aside to Melody

[annemehr]

No: HPFGUIDX 85338

Jennifer wrote:  
<snip>
> > It would be gutsy to 
> > to kill Harry but I wouldn't want it to be gutsy for the sake of 
> > guts. Harry's death would break untold hearts, and disaffect them 
> > as well. A "happy ending" isn't necessary but a satisfactory one 
> > is. I am very hopeful JKR will want Harry to triumph over Lord 
> > Voldemort and live to tell the tale.
> > Jennifer

Del replied:
> There seems to be quite a few people out there who share Jennifer's 
> opinion that JKR "can't" kill Harry, that it somehow wouldn't 
> be "nice" or "fair" to her young readers.
> 
> I just don't understand. When I was a kid, I simply LOVED it when 
> the/a main character died at the end of a book ! It made the book (or 
> the series of books) so much more precious
<snip>
> Moreover, it seemed quite unnatural to me to see a character live a 
> great deal of their life in Hell, and quite suddenly end up in Heaven 
> for the rest of their life.[...]
> That's why I also loved the endings that showed the/a main 
> character living a misfit's life at least for a while as a result of 
> their past trauma.

Annemehr:
Well, Harry can live and the ending can still be reflective of how
much evil Voldemort did in the world.  In fact, I'm sure that, whether
Harry lives or dies, JKR will leave the consequences of evil very
apparent; it's reflected in her decision that even in the WW, once
you're dead, you're dead, and she has promised deaths to come.

I think, Jennifer and Del, you may both get your wish.  If Harry
lives, he will certainly be changed and scarred more than he was when
the series began.  And notice, Jennifer drew a distinction between
having Harry live and the proverbial "happy ending."  Let Kneasy not
lump *us* in with the sunset and butterflies and rose-colored-glasses
crowd!  ;-)

I actually have no idea whether Harry will live or not.  I just know
what I *want* -- for him to survive.  It's because Harry's whole life,
except maybe for 15 months he can't remember, has been living a life
tainted by Voldemort.  I'd just like to see him be "just Harry" for a
while, free to live without reference to what he "ought" to be doing
about the Dark Lord.

Not that I believe I would be completely disaffected if he died.  You
see, I am very confident that when JKR first worked out Harry's story,
she followed it to a *very* profound conclusion -- I can almost "hear"
it in her "voice" as she skirts around the ending in interviews (which
I am in the process of reading through).  It's just that I don't
believe a profound, fitting ending necessarily requires the death of
Harry.

By the way, Melody, ::waves::
getting back to your point about Harry being so damaged by the end
that it is not really possible for him to live any longer (an opinion
I've seen from others also), I have a thought.  See, I argued that
there would always be *some* reason to live, which is why I could see
Harry being able to have a worthwhile life after Voldemort.  I still
think that is true.  But, what if it is true, and Harry still dies? 
Doesn't Harry make a bigger sacrifice in death if he could have had
something to live for, making your ending all the more intense?

Annemehr
sneakily working on Melody's emotions, in the (forlorn) hope of
swaying her to her own point of view, and hoping she actually has time
to read this message