HP and Star Wars (Was:Re: Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings)

[meriaugust]

No: HPFGUIDX 107697

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "cincimaelder" 
<cincimaelder at y...> wrote:
> --- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "vmonte" <vmonte at y...> wrote:
> > goldfoy wrote:
> > 
> > Dumbledore she has even given a hint as to which character will
> > fulfil the role of Gollum and actually destroy Lord Voldemort. It
> > would be reasonable to suppose that they would die in the process.
> > 
> > SSSusan:
> > Okay, I'll bite. Care to provide further detail on this location &
> > individual?
> > 
> 
> MAE here:
> I remember reading in an interview somewhere that JKR said that she
> read LotR as a teen and really wasn't a lover of fantasy reading.  I
> can't imagine that she would mirror the story so closely that it 
would
> have the same ending when she hadn't read it for a long time.  I 
also
> agree that if Harry had to become a muggle at the conclusion it 
would
> be a great disappointment for Harry and the readers.  Harry 
becoming a
> muggle is not the same as Frodo's fate.  Frodo was content in his
> fate, given all that he had seen, he would suffer too much in a 
normal
> mortal life.

Meri now: 
I also recall the interview where JKR stated that she wasn't an 
obsesive LOTR fan, and as someone who just recently finnished reading 
the LOTR series for the first time I can see some of the parallels 
being pointed out. But the fact of the matter is that LOTR, HP, Star 
Wars, Narnia, Prydain Chronicles, etc. are all basically the same 
type of hero story, embellished for different worlds and purposes and 
adapted for different times. People have been telling hero epics for 
5000 years, so it isn't surprising at all that some elements would be 
similar in the same kinds of stories. The same kind of parallels can 
be made far easier between, for example, HP and the Star Wars movies. 
Orphan boy (Harry, Luke) leaves behind his misunderstanding relations 
(the Dursleys, Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru...well, they were killed but 
work with me here), is given an education in a mystical force (magic, 
the Force) by an elderly, white haired and bearded man with 
connections to his past and parents (DD, Ob-Wan Kenobi). The boy 
meets two friends who have a thing for each other (Hermione and Ron, 
Princess Leia and Han Solo) and has epic adventures while disovering 
the truth about his past and his ultimate destiny (to destroy LV 
by...well, we don't know yet, to destroy Darth Vader by reawakening 
his inner Anakin Skywalker). It is just a mark of how ubiquitous and 
popular hero epics are that people can find so many ways of retelling 
them. 

Meri - who fully believes that there are really only three or four 
diffent types of stories (the hero story, the romantic story, the war 
story and the adventure story) and that these have been adapted 
constantly for all of human civilization...