[HPforGrownups] Ending the series (was Dept. of Mysteries, "Love" room.)

[Katherine Coble]

No: HPFGUIDX 130235


On Jun 6, 2005, at 11:23 PM, eggplant107 wrote:

>  "greg_a126" <grega126 at a...> wrote:
>
>  > In order for this book to entire the
>  > list of all time classics, good has
>  > to triumph over evil. That means
>  > Harry has to beat Voldemort,
>  > not "tie" him by dying with him.
>

Eggplant:
>  I think you're way off the mark with that, most of the really great
>  classics are tragedies, because it gives the stories a certain
>  gravitas they would not otherwise have, at least that's what the
>  ancient Greeks thought and I agree .

I think these stories are not structured as a tragedy.   The tragic 
elements are woven throughout, thus there is plenty of gravitas to go 
around.   Not ALL ancient Greek stories are tragic, either.   They had 
comedies.

Eggplant:
>  In Shakespeare's best plays the
>  hero dies

K:  Actually, I take issue with that.   I don't think the tragedies ARE 
his best plays.   I hate Romeo & Juliet with every fibre of my being.   
Hamlet is tiresome, and the Scottish Play makes me want to smack 
people.  I LOVE As You Like It, Taming of the Shrew, Midsummer Night's 
Dream, Twelfth Night, etc.


Eggplant:
> and they are still enormously popular 400 years later; in
>  the most profitable movie of all time, Titanic, the hero also dies.

K:  The most profitable movie ever made was Deep Throat.  Plenty of The 
Little Death in that movie, but I don't think Linda Lovelace dies.  
(I've never seen it.)   The most profitable _mainstream_ movie of all 
time is _My Big Fat Greek Wedding_, which is a happy story about 
families and love.   I think that a lot of what makes HP popular is 
that they are stories about family, whether they are families by blood 
(The Weasleys, The Dursleys) or families by choice  (HRH, Gryffindor 
House, etc.)  In an age where our families are getting smaller and more 
spread out, the books can be a place for children and adults to seek 
familial companionship.  Harry is the readers' surrogate into that 
world, and to kill him would be a betrayal of the entire series, which 
appears so far to be about unification.


Katherine

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