Dumbledore's Death

[Steve]

No: HPFGUIDX 150959

 
> Sandy/OctobersChild48:
> 
> ... I can accept the fact that Dumbledore is dead, .... What I 
> cannot accept is the way he died. I feel that Jo really let us 
> down with this one. ...
>
> ... I don't usually read this genre of book, so I was unaware 
> that the mentor is supposed to die .... I did give some thought
> to ... DD ... going out in a blaze of glory during the final 
> confrontation, .... But to be murdered while weak and feeble, 
> by someone he trusted, just doesn't cut it. ... I, personally, 
> feel cheated. 
>
> Dumbledore's funeral did him justice, but his death did not. And
> the pleading, ..., just made it worse. I'm sure there are those 
> who are going to jump in and say that he died nobly for the cause,
> which I won't argue, but I still think Jo could have done better
> for the greatest wizard of his time.
> 
> Sandy

bboyminn:

That fact that JKR was able to generate such an emotional response in
you associated with Dumbledore's death, tells me that JKR did her job
very well indeed. That fact that you didn't like the manner of
Dumbledore's death seems to me to be right on track. How could we
/like/ any manner of death for such a noble wizard?

Also, while JKR writes within certain genres, she also subverts those
genres/styles. In most mentor/student stories the Mentor usually dies
a heroic, but tragic death, though it is usually in a great battle in
which the treachery of the villain is the cause. JKR turned that
scenario on its head, and did just the opposite; she had the noble
mentor die a quiet and unheroic death. Not completely unheroic, but it
was a quiet death with very little of the battle-blaze-of-glory that
we typically see.

But to some extent, I think that is part of the beauty and of the
popularity of JKR's writing. She tells a very common story in a very
uncommon way. She makes use of the familiar to give us comfort in the
story, then renders the familiar in unfamilar ways to keep the story
fresh and interesting.

If JKR were to write her stories in one exclusive genre, and were to
write them tried-and-true to that genre, her stories would end up one
of millions of pulp hackneyed predictable paperbacks that litter the
garbage cans of the world. 

As a side note; let's look at Sirius's death. That was a very
unsatifying death. Even though he died in battle, it was so
unexpected, so quiet, so pointless, so meaningless. It would have been
far better if there could have been a tear-jerking 'death-bed' speech.
But I think JKR had a purpose in the type of death she wrote, and that
was to illustrate that death in real life is usually unexpected and
unpredictable. The person is there and suddenly they are gone, and you
are filled with regret, filled with things left unsaid and left undone.

Dumbledore's death was the same; unpredictable and filled with regret
on the part of those left behind. There is so much more that
Dumbledore could have and should have told Harry. There is so much
more that Harry needs to learn, yet his greatest protector, his
greatest mentor, the one person in whom he placed all comfort, safety,
and hope is gone. That leaves Harry and me feeling very empty, sad,
and desperate.

And that lingering feeling in myself, in Harry, and in the wizard
world, that desperate hopeless helpless feeling, tells me that JKR did
her job nicely, because that is exactly the frame of mind JKR wants
her hero and her readers in at the beginning of the last book. The
situation really is hopeless. Harry has to find Horcruxes which are
impossible to find. Harry has to fight battles against wizards so much
more powerful and skilled that he doesn't have any hope of defeating
them. This 'all is lost' feeling is the setup for JKR to masterfully
pull everything together in the final book, and find someway to make
the hopeless and impossible possible.

More than Harry's defeat of Voldemort, I am looking forward to the way
JKR will pull it all together in the end; the brilliant way, I'm very
sure, in which she will make the impossible possible.

So the pointless, hopeless, impossible nature of Dumbledore's death
was exactly the setup the books needed at that point in the story. In
the end, I think we will see that Sirius's and Dumbledore death really
do have meaning and value, and really did serve some higher purpose in
the story.

Just a few random thoughts.

Steve/bboyminn