Will there be an ESE!character in Book 7? (was:How to contstruct an ESE!plot

[Sydney]

No: HPFGUIDX 147406


> Betsy Hp:
> I'm curious, how many people on this list think a character will be 
> revealed as ESE in book 7?  I've always assumed that JKR will throw in 
> an all mighty twist and have someone that Harry trusted turn out to be 
> ESE. 

This is a cool topic, and I've read everyone's replies, but going back
to the basic question, I'm going to hazard that there ISN'T going to
be an ESE!character at all, barring Voldemort.  

I think that the last book will be a sort of reverse-mystery, where
the world isn't full of hidden evil to be cast out, but full of hidden
good to be drawn in.  Snape, obviously; Draco, less obviously; and
Regulus with the huge backstory;  the life-debt thing with (ugh)
Pettigrew; the off-stage Slytherin kids in general;  the strange
contradiction between the history teacher's version of the Slytherin
split and the Sorting Hat's... to me there seems an overwhelming
pattern of the unresolved issues leading into the last book.  

I enjoy mystery stories, but there's a reason the genre isn't known
for producing great works of literature.  Fiction at it's best, IMO,
is about acknowleding our common humanity, and characters growing (or
not) by coming to terms (or not!) with all sides of their nature, the
good and the bad.  The central drive of a classic detective story is
the separating and casting out of a scapegoat, and that's just
antithetical to really.. what's the word?  nutritious?  literature. 
There's an Edmund Wilson essay (not online unfortunately), "Why do
people read detective stories?":

"Everybody is suspected in turn, and the streets are full of lurking
agents whose allegiances we cannot know.  Nobody seems guiltless,
nobody seems safe; and then, suddenly, the murderer is spotted, and--
relief!-- he is not, after all, a person like you or me.  He is a
villain.."

Lord, I hate villain-driven plots.. anyways, I think the classic
mystery structure is particularily inappropriate for the conclusion of
a children's book with a lot of spiritual themes like Harry
Potter,with it's hinted denoument in the Room of Love, and I don't see
it heading in an ESE! direction for anyone, really.  I think the
streets will be full of hidden allies rather than hidden threats, and
a good thing too!  because boy is Harry going to need them.

-- Sydney, who has no problem with hard-bitten cynical stories but
really doesn't think this is one of them.