[HPforGrownups] JKR's dealing with emotions - Talking about Death

[Kemper]

No: HPFGUIDX 147429

> --- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "lupinlore" wrote:
> >
> > Chuckle.  It truly is amazing how people read totally different
> > books, isn't it?  I find her dealing with Harry's grief ... to
> > be incredibly poor writing
> >
> > ...edited...
> >
> > Perhaps it does have to do with emotional styles.  I really
> > don't know. But it certainly is true that, surveying a number
> > of different boards and forums ..., those three instances in
> > particular bring a storm of dissent and objection.  What do
> > other people think is the source of this?
> >
> >
> > Lupinlore
> >
>
> bboyminn:
>
> I think perhaps the problem is that you are looking for 'movie'
> solutions to grief, where actors engage in long soliloquies filled
> with pseudo-emotion and thick Shakespearian accents.
>
> But is that how it happens in real-life? Do we really want to 'talk
> about it'? ...snip life goes on stuff...
>
> In real-life the best comfort is the silent company of our loved ones
> who are going through the same thing. Our pain is the measure of their
> grief. So, we sit in silence, and maybe if we are feeling brave, we
> engage in a reminiscence or two, then fall into silent grief again. No
> long soliloquies, no thick Shakespearian accents, no satisfing
> eulogies; just grief and time and silence.
>
> Because I really don't see real-life as supportive as TV life where
> everything is resolved to satisfaction in a half hour or so, I find
> Harry's silent grief very understandable.
> ...snip...
> I find this very realistic writing. The beauty of Harry and his story
> is that I can see real-life in them, and that makes the story far more
> believable and far more powerful than grand satisfying speeches.

..
.
Kemper now:
As much as I disagree with Lupinlore which is frequently, I agree with Steve
even more.  Except this time.
.
The problem with Harry's coping of Sirius' death isn't that long,
Shakespearean soliloquies are absent from the text, it's that Harry isn't
shown waking with a tear-soaked pillow or something similar to show the
reader the depth of Harry's loss and how he was hurting silently.  All JKR
had to write was a short, simple sentence and it would have been
clear.   But we didn't get that, we got some movie version of macho
man-child, stiff upper-lip, "Sirius wouldn't want blahblah..." soliloquy
that left the reader emotionally unsatisfied.
.
Also lame, the Order's lack of a ritual goodbye for if not for them.  Or
maybe they had one and Harry wasn't invited.  The books aren't 1 hour
dramas.  For many of us, it took much more than that to finish one of the
books let alone 3, the amount of books that involve Sirius life (excluding
the brief mention in the first ever chapter).  The reader has developed a
relationship with Sirius that is hours long in the reading and even more so
upon our ponderings of the text.  Harry had 2 years with Sirius and saw him
as a mentor if not a father figure.  But after the death.... not much.
Not even silent lamenting.  --Kemper


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