Moralising and preaching/Loose ends in Book 7

[Geoff Bannister]

No: HPFGUIDX 145902

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Miles" <miles at m...> wrote:

Geoff:
> > To take a real life example,
> > I moved from London to the West Country 11 years or so ago. <snip>
> > I could cite a page
> > full of real loose ends which have remained unravelled through my
> > life.
> > So with fiction. <snip>
> > So, if Jo Rowling leaves a few loose ends around, it will be no 
worse
> > than real life or what other writers have done. For answers, you 
can
> > probably consult the fanfic sites. :-)
> 
> Miles:
> I disagree with this. Yes, obviously it is not possible not to 
leave some
> loose ends in a series like Harry Potter, or in Lord of the Rings. 
If the
> authors would try to unravel or interweave all loose ends, the end 
of their
> books would be pretty boring.
> But I don't think that we can compare it to real life. Fiction is 
Fiction,
> so it is inventend from the first to the last word. All the threads 
an
> author brings into his universe should have a purpose (even if they 
are only
> decoration), but the main threads should have an end that at least 
relates
> to the other ends. If they are not, I doubt a series like Harry 
Potter could
> be good literature. This is not a short story.

Geoff:
Permit me to disagree with you in turn.

If I read a story in which all the loose ends are tied up, it always 
seems to me as being too neat and too "clever".

I agree that Jo Rowling is the creator of her own particular universe 
which has many of us in its vice-like grip, and she has a perfect 
right to treat that universe as she wishes.

But it is not her style to tidy everything up neatly. The world of 
Harry Potter parallels our real world and interacts with it and, in 
so doing, I believe it leaves unfinished and unknowable bits and 
pieces strewn along the way. There are a myriad of odd facts which we 
do not know, probably not germane to the main story. For example: 
when did the Flamels actually die?; how did Moody come to have his 
magic eye?; how did Voldemort get to Albania after the Godrics Hollow 
and Philosopher's Stone incidents when he was disembodied?

No, as I said in a previous post, there will always be situations in 
our own lives where we ask ourselves "I wonder what happened to..." 
And there have got to be after Book 7 because otherwise there will be 
several hundred members of this group and similar ones who are 
picking over the bones of the story's end and have no loose ends to 
speculate over ad infinitum and ad nauseum :-)

Imagine the shock and horror: "Close the shutters and bolt the doors, 
guys, HPFGU is closing down".