[HPforGrownups] Re: CHAPDISC: DH1, The Dark Lord Ascending

[k12listmomma]

No: HPFGUIDX 176365

Shelley:
I have read all the responses, but will just clip just a few lines:

> Geoff wrote:
> Why did JKR create Charity Burbage, Professor of Muggle Studies, just to 
> be killed by Voldemort in Chapter 1?

I agreed with mz_annethrope's analysis, and wanted to add one impression 
that I had. When I saw the death of Hedwig, I thought "OMG, if she can kill 
off Hegwig, then no one is safe." The tone of the book changed for me. I 
became scared for every character that I loved. If she had shown us the 
person who held the Professor of Muggle Studies position earlier, then we 
would have gotten emotionally attached to that person. (We always knew that 
a teacher existed for that position- Hermione was taking Muggle Studies, and 
someone had to be teaching that class, so she didn't exactly "just" create 
her, we just didn't know her.) But if we knew that person, cared for that 
person, then the shock of it would have been so much greater. I don't think 
she wanted us to feel that scared that soon in the book, but rather intrieg 
us and draw us in before scaring the crap out of us- I think it was 
intentional to create an emotional buildup. I think mz_annethrope's line 
says it perfectly: "The writing deliberately impersonalizes the horror of 
the scene", and I think that is fully intentional so that the major hit to 
the emotions isn't right there in Chapter 1, but built up so that we don't 
overlook the depth of the other scenes, such as the torturing of Hermione. 
If she had killed, say McGonnagall, in that first scene, then the emotional 
high/fear would have been set up too early, and rather than fearing that JKR 
would kill Hermione as she was being tortured, we would be almost let down 
by the fact that she lived.

mz_annethrope:
> So I was relieved to find out that Voldemort's Chapter 1 victim was
> no one I cared about. I could go on enjoying the book, without being
> shocked out of my senses. But I don't think my reaction is supposed
> to be right.

Shelley:
No, I think this reaction is right on, for the sake of the plot and 
emotional buildup. To have something so shocking as to have McGonagall or 
Flitwick begging Severus Snape to save them would have been an unforgivable 
sin, not only to us in the way of  being able to forgive Snape later (though 
that line of Snape's answering Dumbledore's question- How many people have 
you watched die? Only those that I could not save- would have become much 
more pointedly aimed at our hearts and sympathy for Snape), but also on the 
end of my emotions towards JKR herself. I confess that in the same way that 
she felt that Mr. Weasley's death would be "too much", I have felt that the 
death of Tonks and Lupin were too much- moving the story past the necessary 
deaths to feeling like she was delighting in the carnage. To have McGonagall 
in that scene would have been "too much" for me as a reader to handle, and 
rather than be happy to be diving into the new book, I would have almost 
felt if I should just stop right there because the rest would be too ugly to 
handle. If it had been McGonagall, I think I would have vomited rather than 
been happy to have the 7th book in my hands. Thus, a teacher a Hogwarts, but 
one that we weren't personally attached to, sets the proper tone of the 
severity of the situation without overwhelming the reader with an emotional 
reaction that some might not have recovered from to stick with her to read 
the rest of the story. To have it be Charity Burbage, unknown person, allows 
us to get past that scene and to keep on reading.