Narnia, LOTR, and Harry's death

[lupinlore]

No: HPFGUIDX 171180

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Goddlefrood" <gav_fiji at ...> 
wrote:
>

> 
> SPOILERS FOR NARNIA SERIES AND MAYOR OF CASTERBRIDGE FOLLOW
> *

> 
> One other point, addressed to Cassy - people still buy the 
> Narnia books in large numbers and all the characters die in 
> a train crash. It's never stopped many other books continuing 
> to be popular either. Michael Henchard, perhaps my favourite 
> character in fiction, dies in The Mayor of Casterbridge (he's 
> also the title character). That hasn't stopped many including 
> me from enjoying that work over and over again. 

Never have understood why anybody likes, or ever liked, Thomas 
Hardy.  As I recall, my reaction to "Tess of the D'Urbervilles" 
was "Well, I'm glad we have medication (antidepressants) for that 
now." But, there's no accounting, as the saying goes, :-).  Anyway, 
Hardy is certainly not what one would call a popular or widely read 
(outside of required lit classes) author, these days.

C.S. Lewis is both, but I don't know that Narnia is really a fair 
example.  It's true that the earthly existance of most of the main 
characters comes to an end, but they don't *die* in the way that is 
normally (i.e. in secular discourse) understood as dieing.  In fact, 
they proceed to live forever with Aslan and their loved ones in a 
realm that, per the kind of Christian theology Lewis favored, is 
actually more real and alive than the one they left.  As I recall, 
they don't even have any clear memories of their "deaths," but only 
realize what's up when they start running into long-departed loved 
ones.

For that matter, the end of LOTR, mentioned by Cassie, is a version 
of this as well, Tolkien being a good Catholic, in which Frodo, 
Bilbo, and the rest depart a land of strife and sickness for the 
undying realm of light and happiness where they will wait with the 
elves and angelic beings until summoned to attend the Supreme Being 
of the Tolkien cosmos -- once again not precisely *dieing* as 
understood in secular terms.

Now, JKR being Christian, it is plausible we could get something like 
that (i.e. Harry's existance in material terms comes to an end but he 
ends up whiling away his time merrily behind the veil in the company 
of DD and Sirius and his parents while waiting for Ron and Hermione 
to join him).  But we also have JKR's insistance that she isn't going 
to use the kind of heavy overtones that Lewis used.  So, Harry dieing 
would have to be something different, and once again I don't think 
Narnia and its continuing popularity, or LOTR and its popularity, is 
a good example for that kind of dieing.

Having said all that, you're right that JKR can do whatever she 
wishes.  But if she IS concerned about the continuing popularity of 
the books and movies, and if she doesn't want to worry about Warner 
Bros sending a former KGB agent after her with a radioactive 
cocktail, well....


Lupinlore