Reacting to DH (was:Snape Reduced LONG)

[Carol]

No: HPFGUIDX 178008

Magpie wrote:
> Did I get the Americanized Hollywood version of the book then? 
> Because the one I read ain't Bergman. I'm sure JKR considers the 
> flaws in the WW to be flaws the way she always has, but I don't think 
> this makes the ending any more ambiguous. Harry isn't a social 
> revolutionary. He's defending his own world and friends as they 
> are/were. The central issue has always been Harry and his happiness, 
> and in the end he gets that in true Hollywood fashion with a passel 
> of kids hired from central casting. He gets the girl, the sidekicks 
> get each other, everybody has children, preferably with even more 
> people in his little circle. His life's exactly the way it was before 
> only no Voldemort so there's no threat to any of them.
> 
> I don't see anything not triumphant or happy about that ending just 
> because she didn't include Slytherin and Gryffindors singing kumbaya 
> together while House Elves board the Express as students. Harry's 
> line to his son gives props to poor old Snape who could maybe have 
> almost been a Gryffindor, and harks back yet again to Harry's choice 
> of Gryffindor which has always been a bood thing--remember kids, all 
> you have to do is choose not to be Slytherin. He's no longer 
> disturbed by the hat suggesting he'd have been good in the house. 
> (Kids choosing their house with the hat without interference of older 
> siblings or parents has never been an issue for anyone.) I just don't 
> read the imperfect state of affairs as some indication of darkness. 
> It's just not of primary importance to Harry's happiness and never 
> has been. He's happy in his imperfect world, living his ordinary 
> life. He's got an enviable place in his society. I took "all is well" 
> at face value. How could it not be--look at all the babies they've 
> got.

Carol responds:

I'm not sure what genre you're drawing your expectations from, but
even a heroic quest only succeeds in achieving a single goal (or
bringing down a single enemy). Harry acquires and destroys the
Horcruxes with the aid of friends, a secret ally, and an enemy;
acquires and rejects the Hallows (except the cloak, which is
rightfully his); and destroys Voldemort. A mystery novel solves the
mystery. DH solves the mystery of Dumbledore's motives and the
series-long mystery of Snape's loyalties. A Bildungsroman shows the
protagonist learning important lessons about himself and his world. In
leanrning the truth about Snape (and part of the truth about DD),
Harry learns to set aside vengeance and sacrifice himself, which in
turn leads to a lesson in the power of love (which DD has always
preached but Harry has never fully believed). He learns to trust
others and not act alone (letting the DA help him) and he learns that
death is not the end of all things. In short, he acquires something
like wisdom, at least as much wisdom as someone who is not yet
eighteen can possess. And, in the end, he has a Victorian-style happy
ending, in which the protagonist is rewarded for his struggles (moving
from Innocence through Experience, the hard knocks of life, which, in
Harry's case, are extra hard because he's the Chosen One) with
domestic bliss.

In none of these genres is the world ever wholly remade because of the
hero's struggles. Even in LOTR, it's not Frodo but Aragorn who becomes
king and the path to healing can never be complete. Middle Earth can
never be what it was before the Elves left. It's the time of Men to
struggle as best they can--and we know what human beings have made of
the world. In the HP books, Harry has a happy family life and (we can
assume without being told by JKR outside the context of the books) a
good job. Order is restored (no more DEs or Voldemort and it's safe to
ride the Hogwarts Express). There are hints of reconciliation between
Gryffindor and Slytherin (or conciliation, since the Houses have been
on unfriendly terms for a thousand years and particularly so for the
last fifty). But one battle in which the DEs are arrested or killed
and Voldemort destroyed can't remake the WW. At least Kingsley (note
the name: *King*sley) Shacklebolt is Minister for Magic (which we can
gather from his being made temporary minister in the last pre-epilogue
chapter, which means the WW has a minister who knows how to get along
with Muggles and sees them as fully human beings. Order is restored,
as it is in a Shakespearean comedy, slightly different and slightly
better than before, but otherwise normal. We can't expect a Utopia.
That's not a convention of any genre, nor does it conform to what
happens in real life when one enemy is conquered or a war is won.

Why in the world would we expect conditions in the WW to change
radically for what some readers perceive to be the better (equal
rights for giants, who have been shown to be violent, and only
trainable in exceptional circumstances, or greedy goblins, who cheat
wizards as readily as wizards cheat them?) in nineteen years when
change doesn't happen that way in the real world? As for House-Elves,
Ron had it right. They aren't human. Their needs and minds are
different from those of humans. They don't want freedom (which is no
great thing in itself without employment, and for them, being freed is
the same as being fired). They want to be treated well, and, working
for Harry or for Hogwarts, they that's what they get. (I think
Kreacher would have been offended if Harry had gone down to the
kitchen to ask the House-Elves in general for a sandwich; he was
probably honored to do it himself.)

HRH are living in the same world that they lived in before, minus the
DEs, Voldemort, and a corrupt Ministry that huts down Muggle-borns and
allows the Dark Arts to be taught at Hogwarts. It's safe to send your
kids to school (if you're not worried about injuries from Quidditch,
COMC, or kids hexing each other in the hallways). Platform 9 3/4 is
back to normal. We can assume that Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade are back
to normal as well. The only differences we can see are a slight
lessening in the tension between Gryffindors and Slytherins and a nod
to Muggle technology in the cars that Ron and Harry drive to Platform
9 3/4.  (Let's hope that the Weasley kids get to visit their Granger
grandparents often enough to know how Muggles live and dress and
Grandpa Weasley has learned the function of a rubber duck.) They
still, no doubt, light their houses with candles and can't use
computers because magic interferes with them.

Carol, who thinks it's absurd to have marriages between giants and
wizards in the first place (or goblins and wizards or trolls and
wizards) and is somehow not worried about the rights of non-human
beings or their "half-breed" offspring because it's all just fantasy