Disappointment Was: Deaths in DH WAS: Re: Dumbledore (but more Snape)

[Carol]

No: HPFGUIDX 177473

CathyD wrote:
> And that is my problem as well.  The further I get away from my
first reading (I have not even attempted to read it again....uggh) the
more disappointed I am and the more just bloody horrible it is.  I am
glad I am not the only one to be suffering at the moment.  
> 
> In fact, I've mostly quit reading and posting to this list because
it just makes me more and more disappointed, frustrated, and angry all
the time.  

Carol responds:

I understand your frustration, and I confess that it took me awhile to
come to terms with the manipulative Dumbledore of DH. I would vastly
have preferred a living Snape to a dead one (though the public
vindication and Albus Severus helped). But it seems strange to me to
condemn a book for not meeting our expectations, for not being the
book we would have written. It's like condemning the HP films for not
duplicating the books without considering that a film is a different
medium with differing requirements and conventions.

Maybe you should try reading the book a second time, knowing that
things won't turn out as you hoped but trying to appreciate it on its
own terms. "Bloody horrible" seems like an exagerration to me. Sure,
it has flaws, including plot holes and inconsistencies. Sure, some of
our favorite characters died, but we knew that was bound to happen.
Sure, some of the things we anticipated from the interviews didn't
happen, but does it really matter, for example, that no character
performed magic late in life? Can we really judge the book by its
failure to conform to expectations based on interviews? Can we fairly
and realistically expect a book to echo our own religious,
philosophical or political views and judge it as "bloody horrible" if
it doesn't? Good heavens! If that's the case, I should believe that no
good book was ever written because no author I've ever encountered
shares all of my views. (My subjective judgment of a book, my liking
the story and identifying with the characters or the author's implied
philosophy, is, of course, no indication of the book's value as a
piece of writing or a cultural artifact.)

Regarding the catharsis that some posters feel is missing from DH, I
was already emotionally exhausted by all the deaths, especially
Dobby's and Snape's, and by Percy's grief for the brother who had just
forgiven him, a moment more moving to me than any funeral. I realize
it's all subjective, but what would another funeral or memorial
service have added? We've already had one grand funeral in HBP and one
simple funeral in DH. What would be accomplished by duplicating either
type of funeral for other characters? And if JKR showed Fred's
funeral, but not Tonks' and Lupin's presumably joint funeral, or vice
versa, wouldn't readers who favored those characters have felt
cheated? And would a mass memorial service like the one performed for
victims of 9/11 have moved us in the way an individual funeral would?
Personally, I wish some mention had been made of Snape's body being
moved to be with the others, or of a separate service honoring
Hogwarts' most unfairly maligned and misunderstood headmaster, but I
understand that JKR was focusing on Harry. It's enough (for me) that
he told Ron and Hermione about Snape's memories, that he publicly
vindicated him, and that he named his second son after him and
Dumbledore, the other imperfect and forgiven headmaster.

There are two ways to deal with disappointment in a book. The first is
to reread it on its own terms, trying to understand and accept it and
enjoy at least some parts of it. ("Moby Dick," for example, wasn't at
all what I expected, and I didn't come to love it until the third time
through.) The second is to put it behind you and go on to something
else, preferably without any expectations that will ruin the
experience of reading the book if the author "fails" to meet them.

I'm curious. Did those of you who hated the last book find *anything*
at all to like or admire about it? Humor? Suspense? Terror? Grief?
Remorse? A real villain instead of a cardboard one? A flawed mentor
instead of a perfect one? Harry's ability to see certain characters
(Snape and Draco in particular) more clearly--finally? Anything at
all? Forgive the cliche, but I found the book an emotional roller
coaster ride, full of surprises, moving from laughter or excitement to
almost unbearable grief and back again (and occasional moments when I
could gleefully claim that I was right, along with others when I had
to concede defeat but note with satisfaction that JKR got around the
obstacles I had foreseen).

Favorite moments off the top of my head: Dobby whanging Mundungus on
the head with a saucepan (even I can appreciate slapstick humor if it
involves the right characters), the doe Patronus, Ron's destruction of
the locket Horcrux, a whole chapter devoted to Snape's backstory (and
the reference to him in the chapter title as "the Prince"), Neville
killing Nagini, Albus Severus and Harry's description of Snape as
probably the bravest man he ever knew. . . .

Carol, happy that HRH and Luna and Neville survived, that Ron overcame
his self-doubts so valiantly, that Harry "sacrificed" himself without
having to die and destroyed Voldie without having to kill him, that
Snape was vindicated, and that Kreacher was understood and respected
without being freed, which might well have killed him