How It All Ends and Other Blather

[Barry Arrowsmith]

--- In the_old_crowd at yahoogroups.com, "Talisman" <talisman22457 at y...> wrote:
>
> 
> Compare this to Rowling's comments in 2003:
> 
> Nevertheless, I've always believed that Harry Potter books are
> highly moral. I wanted to portray the ambiguity of a society where
> intolerance, cruelty, hypocrisy and corruption are frequent, so I
> could better show how heroic it can be, no matter what your age is,
> fighting in a battle that will never be won.
> http://www.quick-quote-quill.org/articles/2003/1025-princeasturias-
> speech.htm
> 
> That's the point. Harry's battle can never be won. His victory is
> to carry on the good fight. This is her call to readers, as well:
> *Fight the losing battle.* You will never defeat intolerance,
> cruelty, hypocrisy, and corruption, etc., but don't yield to them
> yourself, and take a stand against them wherever you find them. [Cue
> the swelling background music.]
> 
> The surface-level implication is that Voldemort will never be
> entirely destroyed.
> 

Mph. 
Brief comment on one part of your post. No time for more, some creep 
has just dumped a load of work into my mail box. Some people have
no consideration for the feelings of idle hedonists. 
I lean towards a slightly different closure.
Voldemort  will be defeated but evil won't be.
Just as Voldy rose after the the downfall of  Grindelwald, so too he will
be followed by a successor. But he (or she - Bella would do nicely IMO)
will not be the concern of this series of books - in the final chapter 
there'll be a moralising old fart vapouring on that despite all the struggle
and sacrifice the world will never be free of, nor safe from, evil and that 
eternal vigilance is the price of whatever.

This sort of loops back to previous whitterings on Possession Theory,
that evil can be described or considered as a damn-near immortal entity
that will insinuate itself into the welcoming or susceptible mind. Tying it 
back to old Sally would be nice and not entirely unexpected - there's
quite a lot we haven't been told about what the Founders got up to. 

As to who'll be the next nasty - that's up for grabs and may not even be
hinted at - unless it's Harry. Which would be entertaining. But if Jo is in
the business of history repeating itself - Tom left school at roughly the
time that Grindlewald got creamed - so someone now at Hogwarts would
be a good bet - young Malfoy perhaps? He's already well down the rocky 
road to moral degeneracy, a couple of nights camped out in the Chamber
and who knows what he'd be like. After all, Tom was not much more than
just a vicious little shit before he dropped in to pay his respects, wasn't he? 


> We'll not inquire as to *why* you were sniffing around old bird
> cages. Let's just encourage you to keep up the good work, and then
> get your volume of magical maladies published. Maybe Carolyn can
> hook you up with someone.
> 
> Let's face it, it's your bailiwick. You can most likely design an
> entire magical health system. Must reading for any waiting room.
> 
> No stepping on the Rowling toes, but definitely timely in terms of
> public tastes.
> 
> Royalties would make a nice annuity for Igor. He's been heating
> your boiled oil for years, `bout time you showed some gratitude.
>

Kneasy loves junk shops - always the possibility that you may find
something interesting - a cunning device for decapitating poachers, a
man-trap that only needs a drop of oil, really useful for when I invite
the local children to play hide-and-seek in my garden.

If 'magical maladies' is to go further it will take time - it's hard work.
Igor isn't much help, I'm afraid. He's very depressed about the quality
of the local maidens; hardly worth raiding the village according to him.
Ah, well. I'll have to get him a bus-pass so he can widen his horizons.