(no subject)
Yes, I'm actually posting something here, which is almost beyond belief, I know. :P However, I put a link to this on FIA, because I didn't really think that was the most appropriate place to post it. Here it is!
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A/N: You know, when it comes to that epilogue, I think that everybody has to make up his/her/its own mind about it. Personally, though, I feel that it has exactly the same problems now that it did when we first read it a year ago. Sometimes a piece of writing improves simply because readers go back to it and find things they didn't find the first time; I don't think that epilogue fits this description.
There's one thing that really, really bothers me about it, and it has nothing to do with this or that pairing happening or not happening. Nor is it because it really would have more interesting to read something about the future of the characters besides the list of "begats"; if all I want to see is who married whom and what their kids' names were, I'll read the second half of the book of Genesis. The real problem, I think, is that the epilogue really didn't make sense in terms of what had been written in the books. There was no federal law that it had to be written so that it did make sense, but to write something that is so disconnected from the rest of the books (setting aside any problems with DH or any of the other books themselves, for example) bothers me a lot.
Understand, I'm not exactly saying that such a popular author who's written books that inspired so many people has some kind of duty to at least write a logical ending after stringing fans along by constantly promising it for years on end and constantly throwing out tidbits of information that were never actually in the books. I do believe this. But there's also a reasonable argument that this duty doesn't truly exist if we're talking about what the author owed to an audience.
No, for me, the real problem with that epilogue is that because it does not really make sense in terms of the way the seven books have been written, because it is clearly something that was written many years ago (as JKR herself says) and was essentially not changed to reflect anything that had happened to plot, character, or themes in the entire series, then this means that it does not honor the creative process or the discipline of writing. Writers know how hard it is to get published and how hard it is to find a reading audience. I know this all too well! So we have to believe that these ideals mean something important. We have to write in a way that respects ourselves and our audience-- if lightning has actually struck and we have the incredible, unbelievable, indescribably improbable luck to have an audience. Otherwise, we're just giving up on our own talent and settling for being less than we can be, and, yes, we are insulting anybody who paid money for our books.
Anyway! That's enough of my two cents' worth! :)
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A/N: You know, when it comes to that epilogue, I think that everybody has to make up his/her/its own mind about it. Personally, though, I feel that it has exactly the same problems now that it did when we first read it a year ago. Sometimes a piece of writing improves simply because readers go back to it and find things they didn't find the first time; I don't think that epilogue fits this description.
There's one thing that really, really bothers me about it, and it has nothing to do with this or that pairing happening or not happening. Nor is it because it really would have more interesting to read something about the future of the characters besides the list of "begats"; if all I want to see is who married whom and what their kids' names were, I'll read the second half of the book of Genesis. The real problem, I think, is that the epilogue really didn't make sense in terms of what had been written in the books. There was no federal law that it had to be written so that it did make sense, but to write something that is so disconnected from the rest of the books (setting aside any problems with DH or any of the other books themselves, for example) bothers me a lot.
Understand, I'm not exactly saying that such a popular author who's written books that inspired so many people has some kind of duty to at least write a logical ending after stringing fans along by constantly promising it for years on end and constantly throwing out tidbits of information that were never actually in the books. I do believe this. But there's also a reasonable argument that this duty doesn't truly exist if we're talking about what the author owed to an audience.
No, for me, the real problem with that epilogue is that because it does not really make sense in terms of the way the seven books have been written, because it is clearly something that was written many years ago (as JKR herself says) and was essentially not changed to reflect anything that had happened to plot, character, or themes in the entire series, then this means that it does not honor the creative process or the discipline of writing. Writers know how hard it is to get published and how hard it is to find a reading audience. I know this all too well! So we have to believe that these ideals mean something important. We have to write in a way that respects ourselves and our audience-- if lightning has actually struck and we have the incredible, unbelievable, indescribably improbable luck to have an audience. Otherwise, we're just giving up on our own talent and settling for being less than we can be, and, yes, we are insulting anybody who paid money for our books.
Anyway! That's enough of my two cents' worth! :)