"All is Well"

[seraphcelene]

samdonne has written my favorite response to the epilogue of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows.

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femmenerd wrote Hermione/Ron, set during HBP and it is sweet and funny, hot and awesome.

Best Laid Plans (Hermione/Ron, NC-17)

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I just caught the last ten minutes or so of Meredith Viera's interview with J.K. Rowling on Dateline.



She said quite empathetically that this is it, the end, finis, no more Harry Potter. There won't be books based around the "second generation", Voldemort is dead. The point of the epilogue, she said, was to tell everyone, very clearly, that “all was well“, as surmised by samdonne. I think, perhaps, that's why I found it so insipid. It read as an obligatory tack-on to me because it didn't really mesh with the rest of the books. She said that it was important for her to write, partially, because of Teddy, Lupin and Tonks' son. She said that for some reason it was very important for her to relay that even though he was an orphan, that in this post-Voldemort world he is happy.

After watching the interview, I find the epilogue an interesting comment on authorial intent. Rowling said something that I thought is very true. She said that when you are writing you have to think only of what you are writing and not, I can't kill off Hagrid because people like him. I think, that's a problem that writers have. Laurell K. Hamilton has that problem and it has left her books flat. There's no real threat, no danger, nothing establishes any real kind of tension.

The difference between the novels and the epilogue in TDH reveals, to me, the difference between J.K. Rowling as a reader/fan and as a writer. The epilogue is a treat to herself, they lived happily ever after, because she is very attached to her characters. However, that she was willing to kill off, maim, and traumatize the characters as she did throughout the books, I think, shows her dedication to her craft. That's to say that she was always willing to take a risk, whether or not it worked, she was willing to take her characters there, drop them down a barrel, etc. Let me be very clear and say that writing darkness isn’t necessarily the only way that a writer can prove their devotion to being true to their craft, it’s just the most dramatic example of it. Going against popular opinion, the desire of the fans, resisting your own affection for the characters in favor of doing what’s best for the story you are trying to tell is what I mean.

I like that about writers, when they are able to, or perhaps I should say, they are willing to allow that things are not always going to be okay, not everything is happily ever after. In Rowling's case, in a franchise as big and as popular as Harry Potter, I think that it was courageous of her to stick to what she wanted to do and not to fold to pressures from fans, because let’s face it, HP fandom is insanely scary.

Comments

[darlas-mom.livejournal.com]

I didn't see the interview, so thank you very much for posting about that bit from it! Like...um, everybody, pretty much, I didn't like the epilogue, either, because it kind of hurt my brain as overly sappy and painfully final.

It is nice to know that she did this for her own personal preferences, and not as some backhanded, wildly misfiring attempt at fan service.

[seraphcelene]

It is nice to know that she did this for her own personal preferences, and not as some backhanded, wildly misfiring attempt at fan service.

Word!! That is exactly what I initially thought, so it really was nice to have her explain the point of it. I'm hoping that someone posts the transcript somewhere because I only saw the end of it, but she also talked about Fred dying verus George. I think that the interview was an hour long, so I missed alot.