In Defense of the Wretched Epilogue
First of all, Hi, I'm Piper [for now] and I am here via Helenangel. /waves
Now.
This epilogue business.
Personally, I think epilogues are like introductions - they're best kept short and to the point. In that sense, I think it's a very good epilogue, even though it does read more like, yes, an introduction.
Will there more Harry Potter books?
Honestly, I hope so. That's the fan in me, though, and not the writer. The fan in me is passionate about this world and the people in it. The writer in me would hate to see JK Rowling forced into the same eternal loop that writers like Anne McCaffrey have wound up in - Pern is the cash herdbeast that puts the food on the table - and it no longer matters if the books are good or bad, as long as they are Pern. It kills the imagination of the writer, and that kills the world.
I'd like to see JK take a long break. Maybe go to the moon, or into hiding, or back to school, or lay on her back on the roof of her house and do nothing for a while. Why not? But one of these days she'll get back to writing and when she does, she's given us a nice set up.
So that's one point - the epilogue is about 1/2 intro to what might be down the pike, if she gets the hankering to write about this some more.
What the epilogue is to me is a longed for scene that never happens between Harry and Snape: the one where they look and see each other clearly, for the first time. The one we can't have because of how it all ends. It's also about choices, and I like the way JK brings us gently back to that pivotal moment in the very first book - what Harry chooses under that hat determines everything that happens after.
Dumbledore tells Snape he thinks sometimes they sort too early. Perhaps Severus' path would have been different if the people in his common room had been different, if his friends had been other than they were. There were choices he wasn't given, choices Harry was. And when Snape got to a point where he started forcing those choices, or having them forced upon him, they came on the cutting edge of repeated loss and sacrifice. In a way, Snape didn't start making those choices until they no longer were choices, but the only clear path for a very broken heart.
What we get in the epilogue is vindication for Snape. We are now Snape's eyes and ears. We readers are the only way he will know he has been seen and understood. Through his words to, and the naming of, his son [with Lily's eyes and Ginny's hair!], Harry makes it clear that all is not only forgiven, it is embraced, accepted and cherished for what it was. And when he speaks to Al, it is to remind us all of the choices he was given through the sacrifices of others.
I like to think that when Al gets sorted, he'll have to choose between Ravenclaw and Slytherin and he'll go with Slytherin because at least it's familiar.
That's definitely me being all fanish.
Now.
This epilogue business.
Personally, I think epilogues are like introductions - they're best kept short and to the point. In that sense, I think it's a very good epilogue, even though it does read more like, yes, an introduction.
Will there more Harry Potter books?
Honestly, I hope so. That's the fan in me, though, and not the writer. The fan in me is passionate about this world and the people in it. The writer in me would hate to see JK Rowling forced into the same eternal loop that writers like Anne McCaffrey have wound up in - Pern is the cash herdbeast that puts the food on the table - and it no longer matters if the books are good or bad, as long as they are Pern. It kills the imagination of the writer, and that kills the world.
I'd like to see JK take a long break. Maybe go to the moon, or into hiding, or back to school, or lay on her back on the roof of her house and do nothing for a while. Why not? But one of these days she'll get back to writing and when she does, she's given us a nice set up.
So that's one point - the epilogue is about 1/2 intro to what might be down the pike, if she gets the hankering to write about this some more.
What the epilogue is to me is a longed for scene that never happens between Harry and Snape: the one where they look and see each other clearly, for the first time. The one we can't have because of how it all ends. It's also about choices, and I like the way JK brings us gently back to that pivotal moment in the very first book - what Harry chooses under that hat determines everything that happens after.
Dumbledore tells Snape he thinks sometimes they sort too early. Perhaps Severus' path would have been different if the people in his common room had been different, if his friends had been other than they were. There were choices he wasn't given, choices Harry was. And when Snape got to a point where he started forcing those choices, or having them forced upon him, they came on the cutting edge of repeated loss and sacrifice. In a way, Snape didn't start making those choices until they no longer were choices, but the only clear path for a very broken heart.
What we get in the epilogue is vindication for Snape. We are now Snape's eyes and ears. We readers are the only way he will know he has been seen and understood. Through his words to, and the naming of, his son [with Lily's eyes and Ginny's hair!], Harry makes it clear that all is not only forgiven, it is embraced, accepted and cherished for what it was. And when he speaks to Al, it is to remind us all of the choices he was given through the sacrifices of others.
I like to think that when Al gets sorted, he'll have to choose between Ravenclaw and Slytherin and he'll go with Slytherin because at least it's familiar.
That's definitely me being all fanish.
