- Most “drama”/ serious books that work really follow three forms: Classic Drama, Classic Hero’s Tale, and Existentialism... I think that modern audiences because tragedy as defined by the news media and pop culture define tragedy as meaningless death... i.e. a little child murdered by a sexual predator would be considered a tragedy by the media. I think that the general public (and some commentators) confuse existentialist writings with classic tragedy.
I do agree with you that Existentialist writings aren’t popular with non- Upper East Side crowd... (I still think the Existentialists are interesting though... I’m a big fan of Hemingway). However, I don’t believe that Harry’s death (if Rowlings had chosen the proper ending)would have been meaningless. Harry’s death was meaningful because it was necessary to destroy Voldemort. What a wonderful and brave thing to willingly sacrifice oneself for one’s friends as Harry did! As a Christian, I know that there’s life after death, so I don’t see how Harry’s death would have been sad. I think that it would have been triumphant. Everyone dies, but very few of us are able to choose our death and die for our friends as Harry did.
It’s not a matter of putting stock in how Irving ends his books, it’s understanding that of the writers that write his style, modern tragedy, he is the most financially successful, and quite critically successful too.
We’re not just discussing books that “work”, we’re discussing overall structures. Modern tragedies probably don’t “work” which has a lot to do with why they aren’t popular. But it is a legitimate form of drama that exists and has a defined structure.
Harry could have died in a way that wasn’t meaningless, but if he’d died in the story when he appeared to die it would have been it would have been the perfect example of a modern tragic story. A meaningless death that failed to accomplish the primary goal of his life. The other problem with Harry dieing, even if he does take out Voldy in the process, is his life sucked so bad, that would have been the part that made it so sad, his life had so few happy moments, he really deserved to survive the darkness and experience a good life.