Again I see that popular notion that the series can not end until JKR kills Harry Potter, and that his demise will, by some unexplained magic, prevent any possible continuation. If she has spent any time thinking about it, she has realized that this notion is delusional.
What does JKR see in the Mirror of Erised? Dumbledore explains that the mirror "...shows us nothing more and nothing less than the deepest, most desperate desires of our hearts."
Harry, who has never known his family, sees himself surrounded by them. Ron, who has always been overshadowed by his many brothers, sees himself alone, the greatest of all. Dumbledore, whose friends insist on giving him books for Christmas, sees himself holding a pair of warm, woolen socks. (Socks, according to some theorists, represent a mother's love that can be unappreciated until it is too late.)
What does JKR see in the Mirror of Erised? A quiet, simple retirement in the bosom of her family, cushioned by a nice, fluffy bank account?
Stop me before I write again! JKR has always been very clear on the point that the Harry Potter series will end with the seventh book. This is not difficult to understand: the series will have ruled her life for seventeen years. The rumors are flying that she will not be able to resist the pressure to continue; that, like Michael in the Godfather ("...but they keep pulling me back!") JKR will find no peace while Harry survives. For this shabby reason, she needs to kill The Boy Who Lived. She has even hinted at this in an interview. (
http://www.mugglenet.com/jkrinterview.shtml)
However, unlike Michael, JKR will never be able to say that "they gave me an offer I couldn't refuse." No one is going to hold a wand to her head. Also, she has a few galleons to tide her over, and I think we can trust her to "exercise self-control not to spend the whole lot at once."
To respawn, or not to respawn? Someone once said that, if you build a ten-foot wall around the entire country, it will take the smugglers about five seconds to figure out that they need an eleven-foot ladder.
In fiction, no good character stays dead forever. When Dumbledore "died," how long did it take YOU to think of Gandalf? From there, it's only spitting distance to Obi Wan Kanobe. The Search for Spoc. Freddy Kruger (spell?). Dune's Paul Atredes. Duncan Idaho. The X-File's Marlboro Man. Jason (Fri 13th).
Probably every soap opera has at least one fake or presumed death every year. The Guiding Light: Sonny/Celeta and, especially, Roger Thorpe (my personal favorite).
All My Children: Dixie Cooney, Maria Santos
Help me out, guys, and lets see how long we can make this list. Think of every bad guy who has ever died and then jumped out from behind a shower curtain a few pages later.
The entire genre is like the badly-installed wall paper in the Hitchhiker's Guide -- you press down on a bubble, and it just pops up somewhere else. You can destroy whole planets, for all the good it will do you. Nothing, nobody, stays dead if someone wants to bring it back.
Where there's a will, there's a way to respawn. Death is nothing. Killing the boy in his seventh book will not guarantee the end of the series.
But JKR will have a power the rumor mongers know not: next year, as the seventh month dies, she, and only she, will have the power to just put down the pen and walk away. If ending the series is "the deepest, most desperate desire of her heart," then doing so will require "nothing more and nothing less" than her resolve to do so. When she ends the series, it will remain retired until the day she dies.
Unless...
But she would never! International copyright law is good for the life of the author plus 75 years, after which the property will enter the public domain. That's how it usually works. Maybe JKR won't sell-out. But...
The Unfinished Tales: Ok, so let's say she gets a really good bunch of lawyers during her lifetime who have a power that the Mattel company knew not. Frank Herbert stopped after six volumes of "Dune," but son Brian has published at least as many post-mortem episodes (they're actually pretty good) and seems likely to continue. J.R.Tolkien wrote a truckload of background info for "Lord of the Rings," which were sold by an heir and published with titles like "The Unfinished Tales." I do hope that he got a little more for it than Merope. Forget the heir of Slytherin and the heir of Griffindor; I wanna be the heir of Rowling.
Never say never.
Anyway, the reason above to kill Harry is shabby. It's not gonna work. She would do better to abandon it.
All she needs to do is put down the pen.
Space Invaders
Linear Mode
