WengOnline

I’ve read it. It’s done and over with. No Quidditch matches, no mention of Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans, Chocolate Frogs, Wizard Cards, and the mood is indeed dark. A few refreshing moments, but then again more gloom. The latter parts of the book felt like it can be chopped into individual sequels. You have wandlore, the giants, the spiders, the old wizarding families, history and intrigue, and yes, death. It is good that Rowling doesn’t mess with the ‘realities’ of life. If you die, you’re dead. No amount of magic can bring you back. She didn’t push the issue about bringing people back to life, otherwise we would have had James and Lily Potter back as easily as you can say ‘Lumos’.

I was speaking with a few friends about this idea. Very few authors mess with death. You either speak of the dead or speak of dying, but not about being brought back to life. Apparently, it’s only for Lazarus—and that isn’t fiction. Most fiction and fantasy writers do not mess with natural order of things. No respawning of characters!

Check out the following authors:

JRR Tolkien — Boromir didn’t survive. Elves live longer, but they still die. Even if Gandalf turned into a white wizard, he didn’t just wave his staff to bring all his dead companions to life. It just isn’t part of the story.

Lemony Snicket — The Baudelaire kids will have to live with the fact that their parents died in the fire.

Eoin Colfer — Artemis Fowl’s stories had one major character die and yet for all the fairy magic, they still couldn’t bring him back to life.

There are still many more children’s authors who also write much in the same manner, they could involve magic and wizardry in the lives of ordinary children, but giving life to another being is totally out of the question. An unwritten rule in the ‘writing fiction and fantasy for children rulebook’? Perhaps it would be a terrible thing for parents to have to explain to a kid that people and animals can’t be brought back to life even if so and so book says it happened to this character.

It’s already hard to explain why your broom at home won’t fly like Harry’s and why Peter Pan won’t come visiting anytime soon. Compound those with Superman and Spiderman and you’ll have kids jumping from all sorts of high places. Good thing my younger cousins are into Japanese anime. =)