Harry Potter dead???

[Guest]

.....

 

[Guest]

 

[TheEarl]

Well, I don't read stories or see movies where dogs die, if I can avoid it.

It's a cheap tactic to yank the reader/viewer's heartstrings through a red-hot colander.

So there.

I follow what King said in 'On Writing' actually. The aim of the dog dying was to show that this character was a complete fucker who was nice while he thought the dog's owners might be around and then pepper sprayed it and kicked it to death for barking at him, when he was certain he was alone.

Certainly a lot more show-like method than telling everyone he was an amoral fucker and borderline sociopath who could still smile to your face.

The Earl

 

[Guest]

I follow what King said in 'On Writing' actually. The aim of the dog dying was to show that this character was a complete fucker who was nice while he thought the dog's owners might be around and then pepper sprayed it and kicked it to death for barking at him, when he was certain he was alone.

Certainly a lot more show-like method than telling everyone he was an amoral fucker and borderline sociopath who could still smile to your face.

The Earl

Oh of course it serves a purpose -- if it doesn't, then it's gratuitous and nasty. Even Bambi's mother's death served a story purpose. Even Ol' Yeller dying served a purpose for the story.

But I'm still not gonna read it. I'm with Jammies and it goes for ALL fuzzy creatures.

I'm a mush head, i know.

 

[Selena_Kitt]

I defend SK's right to kick a dog or drop an elevator on an old lady if he has to...

I found it ironic, though, that he was saying he didn't want Rowling to kill Harry.... reminded me of that moment in Misery, when his "biggest fan" wants him to bring her favorite character back!! Poetic justice!?

 

[TheEarl]

I defend SK's right to kick a dog or drop an elevator on an old lady if he has to...

I found it ironic, though, that he was saying he didn't want Rowling to kill Harry.... reminded me of that moment in Misery, when his "biggest fan" wants him to bring her favorite character back!! Poetic justice!?

If Stephen Kings said that to me about one of my characters, I'd kill them immediately, in the most heartbreaking manner I could fathom.

"There, King! That's for Bag of Bones, you evil, evil bastard!"

Great writer. Horrible person to his characters and his readers.

The Earl

 

[Guest]

 

[Selena_Kitt]

If Stephen Kings said that to me about one of my characters, I'd kill them immediately, in the most heartbreaking manner I could fathom.

"There, King! That's for Bag of Bones, you evil, evil bastard!"

Great writer. Horrible person to his characters and his readers.

The Earl

that one really got you, huh?

The kid in Pet Sematary got me... he had to kill the BABY!?!?! oh my god, I cried and cried...

but I totally got why he did it... it didn't feel good, but sometimes the right thing for the work just doesn't...

And I will defend my right to be a mush head and not read it.

I must have a masochistic streak...

 

[Jenny_Jackson]

Come on, People... This is hype. JRR Rowling said in the Today Show interview that "someone would die" in the last book. She refused to say it would be Harry Potter.

I personally think he's gay, anyway.

 

[Guest]

I still remember the first Stephen King story I ever read. I was 15 and a then boyfriend insisted I read Nightshift. I read "The Mangler". At the time, I was getting up pre-dawn to catch a ride to seminary class (don't ask) and I had to wait outside my house at 5:30 am each morning. We lived not far from a place where semi-trucks came and went all night, picking up loads of gravel and rock.

Amazingly, the distant road of those trucks sounded JUST LIKE a giant demon possessed laundry mangler coming down my street to eat me. I don't say I BELIEVED there WAS one, but it sure SOUNDED like it.

I read Carrie and it didn't bother me so much. Then I read another story -- title forgotten, it was in OMNI magazine, about a woman who accidentally shot herself in the head, only the bullet didn't kill her. Instead she thought she heard God's voice and started doing things she was told, including (I think) killing her husband and helping a man in the "accidental death" of his father, who had raped his two young sons years earlier. It's been at least 18 years since I read that one, and the stick, hard.

I haven't read anything by him since. I don't enjoy his writing. Yes, it's good, as evidenced by how well I remember things I read so long ago, but I don't LIKE it.

As for killing characters, hey, happens all the time. Just lay off the fuzzy creatures!

*going over to the Mushhead corner to eat popcorn with Jammies and watch movies where no animals get hurt.*

 

[Guest]

Come on, People... This is hype. JRR Rowling said in the Today Show interview that "someone would die" in the last book. She refused to say it would be Harry Potter.

I personally think he's gay, anyway.

Thousands of Harry Slash writers and fans agree with you I just stay away from those.

 

[Guest]

SK kills off tons of characters, like his story about all those boys that have to walk across three states, and when they fall they get a bullet to the head. That one had me sniffling all the way through, especially when the sick kid fell, he had a wife and a new baby he was walking to.

I believe in an author's right to kill off a character but can you imagine the hate mail she'd get for killing off Harry?

 

[Guest]

 

[cantdog]

Briga fuckin Doon, dude.

 

[Guest]

OK, I've read the Dead Zone. I cannot remember the part about the character killing a dog. Honestly. I'll have to dig up my copy.

In IT, one of the creepy young men kills a dog by leaving it in the fridge in the woods, yes? And in Tommyknockers, the aliens use the dog to help their propulsion system, yes?

Have I just conveniently forgotten that part in the Dead Zone?

 

[Guest]

.....

 

[cantdog]

OK, I've read the Dead Zone. I cannot remember the part about the character killing a dog. Honestly. I'll have to dig up my copy.

In IT, one of the creepy young men kills a dog by leaving it in the fridge in the woods, yes? And in Tommyknockers, the aliens use the dog to help their propulsion system, yes?

Have I just conveniently forgotten that part in the Dead Zone?

The bible salesman who becomes the candidate? We watch him do that. Remember, King brings his story along, at the same time as he tells us about the protag, by cutting in scenes about him, short ones, right through the book.

 

[Selena_Kitt]

OK, I've read the Dead Zone. I cannot remember the part about the character killing a dog. Honestly. I'll have to dig up my copy.

In IT, one of the creepy young men kills a dog by leaving it in the fridge in the woods, yes? And in Tommyknockers, the aliens use the dog to help their propulsion system, yes?

Have I just conveniently forgotten that part in the Dead Zone?

Greg Stillson (the guy who is running for president) kicks a dog to death... it's the memory of it, I believe... but yes... he kills it...

edited to add: what Cant said...

 

[Guest]

The bible salesman who becomes the candidate? We watch him do that. Remember, King brings his story along, at the same time as he tells us about the protag, by cutting in scenes about him, short ones, right through the book.

Stillson, yes?

Bible salesman, house painter . . . then creepy candidate.

I'll need to give it another read.


Briga fuckin Doon, dude.

 

[3113]

This is what got to me:

"When fans accuse me of sadism, which doesn't happen that often, I feel I'm toughening them up to go on and read John and Stephen's books," she said. "I think they've got to be toughened up somehow. It's a cruel literary world out there."

Oh, PLEASE! Torture or kill a character because it's right for the story, not to "toughen up the audience"! What a lame excuse. Either the "sadism" works or it's just self-indulgence. If it works, you need no excuse. If it's just self-indulgence, then 'fess up.

The scene with the dog in the Dead Zone is terrible to read, but absolutely right and necessary for the story. Without it, you don't understand the villian. In no way does it feel like the author is torturing the dog just to gain sympathy of the reader or get off on his own sadistic feelings. It feels like the bad guy is doing it because, damn it, that is exactly what he'd do, sorry to say.

I don't quite feel the same was true of certain torture/death scenes in later Harry Potter books--or, for that matter, some of Stephen King's later books.

In some ways, I respect the BDSM erotica here the more because it makes no bones about what it's doing. It doesn't pretend to be "toughing up" the audience. The author knows what he/she wants, the reader knows what he/she wants and they're both satisfied, no excuses necessary.

I wish more authors writing fiction, especially fantasy, would do this as well. Either do what's right for the story, or own up to your own SM urges and those of your readers.

 

[3113]

Addition

Just to add...if she does kill of Harry, it'll really be like Sherlock Holmes. You can bet your bottom dollar, she'll bring him back in a few years.

Hey, it's fantasy. And if there's one thing fantasy fans know...from Gandalf on....just about anyone who dies in the fantasy genre can get better

 

[rgraham666]

SK kills off tons of characters, like his story about all those boys that have to walk across three states, and when they fall they get a bullet to the head. That one had me sniffling all the way through, especially when the sick kid fell, he had a wife and a new baby he was walking to.

The Long Walk I loved that one. One of the books he wrote under the pseudonym Richard Bachman. I bought the collection of 'Bachman's' novels years ago.

I liked Rage a lot, although in these post-Columbine days it would never be published.

I lovedThe Running Man as well. The novel was much better than the stupid movie.

There was another as well, which I remember little about except I liked it.

I like King best when he keeps himself short. Otherwise, too much stuff in his books to keep me interested.

And Needful Things was a rip off of Something Wicked This Way Comes.

 

[Selena_Kitt]

The Long Walk I loved that one. One of the books he wrote under the pseudonym Richard Bachman. I bought the collection of 'Bachman's' novels years ago.

I liked Rage a lot, although in these post-Columbine days it would never be published.

I lovedThe Running Man as well. The novel was much better than the stupid movie.

There was another as well, which I remember little about except I liked it.

I like King best when he keeps himself short. Otherwise, too much stuff in his books to keep me interested.

And Needful Things was a rip off of Something Wicked This Way Comes.

Road Work was the other Bachman book. That one was good, too...

edited to add: Rage is no longer in print. They don't sell it.

 

[rgraham666]

Just to add...if she does kill of Harry, it'll really be like Sherlock Holmes. You can bet your bottom dollar, she'll bring him back in a few years.

Hey, it's fantasy. And if there's one thing fantasy fans know...from Gandalf on....just about anyone who dies in the fantasy genre can get better

If Voldemort can come back, I suppose Harry can as well.

 

[TheEarl]

I haven't read the sixth one as yet, so responses spoiler-free please.

I personally think killing off Harry would be a good end to the series, if it's done in a way that takes Voldemorte with him. It appeals to my Wiccan sense of balance; that the good balances the evil and to kill one, the other must die. Kinda like what the Matrix sequels tried to do, before burying it in rubbish directing and boring scenes about Zion.

OT: Has anyone seen Matrix Dezionised? I downloaded the Star Wars Episode 1 fanedit and it was quite useful.

The Earl