Who Dies in Harry Potter 7? Not Telling. Suddenly Doesn’t Matter . . .
July 22nd, 2007
Because, although I finished reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows last night, I’m much more shocked by something I just discovered while reading a review of Harry Potter 7 on Slate: children’s fantasy writer Lloyd Alexander died this past May. Somehow I missed hearing about it. He was 83, he had cancer, his wife died just a couple of weeks before him. Those are the bare facts. But they don’t capture the amazing scope of Alexander’s many novels.
The Chronicles of Prydain are my favorites, of course, but the Westmark Trilogy and some of his stand-alone novels are also worth reading and re-reading. The Washington Post’s obituary sums it up well.
Lloyd Alexander loved cats and violins, and had a habit of creating long-nosed characters one suspected were based on himself. (His long-nosed bard of Prydain so infused my childhood consciousness that, when I met my future husband, who has a rather lengthy schnoz himself, the very first words that popped into my head were, bizarrely, “Fflewddur Fflam.”)
As a child, I once wrote to Alexander, and the gracious reply I received is still among my treasures.
So, if you’re looking for something to read now that Harry Potter’s saga is finished, try the Bard of Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania. Many of his books are more satisfying than Rowling’s, anyway.
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2 Comments Add your own
1. Pop Otter | July 23rd, 2007 at 11:14 am
D’Otter, Here is how I recall the days when I read to you: I suppose the big five authors were Tolkien, Lewis, Alexander, L’Engle, and Cooper.
I was uncomfortable with Cooper’s spiritual perspective, and did not know how much of my discomfort to share with you, but the battle against evil was nonetheless gripping, and visual images of the archetypal landscape from the West Country and Wales were planted deep in your psyche.
It was satisfying to watch you identify closely with L’Engle’s Meg and Charles Wallace Murry, characters who had trouble fitting in because of their precocious, creative, and courageous understanding of realities that others did not see, and their blindness to commonplace things that others saw readily.
Alexander was easily the most fun of the big five, but important themes were being addressed without authorial talking down to the readers. Alexander could express childlike delight in simple jokes one moment and force us to face hard truths about life the next. It seemed to me that his worldview was more existentialist than Christian, but his moral perspective was generally healthy and thought provoking. He is a better writer than many critics allow. From his most serious books such as the Westmark trilogy, to his lightest such as the Vesper Holly series, I always found him worth reading with enjoyment and respect. The Chronicles of Prydain brought it all together.
Your attitude toward Lewis went through more phases than with any of the others. But his insights into spiritual matters would bring him to the top from time to time. He gave you a way to talk about faith with your peers.
No doubt, as a writer, Tolkien is best. How we slogged on with those hobbits on their perilous quest, only to return and do it again every few years! Our courage and faith grew with every trip.
By contrast, Rowling is clever and may know better how to connect to current culture, but her writing does not compare to the big five.
2. Diane | September 14th, 2007 at 11:35 pm
My husband told me about Lloyd Alexander at the time but I was grieving our son and couldn’t deal with anymore. Just read the article and am crying my eyes out. I too wrote to him as a child and received a very nice reply that I still have. Fflewddur Fflam was what I thought of when I saw his picture! He made me want to write too. He was an incredible artist and craftsman with flawless plotting and characters. I agree about the “big five”.
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