All Was Well

[blaqlives]

Discussion of All Was Well by David Ganin.

[RosieBlack]

That was absalutly beautiful. Thank you so much for writing that and for sharing that wonderful epiphany with us. I think I understand the end better as well having been like you, thinking it was a little too happy go lucky. My best wishes for you.

[singapotter]

Hello, David. Thank you so much for putting your perspective online. Like you, I thought, why end it like this? Seems a bit lame that everybody is happy.

I suppose this poem gives the epilogue more depth than a person reading it "unaided" would.

[BoredtoDeath]

This was really beautiful and thank you for sharing it with us. It really made me feel diferently about the book. After all he's been through Harry deserved happiness in his life. You touched my heart, I hope all to be well for you too.

[ginger1]

Thankyou. I dearly hope everyone who rushes onto the forum today to post their ideas, enthusiasms and thoughts on this extraordinary book, will read your inspiring story. It is a poem I have known for some time. It stays with us always, like a friend.

[Twycross]

I, like everyone else who's commented, loved to read this. I hope J.K reads it just to know what her final sentence meant to someone. But I never had a problem with the epilogue. It was 19 years after those final deaths occured. Harry is allowed to be purely content by then. He has greived. It just shows us that though those tragic deaths hurt, it shouldn't ultimately spoil the ending. Thank you.

[lifter57]

Very well written editorial - very heartfelt.

Something tells me J.K. may have read the same poem

[Bob_Oggdon]

Thankyou....really...Thankyou

[cloudhead13]

The first thing I did on the internet today was to look up the new editorials, desperate to relieve the emotions that have assailed me since the Deathly Hallows came out, and I feel infinetely gratefull that I could read those honest words on All Was Well.
All I can say about it is thank you, for sharing your story and making me feel connected to the people worldwide who have also felt, in one way or another,
that we have gained something from these books that we may not be always able to explain, but will always carry with us.

[Swisslady]

This was so beautifully written - Thank you also to share it with us all.
I admit - I felt bemused by the Epilogue at first - but then...did we not all wish Harry to be finally happy - have a family of his own? He more than deserve it! Maybe we - the readers were not prepared to hear all of a sudden "All is well"!
And - no...it was not a coincidence that you saw those line!

[Nial]

Thanks for the editorial; very moving.

My thought when I read that last sentence was a bit different, though related. I thought of the nightwatchmen who used to patrol the streets in the UK, calling the time: "Two o'clock, and all's well!"

But it was interesting that JKR didn't say that everyone lived happily ever after, or anything like that - because they don't. Nobody does. And in the context of Harry's story, of course evil will return in the end; it always does. After Grindelwald, there's Voldemort. You get a brief holiday, and that's the most that you can expect. "All was well" - for now - and that's as good as it gets, in this world.

Did everyone notice that the date of the epilogue is - 2007?

[ptrut12345]

Yes, this does make me think twice. I was initially very very critical of her choice of endings...I want more information, selfish, yes. However, this was beautifully put.

But no, the epilogue would be next decade. Harry turned 11 in 1991, I think. 1997-1998 was this book. We're at about 10 years later now.

[Mischief_Maker]

Actually Nial, the epilogue would take place in 2016...Harry was born in 1980, the same year I was, so for him to be 36, which is how old he is in the epilogue, it would have to be 2016. Perhaps she's planning on writing more books then? Can we hope? How wonderful would that be! Only nine more years! (Well, we can hope!)

I read somewhere the people wondered if Teddy would be the next "Harry Potter" since he was also orphaned, and isn't it curious that there's always an orphan at Hogwarts that does big things? Sometimes terrible big things, but sometimes good big things. Interesting.

I still want to know why Pettigrew was sorted into Griffyndor. He didn't show any bravery and the only reason he died in the book was because Voldy's hand knew he had betrayed him. Does this make sense?

I LOVED THIS BOOK! And I didn't think the ending was too sappy...Harry suffered his whole life! He deserves a little happiness! I'm so glad he and Ginny finally got together in the end! A perfect end to a perfect story!

RIP Lupin, Tonks, Fred, Dobby, and all the other names and faces that didn't make it out of the wizard war! We love you still!

[Nial]

Actually Nial, the epilogue would take place in 2016.

Oops - sorry...

[Rozby]

Thank you, that was really well written. I liked the ending to be honest, it was a releif to know that those who survived eventually were able to be happy. Since Fred died though, I keep thinking what George would be like after that, it made me sad
I love J.K. Rowling. She is a genius. Such a great book!

[Seniah]

Thank you. That was a beautiful story to share.

I quite agree that "all was well" was never intended to mean "happily ever after." I think, through Hermione's foray into Wizarding childhood tales, that JK was trying to make the point that HP series is not intended to be a fairy tale; it is and always was a morality tale. Fairy stories end happily ever after. Morality plays end realistically.

All was well. Yes, happily in many ways but a proper acknowledgment of the reality of what happened, the sadness it brought, the relief that came, the quiet unspoken nervousness that something could happen again and a resolve to face the future whatever it may bring.

[Mischief_Maker]

Quite right Seniah! I wholeheartedly agree!

Also, I failed to mention it earlier...great editorial! I hope that we have quite a few editorials from now on! Just because the stories ended, doesn't really mean we have to say farewell...after all...the end is just the beginning of another great adventure!

[Aloysius]

Your beautifully written essay reinforced my feeling that "All was well" was very deliberately chosen instead of anything that conveyed "happily ever after." So too, with that rather blase sentence, JKR deliberately moves us beyond a (more than acceptable) period of grief and mourning for the fallen--she's already done funerals where everyone is miserable and only more misery seems forthcoming. Kinda reminds me of Thomas Pynchon's rather dull title for his last novel, "Against the Day," which by the end seemed suggestive of so much more.

[Liselle]

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[T_Brightwater]

Thank you, David. Beautiful.

I was deeply satisfied by the ending; it seemed only right that after tragedy, painful loss, and great victory, Harry's destination would be life, filled with minor annoyances, little problems to be solved, cherished memories, joy, and contentment. Rather like Sam coming home to Rosie and Elanor, saying,"Well, I'm back."

I especially liked Harry's parting words to his green-eyed second son, Albus Severus. One of the reasons Harry is at peace is that he has forgiven Snape.

And why be ashamed of calling Harry Potter a fairy-tale? In Tolkien's essay "On Fairy-Story," he coined the term "eucatastrophe" - good catastrophe, the joyous "turn", which he considered essential to a good fairy tale. He claims the virtues of Recovery, Escape, and Consolation for this genre, and I would say that JKR has given us all of them. Tolkien says that "and they lived happily ever after" is a formula that deceives no one, but it indicates a formal break in the seamless, endless Web of Story, and as such is entirely appropriate. (I recommend this essay very highly - it's in Tree and Leaf and also The Tolkien Reader.)

Thank you, Jo!