posted
From your debate about Killing Harry Potter...
quote:What children have no tolerance for is cheating. Not playing by the rules. And there is nothing in the Harry Potter series that requires that someone die in order to overcome evil. If for six books we had been told that the only way to permanently kill someone like Voldemort is for the killer to be willing to die himself in the process, then great, we’d be prepared for it, and Harry would enter into the combat knowing his demise is sure. We might hope that there’ll be a last-minute “out” from the law, but we would be prepared.
More to the point, children would be prepared.
But there is no such rule, unless she tries to pop it up at the last minute (and no matter how long the book is, anywhere in "Deathly Hallows" would be “the last minute” when the series is seven books long). So if Harry is killed, every reader — including the most naive child — will know that Rowling chose to do it when she didn’t have to. We will feel — correctly — that we have been jerked around by an author who does not care how much love we have invested in the character she created at such length.
That's precisely why you can't kill off Alvin. BTW...it's also a bit of a jerk around to not finish a series for your readers. So...how about forgetting about killing Alvin and letting him live, albeit with some painful sacrifice or something...then you can get on and write that baby.
Posts: 72 | Registered: Aug 2000
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Peggy doesn't know everything, as Alvin has shown at least once. He can create paths she did not see.
However, I don't agree on Alvin. For one thing, it isn't marketted as children's (or YA, more precisely) literature.
Also, I don't know that Alvin has anyone like Voldemort that he has to kill. He has Calvin, who he may choose to lose a face off with, though he'll have to weigh what leaving Calvin alive would cost the world. If, you know, Calvin goes in that direction.
I don't know if this is the question behind it, but I guess it's why Card insists Alvin must die, and that question is why would God allow someone as awesome as Joseph Smith to die?
Posts: 11017 | Registered: Apr 2003
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Well Alvin (and Joseph Smith) ARE mortal, so they are going to die at SOME point -- are you just saying you don't want the death written into the story, Von?
Posts: 9538 | Registered: Aug 2003
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I agree with Farm Girl and Pooka. Alvin Maker is adult fiction, and while teens might read it, it was never marketed to children... the way Harry Potter was. Actually, I don't think it's so bad for the kids who "grew up" with HP, since they are mostly teens, or at least TWEENS now.... but it's going to be hard on parents of the future. Sure the first few books are great for our grade school kids, but book 4 gets a little trajic, and the last three????
Anyway, digression... Alvin Maker is ADULT fiction. Heroes die.. either in battle, or else in old age. I mean seriously... think about his other books. Card likes being realistic, and giving his characters finality. The only character we're left in doubt about is Bean, and even he is one who will probably die if Card ever writes the bridge novel.
Be patient Von... a rushed story is worth nothing at all. You can't force creativity. Alvin is Card's story, it BELONGS to him... he'll finish it when he thinks it's finished.
Posts: 1321 | Registered: Jun 2006
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