Would there be as much discussion / fanfic if AF had stopped at Cricket Term?

[jackmerlin.livejournal.com]

Since the readthrough I have been thinking about the series as a whole, because it's the first time I have read all the books in order from beginning to end. It seems to me that the series could have stopped at Cricket Term and existed as a perfectly complete, 'finished' series. It comes to a natural close at that point:-
The older characters - Lois, Jan, even Val, have all left the school. Marie has died. Lawrie is acknowledged as a special actress and her future is secure with the Prosser. Nicola is accepted as a good sportswoman, player and coach, and will no doubt soon join the Prospects and one day end up Games Captain. Rowan is running the farm, Karen is married with children (after a fashion!), Ginty and Patrick are established as a couple - in actuality if not spelt out in words. So, no loose ends, no dangling threads, no unanswered questions.
But then Attic Term and RAH stir everything up. A crack appears between Ginty and Patrick, allowing Nicola to become the third point in the love-triangle. Esther runs off leaving everything up in the air between her and Nicola. A gulf seems to be developing between firstly Ginty and the family, and Ann and the family. Catholicism moves centre-stage and Nicola is interested in it. Now there seems to be all sorts of potential stories developing, and lots of unanswered questions.
So, I wonder: how many people first tried reading or writing fanfic, because after AF's death they were never going to know what happened between Nicola and Esther when they met again? Or wanted to know if anything would develop romantically between Patrick and Nicola? Have the loose ends left us all desperate for more in a way that perhaps we wouldn't have felt if the series had closed off neatly after Cricket Term?

Comments

[nnozomi.livejournal.com]

Have you read Dodie Smith's I Capture the Castle? Its narrator Cassandra talks about her dislike for what she calls "brick-wall happy endings--I mean, endings where you never think about the characters after the book is finished" (quoting from memory so probably inaccurate, sorry), very much what you're saying. I think she agrees with you and Jackmerlin that closure can end up making a book less interesting for the reader, depending.
For the record, I like happy endings myself, and tend to reassure myself in non-closed situations by thinking "Well, I'm sure Nicola and Esther made it up the next term, or Esther found someone else to be friends with," "Well, I'm sure Cassandra eventually ended up happily married to [redacted]" (in the book above) and so on. But having it not clearly stated by the author does strengthen the sensation of "these things happen because they would happen," not "because the author forced them to do so".
Not very coherent today, sorry...