If he knew he was dead, wouldn't he have said "the way my life had progressed"? That he uses the present continuous is only more proof.
Harry speaks in the present tense all the time- he's speaking to the reader.
And they all have the feeling of being ridiculously theatrical. Read the parts before. He's thinking about his body, the aches and pains, and how he's starving, none of which make sense if he thinks he's dead. He was just putting on an act so Mab wouldn't know he expected to come back. That's how I read it, anyway.
He's thinking about his body, because he's just "woken up," he's disoriented, he has no idea what's going on. He's croaking because he's incredibly hungry and thirsty.
The big thing though, is when he is told he's not dead a few paragraphs later. I don't have the book in front of me right now, but he reacts in horror: something to the effect of
"Oh NO... all those people who had sacrificed to help me, and it was all for nothing. I looked up at Mab and said "Um, so I guess you're mad." "You tried to cheat me, my Knight, but that's why I like you blah blah blah"
Really though, the proof is in the scenes with Uriel. The whole point of the "It's a Wonderful Life" schtick is to show Harry that his friends will be OK without him. Uriel doesn't say a thing about Mab; the choices are to
1. Stay on Earth as a ghost, and try to keep helping his friends.
2. Work in Uriel's agency.
3. Go through the black door to "what comes next," along with a lot of talk from Uriel about accepting the consequences of what he's done in life and the like.
#1 is a terrible idea, mostly because Harry's extremely weak as a ghost now, but Harry would still try if he felt he was needed, so he has Uriel show him his friends so he can "make a decision like a grown-up."
Then we have the montage, showing everyone being more-or-less OK, and Harry's all "OK, I guess it's time for What Happens Next."
Harry wouldn't have thought coming back to life was necessarily a good thing- as we see from his reaction in Mab's lap, he's convinced that she'll turn him into his monster if he's her Knight (which I thought we covered in the last book, what with Ebeneezer telling him that she can't... but whatever).
I amuse myself.
Ghost Story is out
- 26/07/2011 09:44:33 AM
1425 Views
What did you think of it?
- 26/07/2011 04:56:26 PM
1438 Views
The short version?
- 26/07/2011 11:12:10 PM
986 Views
I agree. But I wasn't expecting anything more, so no big disappointment
- 27/07/2011 11:02:45 PM
1223 Views
Having thought about it for 24 hours *we're into SPOILER territory here on in folks*
- 27/07/2011 11:22:15 PM
1201 Views
Yeah, it also suggests future books will have less of some characters
- 28/07/2011 03:09:04 AM
1276 Views
Here There be *Spoilers* Quasi-Review
- 29/07/2011 06:25:36 AM
1230 Views
Re: Here There be *Spoilers* Quasi-Review
- 31/07/2011 03:13:38 PM
1156 Views
Woohoo! Finally finished it! ...not bad. I have two major questions about the plot (spoilers)
- 31/07/2011 05:24:44 PM
1075 Views
As I understand it
- 31/07/2011 06:02:39 PM
1132 Views
Yeah. The individual bits were awesome, but it does seem like it wasn't a very coherent whole
- 31/07/2011 06:11:25 PM
998 Views
As to point 2...
- 31/07/2011 06:16:17 PM
1050 Views
Fair enough. Though I'm pretty sure your second paragraph is wrong
- 31/07/2011 11:34:05 PM
991 Views
Nah...
- 01/08/2011 12:42:00 AM
987 Views
Eh. I think you're projecting what we know to be true as readers
- 01/08/2011 03:59:04 AM
1001 Views
Not really...
- 01/08/2011 05:13:36 AM
1191 Views
Re: Not really...
- 01/08/2011 02:33:58 PM
1098 Views
Well
- 31/07/2011 08:45:17 PM
985 Views
How would that do that?
- 31/07/2011 11:37:08 PM
1056 Views
Some things I liked: (Butters is basically Neville Longbottom, btw)
- 31/07/2011 06:08:39 PM
1206 Views
Re: Ghost Story is out
- 02/08/2011 02:16:19 PM
1052 Views
I'll be honest, I was expecting a different interpretation of next book's title
- 02/08/2011 02:29:10 PM
969 Views
that would be cheating wouldn't it
- 02/08/2011 02:56:03 PM
1057 Views