Self-contained worlds (was The proximity of the Potterverse)

[Dan Feeney]

Before reading Rowling, I was dead set against the books. (Not 
uncommon, it would seem). But seeing TMTMNBN, and then reading all 4 
books in one week (and not on holidays), and then being at the local 
bookstore on Saturday night June 20, 2003....

It was that proximity that put me off - how could it work and not be 
just completely silly? Did i really want to read something like THAT?
I had found Tom Covenant unreadable. I had read Tolkien too much. 
Earthsea doesn't require more than a reading or two in 10 years, as 
wonderful as it is... And my favourite author, the incorrigable, 
incredible Thomas Bernhard, well, just too familiar, too easy for me, 
we are too much alike... I needed something else. Turns out Rowling 
was it.

But I find more similarity between Rowling and Dickens than between 
Rowling and anyone else. Where Dickens gets most philosophical, in 
Bleak House, say, I noticed it in a different way than in the Hard 
Times leaflets, or Copperfield (the first Dickens I read).

The kind of characters Dickens generated, and their relationship 
to "realistic" characters, is a bit like the relationship in Rowling. 
Maybe I'm talking more about both a tone, a way of creating 
characters, and a politic. In some ways, that is to say, Dickens can 
be parsed as a so-called realist, but in other ways, his books are 
quite fantastic. And in Rowling, the muggle world, especially as it 
is represented by the Dursley's, is fantastic, but the witch wizard 
world is much more realistic. Interesting inversion, don't you think?

Rowling's point, I'm pretty sure, goes something like this - the 
world is pretty weird in some ways, politically and otherwise, and I 
show this by postulating a parallel world that, though appearing to 
be quite fantastic, makes slightly more sense. It's not a simple 
inversion - there are definitely things about the witch wizard world 
that are backwards or ridiculous, but the inversion works because 
readers, fans, sort themselves into the witch wizard world, not the 
muggle one. That is where we read the books from, our POV is embedded 
thoroughly inside the witch wizard world. And interestingly, lots of 
non-fans know they are muggles - I've seen it in a number of places. 

When Arthur is telling Molly about the stitches, for instance, it 
appears the youth know precisely what stitches are, and boot it to 
the fifth floor (or at least mean to get there) to do something 
rather muggle in itself. We laugh at both the concept, and the 
stereotypical muggle relationship between Molly and Arthur being 
depicted. Also Arthur's obsession with muggle things, etc. I mean, 
Arthur's fascination with a flying car is precisely the fascination a 
rather strange character in our world would demonstrate, trying to 
build a flying car. These little ice creams are directed toward the 
younger readers, give a vantage point a step away from the recieved 
view, a little moment of humour and liberation, as it were, and we 
adult readers know this. They are not above interpretation, however, 
rather, we just sort of ignore them, on our list. (There are like a 
ring of old keys, and we've forgotten what they open but we keep them 
anyway.)

On the main list I hold forth views that postulate a "real" Harry, a 
kid JKR knew, who was abused in some way, which the kid JKR knew, and 
what JKR did with her response to seeing his helplessness was too, 
much later, in adulthood that is, when she wasn't just as helpless in 
her compassion for the boy as he was in his existence, create an out 
for him. (Sometimes, I think, some of us think that we are 
participating in his liberation from helplessness just by reading the 
books! Isn't that odd, that we feel that way, or that I should think 
that we think this way?)

This has become a ramble, sorry, and almost main list stuff. The 
point was, I agree that what Rowling has done is unique - I was just 
trying to parse WHY and HOW it is unique. Wherever Rowling was at the 
time she had her vision, wherever she was mentally, that is, the 
train became a symbol. Hogwarts is her way out, and Harry's. 

More some other time.

dan