[HPforGrownups] The foggy future

[Peg Kerr]

No: HPFGUIDX 526

Steve Bates wrote:

> All this about fortunetellers reminds me of some thoughts I have had
> for awhile on Professor Trelawney.

Ya know, I'm afraid I must totally disagree with your conclusions.

I read an article, can't remember where (probably among the articles in
those clusters of links I posted last night), about Professor Trelawny's
part in the books.

I think Trelawney is very in touch with the universe.

I don't.  In my opinion, Professor T. is a fraud, and an object of ridicule
for the author.

Dumbledore said that Trelawney had only ever made two correct
prophecies, but she is continually making smaller, vague predictions
that usually come roughly true.  Examples include Neville's teacup
and Lavender's rabbit.  As for Hermione leaving the class; she
obviously had some idea something of the sort was going to happen but
probably didn't know the specifics or the person involved.  She can't
see into the future precisely all the time.  But she has a hazy idea,
and that is the best we can expect of her in strictly practical
terms.

Yes, she has made two correct predictions, one of which Harry hears in GoF,
but she rather undercuts her own credibility, doesn't she, when she denies
ever making it?  And as for the other "lesser predictions" -- I really think
what's happening that she is making vague predictions which she then tries
to fit to specific events after the fact.  Lavender and Patil are impressed
by this; Hermione is not.  And I have to agree with Hermione.  Why, for
example, would Lavender have been dreading losing her rabbit when it was a
baby?

I wonder, frankly, what Prof. T's FIRST correction was, the one, presumably,
which persuaded Dumbledore to hire her in the first place (if it was
Dumbledore who hired her; he might have been saddled with her by a
predecessor). In addition, if Dumbledore did hire her, I wonder why he did
so, as I don't think that he's an advocate of determinism; i.e., the idea
that there is no free will--your fate rests in the stars, and that's it,
bud.  I think he's squarely on the side of free will: Dumbledore's line,
"Remember, Harry, it is our choices that determine us, rather than our
abilities" is one of the most important thematic moments of the series.  And
the rest of the staff doesn't seem to respect Prof. T. very much (Steve
noted Prof. McGonnagal's sniffy remark to Hermione that it's a VERY
imprecise branch of magic).

(Interestingly, there's another group in the series that have the same
orientation, the centaurs.
 Note that they irritate Hagrid ("Ruddy stargazers!") as much as Prof. T.
irritates Ron, Harry
 and Hermione. )

(Another note: I wonder what Snape thinks of Prof. T? He's such an enigma I
wonder if he would like or loathe the idea that his course is predestined.
I suspect he would loathe the idea.)

I think that Rowling is on the side of free will, as that philosophy is the
attitude of our hero
and is verbalized by Dumbledore, our moral touchpoint.  Harry is not "fated"
to be in Slytherin because he has made a CHOICE which puts him in
Gryffindor.  He and Hermione don't accept that Sirius and Buckbeak are
doomed; they instead go to extraordinary lengths to work against the
seemingly inevitable fate awaiting both of them.  Harry stands and faces
Lord Voldemort from behind the tombstone, determined to defend himself to
the last, rather than giving up because he has accepted Prof. T's doleful
predictions that he is doomed.

(I hear a Star Wars echo here: evil Darth Vadar urging to join the Dark Side
by intoning:
"Luke, it is your destiny." I think evil is frequently associated with
determinism, because it
makes such a great excuse for not doing the right thing: "War? Crime?
Poverty? House elf
enslavement? Sorry, can't do anything about it. It's inevitable.")

Anyway, I think Rowling is chewing over this theme quite a bit, and we're
going to see more exploration of this in the upcoming books.  I think,
rather than saying "it really won't help to know the future because the
knowledge one has of the future will change the future," Rowling is arguing,
"Your destiny is not a predetermined fate laid out for you which you must
passively accept.  It is your choices that MAKE your future."

Comments anyone? (Play the amuse-oneself speculation game: What WAS Prof.
T's first true
prophecy?)

Peg


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