Purebloods, Mrs Norris, literary parallels, love, Moderators

[cornflower_o_shea]

No: HPFGUIDX 31674

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "Tabouli" <tabouli at u...> wrote:
> Heather (uma):
>> 
> heathernmoore:
> >  (I have a pet "wild thornberry" that "Mrs. Norris" is so named 
literally, and that she is some woman Argus had an affair with in 
his youth, who was cursed to be a cat by her Death Eater husband for 
cuckolding him with a mere Squib. 
> 
> Ahaaa!  Do I espy a new recruit for F.L.I.R.T.I.A.C. (Filch's 
Lover Is Regretting Transformation Into A Cat)?  (if you really want 
to read my backstory for this, the archives will most likely be your 
friend...).  You will note, O Marauders' Map theorists, that someone 
noted that *Animagi* (and, presumably, people stuck in animal form) 
show up on the Map, and that Mrs Norris does, so if we accept this, 
I think we have evidence, ladies and gentlemen...

Cornflower adds:
Here is more "proof" - "...the Animagus transformation can go 
horrible wrong..." (Remus Lupin, p.259, PoA) Hmmm...the moral? Never 
try to learn Animagus spells through a correspondance course.

 
> On the subject of parallels between the Potterverse and sundry 
>other works, like King Arthur (an old fave o' mine - I have a King 
>Arthur tarot deck!), the events of WW2, Cinderella, LOTR and so on, 
>I'm always a bit reluctant to credit this - for me this takes away 
>from an author's creativity somehow, unless of course it's 
>intentional, ingenious and notably different (see the 'Clueless' 
>derivation of Jane Austen's 'Emma', for example). I like a bit of 
allegory and mythological reference as much as the next HP fan (see 
Narnia, or even 'The Silver Metal Lover', which is 
Demeta/Persephone), but I don't like the idea that we can find 
the 'right' original story and use it to predict what will happen, 
or force existing events into its framework.  Though those of you 
who like this, go ahead, don't mind me... 

I don't think allusions need to be intentional to be interesting, 
and whether they are right or not, they let us look at the text in 
new ways. Sometimes the allusions seem obvious (JK did study the 
French resistance movement, right? And 1945 for the defeat of 
Grindevald seems more than slightly co-incidental. Or another good 
example would be the wand wood allusions. Those were very relevant, 
IMHO), and some are strained (Green lion, green "eyed" 
Gryfindor...must be Alchemy!), but all are fun ways to re-examine 
the stories. This is not a right/wrong thing; it is pretty basic to 
literary theory for two reasons: 1) Authors continually and 
legitimatly draw on the stories that preceed them, particularly in 
stories that are based on archetypes and legends, like HP. 2)readers 
insert their own cultural knowledge and paradigms into a text and 
generate unique readings that can say a great deal about the reader, 
as well as the text. Unintentional or obscure allusions generated 
more likely by the reader than by Rowlings can still help us 
understand and enjoy the texts more fully. They certainly help us 
understand the reader/postee better. Wasn't it Philip who has some 
interesting posts on this topic recently?
     If allusions take away an author's creativity then most major 
authors aren't too creative...let's see for starters there's 
Shakespeare, that ultimate plagiarist. He stole stories from 
everywhere, but still did okay in the way of creativity I'd say.

      But I do agree that it can be a futile pursuit to try to use 
allusions to predict the upcoming books simply because there are too 
many allusions, the books are too layered, and there is the 
creativity factor - JK seems to write what she likes and doesn't 
seem to be too restricted by her influences. Simply choosing a "pet" 
theory can therefore be misleading. Does anyone remember the scene 
in "Foucault's Pendulum" where they randomly take a tourist kiosk on 
the street and measure it, and then attach all this mystical 
significance to it based on the numbers? The point was that anything 
can be manipulated to relate to ancient mysticism or any pet theory, 
for that matter, if the symbols are obscure enough, and the "right" 
data is used. Still, it's fun, so do it if you like, but, yeah, 
don't think it is "right".

It's too late, and hubby wants the 'puter so...
Cheers!
-Cornflower O'Shea