The worst experience? was Re: Post-Hogwarts PTSD

[naama_gat at hotmail.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 11193

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "Jim Ferer" <jferer at y...> wrote:
> 
> I think that what will save Harry this time is that he was able to 
do 
> something about it.  He resisted Voldemort, and in a very real way 
he 
> defeated him by keeping his life and getting away. He was even able 
to 
> do something for Cedric by bringing his body back. Harry's 
suffering 
> had a purpose, and I think that makes a critical difference.
> 
> There's a lot worse that can happen -- watching the people he loves 
> die and suffer, especially if it's for nothing, or if Harry "fails" 
to 
> save them.
> 
> I was a paramedic once in my misspent youth. I was never troubled 
> long-term by cases where my skill and work were of some use. I even 
> could deal with cases that no one could have helped. But when I 
felt I 
> had been defeated, I was torn up.
> 
> I sorta wish we could get "PTSD" out of this discussion. They don't 
> have the DSM at Hogwarts. We all agree Harry's going to go through 
> hell.


PTSD has left the building (see new subject).

I agree with you, Jim, that being able to resist and fight makes an 
enormous difference. I made this very same point in my first post on 
the issue. 
What you say about worse things that can happen sounds very 
reasonable (watching someone you love die and not being able to 
help..). Its logical, but my feeling is still that the graveyard 
scene is the worst horror that Harry (and we) will encounter.  
I think this feeling of mine has more to do with aesthetic intuition 
than with real life. Yes, it may be possible, in reality, to 
experience greater pain and horror (I'm not sure, though), since, in 
real life, there doesn't seem to be any limit on pain-horror-despair. 
In HP type of fiction, however, there is. In a story, the hero faces 
true despair only once. Since the hero overcomes this supreme horror, 
nothing will ever hold such terror for him again. Thats why, even if 
really bad stuff happens later in the story, it doesn't tax the hero 
to the extreme again. 
For me this is exemplified by Bilbo's first encounter with Smaug:
"'Is that a kind of glow I seem to see coming right ahead down 
there?' he thought.
It was. As he went forward it grew and grew, till there was no doubt 
about it. It was a red light steadily getting redder and redder. ...A 
sound, too, began to throb in his ears, a sort of bubbling like the 
noise of a large pot galloping on the fire, mixed with a rumble as of 
a gigantic tom-cat purring. This grew to the unmistakable gurgling 
noise of some vast animal snoring in its sleep down there in the red 
glow in front of him.
It was at this point that Bilbo stopped. Going on from there was the 
bravest thing he ever did. The tremendous things that happened 
afterwards were as nothing compared to it."

Somewhere in the structure of the heroic tale is that there is *one* 
crisis. In HP I believe it is the graveyard scene. To put Harry 
through something worse (horror wise, not grief wise) is to take 
leave of the logic of the heroic tale and adopt horror film logic 
(where the viewer thinks he's seen the worst, only to be shocked 
a minute later by worse horror). 
All this is very nebulous and its more intuition than anything else. 
I would very much appreciate other peoples take on this. 

Naama