Harry Potter: Fantasy or Sci-Fi?

[foxmoth at qnet.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 14063

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "Jim Ferer" <jferer at y...> wrote:
 
> So whether we're talking about "scientific" or "magical" 
> understanding, the tools are the same. Our 'eclectricity' and plugs 
> (all our science and technology) are substitutes for magic that we 
> Muggles are forced to use. Magic replaces technology. That wouldn't 
> happen in Tolkien's world.
	Look at your words. What you describe is not magic replacing 
technology, but technology replacing magic. And that is exactly what 
happens in Tolkien's world when the Fourth Age arrives and all that 
belongs to the elder eras fades and is forgotten.
	
   The Lord of the Rings is not a science fiction story, even though 
the Elven smiths use research to create the Elven rings, and Sauron 
steals their secrets in order to construct the One, because the story 
is not about that. It is not about Frodo trying to learn about  the One 
Ring, it is about Frodo trying to get rid of it. Frodo never has to 
figure  out how to do that, all the information he needs is revealed to 
him.
	Now I will agree that Rowling's magic is very technological, in 
the broad sense. It can be studied, it uses tools and devices. Harry 
studies that technology, but the stories are not about that. It is 
never anything Harry has figured out about  magic which enables him to 
escape the final crisis at the end of each book. Even when he conjures 
the Patronus at the end of book three, he does it without really 
knowing how. The narration makes a point of saying that Harry doesn't 
know the fang will destroy the diary in CoS. 
	That's different than the only Lord Darcy I have read, where Darcy 
figures out that magic couldn't have been used to kill the victim, who 
was in fact slain by a perfectly ordinary sword.
	It's also different than typical science fiction, say, a Star Trek 
episode, where it is always something the crew figures out about the 
situation which enables them to resolve it. Ohh! the Horta's a mother, 
ohh! this planet's really an amusement park, ohh! Nils is a Klingon. 
You get the idea.
Pippin