HP articles in the SF Jung Institute Journal

[love2write_11098 at yahoo.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 17988

Recently I attended a class at the San Francisco Jung Institute, and 
while I was there obtained a copy of their quarterly journal. Lo and 
behold, I open it up and what do I find? THREE articles on Harry 
Potter! Two are positive, one is negative. 

The one negative essay, considering the nature of the other articles 
in the journal, seems to be a token article; whoever was putting it 
together decided, "Well, we have to show all sides" and tossed it in 
there. It is the only one of the three that I would not 
call "scholarly" (the other two are reviews of the books using 
Jungian psychology). Written by Harold Bloom, and originally 
appearing in The Wall Street Journal, the negative article ("Can 35 
Million Book Buyers Be Wrong? Yes.") focuses on how HP is not well-
written and in fact full of cliches. Bloom finds Hogwarts "tiresome," 
and says that, "When the future witches and wizards of Great Britain 
are not studying how to cast a spell, they preoccupy themselves with 
bizarre intramural sports." ^_^

It should be noted that the author read only the first book (which 
someone told him was the best -- *shrugs* -- I myself greatly prefer 
both the third and the fourth). I found everything in the article to 
be a complete matter of opinion. (He didn't like Quidditch! *sigh* If 
you can't like something like Quidditch, than there's no hope for you 
to like HP in general.)

However, the other two articles are very interesting, especially if 
one knows anything about Jungian psychology. The first article, a 
short one called "The Ghost of Moaning Myrtle Who Haunts the First 
Floor Toilet, Platform Nine and Three Quarters at King's Cross 
Station . . . and all that" by Marilyn Nagy at first discusses HP in 
relation to other British children's literature such as Oliver Twist 
and Little Men. Specifically, she focuses on HP as a moral tale. For 
instance, in relation to that often-quoted passage in CS when 
Dumbledore tells Harry, "It is our choices, Harry, that show what we 
truly are, far more than our abilities," Nagy says, "What the 
presence of the grown-ups signifies, I believe, is counsel against 
despair, and most particularly, against a belief that our decision-
making is a matter of moral indifference." 

Shortly after this, the article makes a transition into an essay on 
defining the Jungian movement as a moral heritage when Nagy 
claims, "The drama of the analytical process is like the drama of the 
morality story and both of these, of course, are meant to be 
symbolically as close to real life as can be." In the end, Nagy sums 
up by saying, "The surprise -- and I keep thinking that Owl Post is 
going to drop a Howler in my lap if I dare to say this -- is that 
here we are in the year 2000 with a grand new hero in a magnificent 
story which is a morality tale. It mirrors the morality tales of 150 
years ago, and has very near relatives in all the morality stories I 
can ever remember reading."

Hah, take that all those people who call HP "amoral" or "immoral."

The second article, "The Secrets of Harry Potter" by Gail A. 
Grynbaum, is much longer -- 32 pages in fact -- and approaches HP 
from a truly psychological (as opposed to moral or literary) point of 
view. It summarizes all four books and calls them an "alchemical 
reading experience, a revelation of secrets and strata previously 
reserved to the contemplation of the woodcuts in Jung's essays on 
alchemy or to the Jungian analysis of dreams." If you are familiar 
with Jungian psychology, you will know that this is a highly 
complimentary statement.

Grynbaum focuses on both the dreamlike atmosphere of HP and on the 
archetypes that are present: that of the Orphan, the Vampire, and the 
Resilient Young Masculine. I, myself, (though I am no Jungian expert) 
would add the Wise Old Man and David vs. Goliath to that list. The 
article explores some of the mythology behind the books (the origin 
of the names of Harry's parents, for instance -- St. James was the 
patron saint of alchemists and physicians, and a lily represents 
purity, immortality, salvation, and the Virgin Mary), as well as the 
psychology behind the books (I'm betting that JKR herself would be 
very interested in reading this, since I doubt she ever had any of 
this in mind). One section bares the rather silly name (I think) 
of "Quidditch Player of the Soul" (^_^). The article also goes 
into "Harry Potter as a Contemporary Shaman," saying that, "Harry 
Potter is an inspiring vision of a contemporary Western shaman with 
whom a hope lies that he will show us how to retrieve lost soul."

Finally, "The Secrets of Harry Potter" has this to say about HP's 
fans: "Perhaps Harry Potter's fans constitute a generation across age 
lines that feels somewhat orphaned and unprotected and, along with 
Harry, know the despair of spiritual emptiness and emotional 
starvation." Hm . . . I don't know that I agree with that.

I enjoyed the articles, but after this I don't think I will ever 
again think that we here at HP4GU's delve into the books in too much 
detail. :)

Stacy