HP articles in the SF Jung Institute Journal

[hpconference at yahoo.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 18022

I am positivily wringing my hands in delight!  THis is exactly what 
I'm taking about -- the scholarship is out there -- YOU'RE out there, 
we know you are.  ANswer the HP conference survey please, please -- 
I've only gotten a hand full of reposes so for and I'm very 
depressed. <snif snif>

Okay, I've regained composure now, sorry.  

Stephanie 




--- In HPforGrownups at y..., love2write_11098 at y... wrote:
> 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 takes 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" (^_^). It 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, Grynbaum has this to say about HP fans: "Perhaps Harry 
> Potter's fans constitute a generation across age lines that feels 
> somewhat orphaned and unprotected and, along with Harry, know the 
> dispair of spiritual emptiness and emotional starvation." I don't 
> know that I agree with that.
> 
> I enjoyed these articles, but never again will I think that we here 
> at HP4GU's delve into these books too deeply!
> 
> Stacy