HP articles in the SF Jung Institute Journal

[Milz]

No: HPFGUIDX 18047

--- 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.)
> 

The Quidditch matches are the parts of the books I 'speed read' 
through. I don't find them particularly interesting.

> 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.


"Little Men" is British??? 


> 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."

HP is a "moral tale", but so are most fairy tales and people find 
some of them rather unfit for the literary consumption of children. 
The original Grimm's Tales, IMO, are far more entertaining than the 
cleaned-up versions.

> 
> 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" (^_^).


IIRC, the patron saints for Physicians are Sts. Cosmas and Damien, 
St. Luke and St. Panteleone. The ones for chemists and pharmacists 
are Sts. Cosmas and Damien. St. James is patron of laborers.


> 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 don't completely agree with her but I see her point. I think Harry, 
Ron and Hermione have the same fears that we all can relate to in one 
way or the other. 

:-)Milz