HP articles in the SF Jung Institute Journal

[love2write_11098 at yahoo.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 18048

First of all, please excuse the double post. I posted once and came 
back several hours later and it had not appeared so I posted again. 

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., koinonia02 at y... wrote:
> --- In HPforGrownups at y..., love2write_11098 at y... wrote:
> > 
> > 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.)
> 
> Obviously he should have read all four books before rating them. 
> Honestly, I don't mind if someone tells me they don't like the HP 
> books.  We all have different likes and dislikes.  For instance, I 
> love the books but I would not be disappointed if I never read 
about 
> another Quidditch match.  It is just not very interesting to me.  
It 
> has become way too predictable and therefore it bores me.

Ah, well, to each his or her own -- I just don't think that opinions 
should be passed off as any sort of literary criticism. I was citing 
the Quidditch example of how the article was filled with things 
that "are just a matter of opinion" and that he had nothing to back 
up his opinions with (at least, none that he gave).

> 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."
> 
> Of course this is just this person's opinion.  Yes, they are some 
> moral teachings in the books.  There are, IMHO, some immoral things 
> that Harry does also.

Well, of course there are some things that could be construed as 
immoral (or at least disobedient) -- he's a teenage boy. But overall, 
I agree with Nagy in that the books are a moral tale. Incidentally, 
the "immoral" decisions that Harry makes are part of the reason that 
I *like* HP and I *hate* Oliver Twist. Oliver is *so* flat -- what a 
good little boy! Please excuse me while I puke.
 
> > 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.
> 
> 
> None of that ever crossed my mind when reading the books and 
speaking 
> only for myself, I don't feel *orphaned and unprotected, know the 
> dispair of spiritual emptiness and emotional starvation*. But as I 
> have said before, I don't get into all that physiological 
examination 
> stuff.  

Well, I'm growing to love psychology and I already love literature, 
and I still don't agree with that statement. If all the people who 
read HP are emotionally starved and spiritually empty, then we have a 
gigantic problem on our hands.

Stacy
> 
> Koinonia