HP articles in the SF Jung Institute Journal

[love2write_11098 at yahoo.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 18194

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "Milz" <absinthe at m...> wrote:

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

*sigh* I was exaggerating to point out the fact that the author 
seemed dead set against the books from the beginning.
 
> > 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??? 

It's by Louisa May Alcott, who . . . drat. Who is not British. You're 
right. :) I guess I thought she was British, because for me "Little 
Women" had a "British" feel to it, along the lines of Oliver Twist.

> > 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.

Yes -- in the original version of Sleeping Beauty, she's inpregnated 
as she sleeps. ^_^ Anyhow, the point of the article is that HP *is* 
moral, and that we should not be afraid to use that word anymore 
(even though it's acquired a negative, stuffy connotation).
> 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. 
> 
> 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.

I got that from the article, I have no idea if it's true or not. 
There are tons of patron saints of all sorts of things; St. James 
could very well be the patron saint of both laborers and alchemists 
AND physcians according to whatever source Grynbaum used.

> > 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. 

Yes, but "spiritual emptiness and emotional starvation"? If everyone 
who reads HP is spiritually empty and emotionally starved, than we 
have some fairly large societal problems.

Stacy