[HPforGrownups] Re: HP articles in the SF Jung Institute Journal

Thu May 3 03:21:54 UTC 2001

No: HPFGUIDX 18213

Don't worry Stephanie they will!
 If I got your multiple post about it, I know they did.

I'm sorry to tell I'm not one of them. I'm just a 48 year old Mom with two boys at home who love Harry Potter as much as me.

Actually it was my 12 year old wh oread it in school last year. He got me hooked.

But they will get back to you.

Actually I should have sent this to you on the ot line. Sorry Neil or any of you moderators out there. Just wanted to cheer up Stephanie.

Wanda the Witch of Revere

----- Original Message -----
From: hpconference at yahoo.com
Sent: Wednesday, May 02, 2001 11:14 PM
To: HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com
Subject: [HPforGrownups] Re: HP articles in the SF Jung Institute Journal

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

Yahoo! Groups Sponsor

_______ADMIN________ADMIN_______ADMIN__________

>From Monday 12th March, all OT (Off-Topic) messages must be posted to the HPFGU-OTChatter YahooGroup, to make it easier for everyone to sort through the messages they want to read and those they don't.

Therefore...if you want to be able to post and read OT messages, point your cyberbroomstick at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPFGU-OTChatter to join now! For more details, contact the Moderator Team at hpforgrownups-owner at yahoogroups.com.

(To unsubscribe, send a blank email to hpforgrownups-unsubscribe at yahoogroups.com)  

Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service. <br clear=all><hr>Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at <a href="http://explorer.msn.com">http://explorer.msn.com</a><br></p>

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]