[HPforGrownups] Re: Average Harry?

[Ebony Elizabeth Thomas]

No: HPFGUIDX 18863

Amber wrote:

>I'm also of the camp that hopes that Harry doesn't have "Great
>Phenomenol Cosmic Powers". If there's anything I'm convinced of, its
>that a writer should never give any more help to their character than
>is strictly necessary. I'd rather he have regular wizarding powers, or
>even be a little deficient in that area. Let him use his head, his
>flying skills, his friends, or his heart to defeat Voldemort. Don't let
>him be a little powerhouse of energy.
>

I've heard this a lot.  Why no one ever speaks of the flip side of 
superpowers/being "singled out" is beyond me.

A character with an extraordinary talent is not necessarily going to have a 
walk in the park.  Quite the contrary.

First of all, the very fact that the character is unique singles them out.  
Orson Scott Card's Ender, the smartest kid in a microcosm of the 
supergifted, immediately springs to mind.  Being "different" in many cases 
singles one out for ridicule and/or exclusion.  Harry has experienced this 
on a schoolwide level in CoS and in GoF.  It seems as if Hogwarts students 
alternate between lauding the kid and hating him.

Second, the gift itself may have unpleasant side effects.  Take Octavia 
Butler's *Parable* duo.  The protagonist Lauren Olamina is a hyperempath, 
which means that she is able to share the pain of others.  Lauren also 
blacks into unconsciousness if she is touching a person who suddenly dies... 
and in both books Lauren implies that most people who are "like her" don't 
live very long.  They are driven insane by their gift... by feeling all 
things all the time.

That brings me to my third point.

There is a dark side to almost every "gift" or "talent".  I'm not talking 
"Superman-Goes-Bad" or anything like that.  I'm talking about giftedness' 
twin--alienation.  It's the feeling that there are no kindred spirits, the 
feeling that no one quite knows the private hell that your uniqueness causes 
you to constantly live in.  No one hears the music you hear, and after a 
while, you get tired of explaining it to them and getting The Look in reply.

Why do you think so many of those stamped genius are driven insane?

Why do you think so very many commit suicide?

If one could truly measure such things, my hypothesis would be that the 
happiest people are found on the hump of the bell curve of life.  Ordinary 
people.  Average people.  Joe Public.

You see, it isn't that stories aren't usually about ordinary people because 
they're not worthy of having their stories told.  Rather, the art of story 
is about conflict, about struggle, about change and upheaval and all sorts 
of things.

Now, it can be argued that these sorts of things happen to ordinary people 
all the time.  But when ordinary people are the protagonists of the story, 
the narrative focuses on the factors causing the upheaval (circumstances, 
the environment, etc.) rather than the people themselves.

The characters we remember are the ones with larger-than-life characters.  
The characters who stand out in our minds for some reason.  Not just because 
of what happened to them, but because of *who they are*.

And this series is not called *Hogwarts, A History*.

It's called...

You get my drift.

--Ebony

<>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <><
Ebony AKA AngieJ
ebonyink at hotmail.com

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