average Harry

[scabbers at pacbell.net]

No: HPFGUIDX 18974

Ebony, I bow before you for one of the most touching, accurate 
descriptions of being gifted I have ever read.  It has always seemed to 
me that, while Lupin and Hagrid are metaphors for the outcast and 
oppressed, Harry is a beautiful metaphor for a gifted child coming of 
age.  He has powers he doesn't understand (and who does understand 
their talents?); they completely uproot him from his old life, mostly 
for the better, although then he finds himself facing fears and dangers 
he had no idea existed; and even in this world with people "like him," 
he's outcast for his "special" powers (this comes across most 
powerfully in GoF where Ron shuns him just before the dragon task; JKR 
did a lovely job "growing them up" from 13 to 14).

Is Harry average? I would argue a resounding NO.  He's not superior in 
every aspect of life, obviously, but he is burdened with gifts that 
come along once a century.

Coming of age child-genius stories are everywhere, but I've rarely 
experienced one so powerful as Harry Potter, and I think a lot of this 
is because it's metaphorical.  For example, Roald Dahl's *Matilda* has 
many of the same elements and is a great story... but as a kid, it 
scared me.  It was too literal; I was biting my nails off worrying that 
her parents would do her physical harm.  Whereas, with Harry, well-- we 
can all laugh as Snape tries to poison him, because it's so clearly not 
real.  It gives you a chance to experience rejection, alienation, 
prejudice, all of these terrible things, in a non-threatening way so 
that you're not bristling or trembling as you read it.

Another character, who brings home the point even harder and whom I 
hope we learn more about, is young Tom Riddle.  So much like Harry in 
so many ways; so what made the difference?  What if Tom had been forced 
to combat Grindelwald hidden in the smelly turban of his DADA 
professor?  What if someone he loved (if he ever loved anyone) was 
killed by the Dark Side?  It is our choices that make us what we are... 
and somewhere, something led Tom astray, probably slowly and at first 
imperceptibly.  (And perhaps he wrote something like *The Bell Curve* 
after first converting to evil... carefully editing out his 
generation's Hermione, of course).

Geez, it's waning crescent and I have work to do...

No longer a lurker,
Moon

PS for those who claim that Lupin couldn't have written a book in 1976, 
may I argue that 16 is the prime age for penning angsty diatribes... 
Can you just imagine him shoving the parchment under the mattress (or 
whatever the wizarding equivalent is, of course)?

PPS For anyone who's read GoF in French... what on EARTH is Madame 
Maxime's accent supposed to be??