[HPforGrownups] Re: Harry Potter and the Privileges of Birth

[Susanne Schmid]

No: HPFGUIDX 29145


 
  foxmoth at qnet.com wrote: 
<snip>

        <JKR loves poking fun at authority. Does this  mean she's 
advocating anarchy?> 

Certainly not. And if we read her books carefully, we can see very clearly that she doesn't poke fun at authority per se, but at authority merely derived from a role- Fudge/Minister, Percy/Prefect. Dumbledore's authority is never questioned, because it comes from wisdom. The only one to question it is he himelf, at the end of CoS when he says to Harry that "even the best of us sometimes have to eat their words", regarding Harry's eventual expulsion in case he breaks the rules again- which he did, but based on conscious choice.

 

   <What about Harry as the Chosen One? Fantasy stories are 
often criticized for promoting elitism.> 
<snip>

IMO, the problem we, or many of us, have with Harry as the chosen one is not so unlike the problem we have with Fleur Delacour.
We can't stand perfection, if not in ourselves. We desperately wish for the perfect human being, the perfect leader, or man or woman... but we secretly desire that *we* be that person. Hence those contrasting feelings: We recognize that, for various motives, Harry is The Chosen One and are glad that he exists (even if only as a fictional character), OTOH, we envy him this position, because we partly identify with him and wish that we could identify completely. We are suspicious of perfection, because common sense tells us that perfection in human form simply doesn't exist. So we feel the need to claim that Fleur is arrogant and not very talented, that Harry only wins because he has Fortuna on his side etc.etc.

We are feeling much more at our ease with persons like f.e. Sirius, Snape or Lupin, because their imperfections are so obvious.

Susanna/pigwidgeon37


Yahoo! Groups SponsorADVERTISEMENT

____________________________________________________________

***Special Announcement from Hexquarters***

After Hallowe'en, please post ALL shapes and forms of discussion of the Harry Potter movie to our new list at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPFGU-Movie.

Join up! Join up! - the projector's rolling... 

Before posting to any of our lists, you MUST read the group's Admin Files!
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/files/Admin%20Files/

Questions, list-based or otherwise? contact your personal List Elf or the Moderator Team at MagicalMods at yahoogroups.com.

Unsubscribing? Email hpforgrownups-unsubscribe at yahoogroups.com
____________________________________________________________


Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service. 



"And how come those portraits seem to be alive?"

"What'ya mean? All paintings move."

"No, they don't. We have lots of paintings in our villa, among them a real Chagall, and none of them..."

"And d'ya expect that something painted by a jackal will move? Now really..."



---------------------------------
Do You Yahoo!?
Get personalised at My Yahoo!.

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