Deus ex Machina

[caliburncy at yahoo.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 26985

First off, to Haggridd and anyone else that was wondering:

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "Haggridd" <jkusalavagemd at y...> wrote:
> BTW, Luke, I am still waiting with bated breath for the "Compleat 
> Theory of the Modified Limited Partially Omniscient Author"  or 
> whatever it was.

<vbg> It was the Authorial Theory of Misinformation, actually (the 
explanation of the term "limited omniscient" narrator was a seperate, 
though related affair).  No, I haven't forgotten about it, but it's 
been on my back burner, because of circumstances at the time and it's 
extraordinarily daunting length.  I will try very, very hard to get 
myself in gear to compose and post it.  No one would be more annoyed 
than I if I were to bring it up and then never actually fully explain 
it.  But I also refuse to make promises, lest I should be hit by a bus 
tomorrow or something.

Second, I wrote this in response to Cindy's post earlier about cases 
of "deus ex machina".  It's kind of crap, but just barely high enough 
above the line of still postable crap vs. crap that should never see 
the light of day.  So I'm putting it up for anyone who cares.

It's interesting to note that I took a much more limited (and probably 
incorrect) view of what qualified as "deus ex machina" than some 
others, except perhaps Susan Hall, who gave only the historical, 
initial meaning.  This could be the fodder for a fascinating analysis 
of how terminology broadens in meaning the more it is applied by the 
general populace.

**********

Reviewing Possible Instances of "Deus Ex Machina": The Luke Verdict

with your host, Professor . . . Luke

                                *****

Welcome, class!  We seem to be entering into a bit of a classification 
dilemma on which events in the Potterverse are examples of "deus ex 
machina".  As I have no authority on this subject whatsoever, I was 
naturally deemed the right man for the job to sort it out.  What 
follows are my totally non-accredited opinions on the subject, for 
your perusal and consideration, which I will present with as much 
bombast and self-assurance as possible to allay any concerns that 
might be present that I have no idea what I am talking about.  Now 
then, let us begin.

The following shall serve as our criteria for a "deus ex machina".  
Though debatable, they shall not be debated here, as that would serve 
to portray me as a doddering old fool rather than the streaming font 
of wisdom I fail to purport to be.

1) The hero must be in a situation of Immediate, Impending Doom (tm). 
 Not just danger, and not just in the relatively near future, but a 
situation in which, if even a couple more seconds were allowed to 
elapse without intervention, our hero would perish.

2) The hero must not be able to save himself from the aforementioned 
Immediate, Impending Doom (tm), because the situation he has found 
himself in is so dire, that it would be beyond his maximum capacity to 
do so.

3) The salvation must ultimately come by an external force or third 
party that, up until the moment of intervention, was in no way 
involved in the immediate conflict.

Now then, our cases for consideration, one by one (borrowed from our 
very own student Cindy's list and expanded upon):

***

Case 1--The centaur's rescue of Harry from the Forbidden Forest.

Criterion 1: Not fulfilled.  Harry, though undoubtedly in danger from 
Quirrel/Voldemort on a slightly elongated timespan, was not at that 
precise moment in danger of death at the hands of Voldemort.  He was 
saved long before Voldemort had even begun to turn on him.

Criterion 2: Neither fulfilled nor cleanly debunked.  Harry's ability 
to defend himself (though likely small) was as yet unknown, because 
his defenses had not yet required testing in that circumstance.

Summation of Criteria 1 and 2: There was, as yet, no direct conflict 
in existence between Harry and Quirrel/Voldemort, though one would 
soon have resulted.

Criterion 3: Fulfilled, but immaterial as criteria 1 and 2 are not 
met.

The Luke Verdict: Not a "deus ex machina" case.

***

Case 2--Dumbledore's rescue of Harry from Quirrel/Voldemort at the end 
of PS/SS

Criterion 1: Fulfilled.  At the time of rescue by the third party, 
Harry was being attacked, at risk to his own life, by 
Quirrel/Voldemort.

Criterion 2: Fulfilled.  Harry, though acting at maximum capacity by 
fighting back with Quirrel/Voldemort's inability to touch him, would 
not be able to continue such tactics forever.  His ability to save 
himself was, therefore, non-existant to our best knowledge.

Criterion 3: Fulfilled.  Though Dumbledore is of course engaged in 
conflict with Voldemort in a grander scale throughout the series, he 
was not part of that particular instance of conflict between Harry and 
Quirrel/Voldemort up until the time of his intervention.

The Luke Verdict: A reasonable case of "deus ex machina", at least in 
the more modern sense of the term.

***

Case 3--The Flying Ford Anglia's rescue of Harry, Ron and Fang from 
the acromantulae

Criterion 1: Fulfilled.  All were in danger of being eaten and their 
struggle to avoid being eaten had begun.  (It is not so much a matter 
of how far away they are from an acromantula's mouth that determines 
the Immediate, Impending Doom (tm) criterion as it is whether or not a 
conflict is already engaged.  In this case it was, in the centaur 
case, it was not.)

Criterion 2: Fulfilled.  Neither Harry, Ron, nor Fang were in a 
position to save themselves or the others; they were essentially 
immobilized and helpless.

Criterion 3: Fulfilled with honors!  The Flying Ford Anglia was not 
only previously a non-factor in the conflict, but in fact has no 
credible explanation for popping up out of nowhere.  Hence this case 
gets extra credit for appealing to criterion 3 above and beyond the 
call of duty.

The Luke Verdict: A very good case of "deus ex machina" to my mind, in 
its clear devotion to fulfilling criterion 3 to such a stunning degree 
that it strikes the reader as particularly contrived, solely to save 
the hero from an unwinnable situation by use of an otherwise rather 
irrelevant "character".

***

Case 4--Fawkes to the rescue of Harry at the end of COS

This is so complex, it requires sub-cases:

---

Sub-Case 1--Fawkes's initial appearance and providing Harry with the 
Sorting Hat

Criterion 1: Not fulfilled.  At this time, Riddle is still conversing 
with Harry and has not yet begun any sort of attack.

Criterion 2: Not fulfilled.  Not only is there as yet no danger, but 
the Sorting Hat with which Harry is provided still must be used *by 
him* hence he is still required to act at maximum capacity in his 
resourcefulness of finding a use for it.

Criterion 3: Fulfilled in terms of the third party not being 
previously involved in the conflict, but unfulfilled in terms of 
salvation, because ultimately, as in some of the later sub-cases, 
Harry saves himself.

The Luke Verdict: Obviously not "deus ex machina" at all.

---

Sub-Case 2--Fawkes's direct attack upon the basilisk

Criterion 1: Fulfilled.  Harry has tripped and the basilisk is merely 
feet away from him and the kill.

Criterion 2: Presumably fulfilled.  Harry at this point has exhausted 
his maximum capacity unless his recovery time is far greater than we 
are aware.

Criterion 3: Debatable.  Fawkes, up until this point, has not acted in 
the conflict, but he was already present in the situation long prior. 
 If this was another person (i.e. Ron) it is my belief that we would 
instantly expect him to help out--the fact that it is an animal makes 
no difference.  Hence, Fawkes was simply acting out of his own maximum 
capacity in a conflict that he was already arguably engaged in with 
Harry.  This is comparable to the way that both Riddle and the 
basilisk are engaged in the conflict: though at the moment only the 
basilisk is acting, Riddle is no less a part of the existing conflict.

The Luke Verdict: Debatable.  If we could take just this incident by 
itself, I'd say, perhaps yes it could be a "deus ex machina" case.  
But in the grander scheme of things, which I have not yet discussed, 
no, it's not.

---

Sub-Case 3--Fawkes's indirect provision of Harry with Godric's sword 
via the Sorting Hat

Rather than do criteria, I will just say that this can be ruled out 
straight away; not only because Fawkes is only indirectly responsible, 
but because even if you view this from the perspective of the Sorting 
Hat as the third party intervention, Harry is still, when all is said 
and done, the one who makes use of the sword and therefore saves 
himself.  There is nothing about receiving help from a third party 
that is inherently "deus ex machina".

---

Sub-Case 4--Fawkes's tears healing Harry's wound

Criterion 1: Fulfilled.  Harry was otherwise near death, or at least, 
we assume from his beginning to go unconcious.

Citerion 2: Fulfilled.  Harry lacked a first aid kit.  Let this be a 
lesson to any of my more adventurous students to always keep one handy 
when battling villainous diaries and their petrifying pets.

Criterion 3: Almost fulfilled, except for the fact that technically 
Fawkes was already in involved in the conflict.

The Luke Verdict: By itself this would almost be "deus ex machina", 
but in the grander scheme it's not.

---

The Grander Scheme (What You've All Been Waiting For)--The cumulative 
efforts of Fawkes at the end of COS

The Luke Verdict: The fact that the two main conflicts here (Harry vs. 
Riddle and Harry vs. the basilisk) were ultimately solved by Harry 
himself means that, regardless of whatever Fawkes may have done to 
help, the entire scenario on the whole cannot be viewed as a case of 
"deus ex machina", regardless of how you view each particular 
sub-case.

***

Case 5--The arrival of the Knight Bus

Criterion 1: Not fulfilled.  Harry is not yet facing Immediate, 
Impending Doom (tm).  BTW, this is not just because the reader does 
not yet know that the black thing he saw is not dangerous.  It's 
because the black thing hasn't done anything yet.  Even if it were 
Voldemort, his current innaction would invalidate criterion 1.

Criterion 2: Neither fulfilled nor cleanly debunked.  We don't know if 
Harry could have protected himself from this perceived danger.

Criterion 3: Fulfilled, but nevertheless irrelevant given the 
unfulfilled nature of the first two criteria.

The Luke Verdict: Another failure against the "deus ex machina" test. 
 Or rather, a success, for those of us who enjoy our literature more 
contrivance-free.

***

Case 6--Professor Lupin rescuing Harry from the dementor on the train

Criterion 1: Not quite fulfilled, but arguable.  Despite the 
unpleasantness of the situation, Harry is not in physical danger from 
the dementor.

Criterion 2: Fulfilled.  Harry is too incapacitated to assist himself.

Criterion 3: Not fulfilled.  Since there was no existing conflict 
between Harry and the dementor (conflict requires effort on both sides 
and Harry has done nothing to fight the dementor) means that Lupin was 
starting his own conflict with the dementor not intervening into 
Harry's.  And Lupin was already present anyway, so he was only acting 
out of his maximum capacity and assisting as one would expect.

The Luke Verdict: Not a case of "deus ex machina".

***

Case 7--Moody's rescue of Harry from Snape and Filch when his foot is 
caught in the stair

Criterion 1: I'm going to recant a small amount of my original 
criteria proposal and go ahead and give the nod to this one as 
fulfilled.  Why?  Not because Harry is facing Immediate, Impending 
Doom (tm), but because clearly Immediate, Impending Doom (tm) or 
physical danger of any sort was a non-factor in this particular 
conflict in the first place.  It's really not the same kind of 
conflict as some of the other examples, but still a good "deus ex 
machina" case study.

Criterion 2: Not fulfilled, as many HP4GUers have pointed out, in that 
Harry could have summoned the Marauder's Map.  But since it's 
supposedly fulfilled, let's be agreeable and assume that.

Criterion 3: Fulfilled.  Moody arrives just in time to prevent Harry's 
discovery, having no previous involvement in the conflict.

The Luke Verdict: Perhaps a case of "deus ex machina", but one that is 
actually a non-contrived use of it, if such a thing is possible (which 
maybe it isn't, hence, maybe it's not "deus ex machina").  It may 
appear contrived at first reading, but Moody has a very good reason to 
show up, it turns out, once we realize later in the book that he is in 
fact the Crouch that was snooping around just a while ago in Snape's 
office.  This whole scene is quite brilliant second-time foreshadowing 
actually--far from contrived.

***

(obnoxious electronic bell clangs loudly)

Alright, class, that's sufficient for today (and the rest of your 
lives, no doubt).  Be sure to have your essays on "your least favorite 
way that Luke's posts are excessively verbose and exceedingly 
pointless" on my desk at 10 A.M. tomorrow!

-Luke