Death in the Magical World

[fourfuries at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 25387

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "Mindy, a.k.a. CLH" <mindyatime at j...> 
wrote:
> I find it rather interesting that there is no spell that can reverse
> death in the Hogwarts World. Magic should be infallible. 


I trust you are not serious!  They are wizards, not demi-gods.

All philosophy, all religion and most science begins with the attempt 
of humans to cope with the inexplicable inevitablility of death and 
dying.  In this regard, HP has added a modern folk tale to the list 
of arts that aid mankind.  Several threads have begun to close in on 
what I think is the core merit of the HP series, the celebration of 
our amazing and  increasing ability to cope with things we can not 
control.  

What a boring and meaningless series this would become if there were 
no permanent, "mortal" stakes.  Harry discovers he's a wizard on his 
birthday, and we celebrate like he won the lottery.  If he had not 
been separated from his parents by something as permanent as death, 
we would not care at all.  JKR teaches responsibility, courage, love 
and honor in the context of irreversible consequences.  It is what 
makes us care about Harry, fear Voldemort, respect Dumbledore, trust 
Hagrid, etc.  Everyone is playing for keeps.

I love these books because they are so real, and so human (except for 
the magic!).  If you replace the magic with equivalent technologies, 
you have the modern world exactly.  Our current global civilisation 
is lacking in social graces, a sense of propriety, grace, respect for 
truth, appreciation of beauty (as distinguished from sexuality), 
courage, civility, honor, and the list goes on.  Harry shows us what 
happens when a few brave people decide to fight for the preservation 
of these "antiquated" values.  His fight is engaging because the 
stakes are so high.

4FR (shaped by the experience of being an idealist who attended an 
all boys prep school with an honor code during the '60's and '70's)