Abstemiousness with truth - the careful fantasy world of Potter

tbernhard2000 dark30 at vcn.bc.ca
Fri Aug 30 04:34:42 UTC 2002


No: HPFGUIDX 43358

In all situations in my own life, I have found it both easier and 
more rewarding when the context that obtains is one of open 
communication and transparency, which by extension, creates the kind 
of equality between involved parties that results when little is 
hidden, when information, or knowledge, cannot or is not owned, or 
held as a private possession. A far cry from the so-called magical 
world of Harry Potter.

The hardest thing to accept about the apparent magical world of Harry 
Potter is that, in spite of Dumbledore's reticence regarding the 
reason Voldemort wants Harry dead, in spite of "the restricted 
section," which, I point out, contains information essential to the 
so-called heroes' quest, in spite of so many characters being 
mysteries, as they say, to other characters, as Black and Snape, for 
instance, are, or Neville is to the trio, signs both of 
intransigence, in the first case, or betraying every sign of 
Rowling's unravelling of facts on a "need to know" basis - that is, 
in the context of her literary career, in terms of making the 
series "make sense" at the end of it all - as is the case with 
Neville, in spite of Hermione's secret use of the Time Turner, a 
secret that proved quite dangerous, in particular to Hermione, and a 
secrecy that had to be pierced in order to complete the given quest, 
all of these ignorances involving core aspects of the story, Harry 
and the trio can still succeed.

How is this possible? Are we to assume fate, a grossly misunderstood 
concept in my opinion, being myself something of a secular calvinist, 
declares that Harry and the trio will succeed whether or not those 
around them attempt to keep them in the dark, to impose, in a way, 
ignorance upon them? Do we really believe Harry's successful 
encounters so far have been written beforehand, and the outcome 
assured? His response to the 2nd task seems central here. His success 
depends upon some inner quality, which may or may not be connected to 
his so-called magical qualities, that makes him stay. He goes through 
no internal debate. His staying was not quite a decision; rather, as 
he later reflects, it was an action, the right one, we agree, made in 
ignorance. A bit of pathos. 

Let me try to demonstrate my reading of Rowling like this - The so-
called magical world of Harry Potter is, on one level, on perhaps the 
most fundamental level, unequivocally nothing more than the extended 
fantasy-world of an abused boy stuck in a closet. I cannot state this 
strongly enough. Whether the boy is in fact adopted, or is imagining 
that he is adopted, taken from his so-called real parents, whether he 
attends a regular school or isn't even allowed to do that, it is his 
fantasy world to which we are exposed. And the abstemiousness with 
truth characteristic of that world is the signal, the flashing 
lights, as it were, of the guard towers, of the circumference of 
Hogwarts' famous ancient magical protection - read, the constricted 
limits of the abused boy's knowing. That protection, I submit, is 
directed inwards as much as it is directed outwards. Even the  
widespread anti-muggle charms appear to me to be defenses against the 
reality of sustained punishment. There is also mention of some 
similar sort of ancient magical protection regarding the Dursley's 
residence. This too, in my reading, seems as much an inwards pressure 
as an outwards one.

Do we agree with Dumbledore's assessment that Harry should grow up 
away from what we are supposed to believe are the horrifying and 
dangerous consequences of fame, and be, rather, reared by people who 
hate what he represents, mistrust and abuse him? Of course not. So we 
must accept that Dumbledore's assurance about the safety of the 
Dursley's house is true - otherwise, he's just being a stupid old man 
who assumes family is more important than human rights. This so-
called safety certainly looks like the rationalization of someone in 
a hopeless and helpless situation to me. And for someone deprived of 
information, of ways of obtaining it, someone for whom the paths to 
knowledge are closed, ignorance might seem strength. In a real way, 
however, for such a person, ignorance would surely be some measure of 
protection. Ignorance about one's actual hopeless and helpless 
situation, the extent of it, or rather, intensity of it.

I'm not sure how much of this line Rowling is conscious of when she 
writes. I have no intention in this post of addressing that 
particular moot area. Rather, this is my reading, and as it seems 
both a general response to the digests I've been getting, on one 
hand, and an idea that has been an acute difficulty for me since I 
first read the books, I thought I'd post it in a new thread, see if 
perhaps this one gets past the Ministry of Moderators.

darkthirty



"The truth is not a crystal that can be slipped into one's pocket, 
but an endless current into which one falls headlong." Robert Musil 






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