Abstemiousness with truth - the careful fantasy world of Potter

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 43400

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "malady579" <Malady579 at h...> 
wrote:
> Dark Thirty wrote:
> 
> >> Let me try to demonstrate my reading of Rowling like this - 
Theso-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.<<
> 
> Me:
> While this is probably one of the most depressing views of the 
books, I must say that this is not the first time I have seen this 
reading of a book.  In my British Lit class, we were required to 
read Frankenstein.  It was an interesting book, and I read it the 
way I was expected and went to class expecting a typical 
breakdown from the
> class.  My Lit professor listened to our opinions and views 
about
> reanimation, creation, love, and ugly people.  Then he quietly 
said, ?Well there is another viewpoint about the book.  Some fell 
the sea captain made it all up.?  For some reason my stomach 
dropped, muchlike when I read this post, at the very idea that it 
was all in alonely man?s head.<<

The reading works only, if, as in Frankenstein, it is equivocal. If 
Rowling ever made it unambiguous, then it would be highly 
unsatisfying aesthetically, as it would be propping up a weak 
fictional device (information the hero could have used is kept 
from him by  arbitrary means) with an even weaker one (it was all 
a dream.)

Rowling seems aware of the arbitrariness of guarding 
information in the restricted section of the library, since so far 
Harry's attempts to penetrate it have yielded absolutely nothing of 
value as  far as solving the mysteries are concerned. What good 
did the polyjuice do, after all? 

And of course the information on Nicholas Flamel could have 
been found  in any  ordinary library, Muggle or real life, since he 
is an historical figure.

Pippin