Potterverse as metaphor (WAS: Secular Universes and our current culture...)

[dicentra_spectabilis_alba]

No: HPFGUIDX 34411

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "lucky_kari" <lucky_kari at y...> wrote:
> --- In HPforGrownups at y..., "Chris Parnell" <chspnll at p...> wrote:
> > On all fronts, religion is losing its excessive moral control over
> > people's lives, and that is a good thing. People used to die in fear
> > of the Divine, and that was a terrible thing. 

People also used to die looking forward to meeting with the Divine,
and that's not terrible at all.  In fact, some still do.
> 
[snippage]
> 
> >So I agree, and take
> > Eileen's comments even further, that JKR is simply reflecting 
> culture
> > as it is today, 
> 
> But that's a contradiction of what I said. I said JKR is not at all 
> reflecting culture as it is today, and not even trying to. :-) 
> Otherwise, interesting perspective. 
> 
> Eileen

The whole discussion on religion in the Potterverse has been
interesting, to say the least.  Too bad it's a moot point.

Orson Scott Card observes that when a writer creates a universe
different from our own (different rules, such as the existence of
magic), that fictional universe stands in a metaphoric relationship to
the real world.  That which exists as an abstraction in the real world
often becomes tangible in the fictional world, and therefore becomes a
metaphor.  For example, when magic shows up in a fictional world it is
almost always a metaphor for power. I think that magic in the
Potterverse falls into this category.  And one of JKR's main themes is
"what you do with that power makes you good or evil."

Religion, a kind of an abstraction in the real world, also becomes
tangible (sort of) in the Potterverse.  We have God in the figure of
Dumbledore and Satan in the figure of Voldemort.  Loyalty to
Dumbledore represents faith in God (or Goodness or whatever you
choose), and loyalty to Voldemort represents sin (turning away from
that which is Good).  With religion made into a metaphor, there is no
place for "real" religion as we know it in our world.  

This black-and-white view of the world is unpalatable to some, I know,
but really there are only two trajectories one can follow: toward the
light or away from it. What constitutes toward and away and light and
darkness is up for debate in the real world, but in an alternate,
fictional universe, things get simplified for the purpose of making a
strong point. To introduce real-world religion into the Potterverse
would muddy the waters considerably.

JKR is determined to study death and evil and its consequences (as she
has stated). She's not trying to examine all the nuances of faith vs.
disbelief or anything like that, and she's not trying to be
politically correct.  She wants to make her case that good and evil
arise from individual choices, not from how you were born or who your
family was or what your innate abilities are. All fiction (all art,
for that matter) takes a tiny chunk of the real world and tries to
make sense of it. Because without interpretation, all we have is a
chaotic, undifferentiated reality.  JKR is looking at only a few
aspects of reality, and religion in the real world isn't one of them.

That's my two sickles' worth.

--Dicentra, who needs to look for more metaphors in the series