Destiny, Truth

[porphyria_ash]

No: HPFGUIDX 43680

darkthirty said:

<<
I think, in a situation where there is no intimate knowledge of what 
Harry *is*, other than one with a *good heart* or whatever, or why he 
*is* still, it makes a reading that sees others as manipulating 
Harry, giving him purpose, as it were, very easy, and, apparently, 
common.
>>

bugaloo37 disputed that this constituted 'manipulation' and 
countered: 

>>
To have a purpose in your life-chosen of your own free will-fostered 
by your own abilities (did Harry's parents impart some special 
ability to him?-only time will tell-but even if they did, it was for 
his own safety-not to restore order to the WW-although that maybe an 
added plus)-recognized and promoted by those who love you and have 
only the best wishes for you- is not manipulation.
>>

Now Porphyria:

But in order for Harry to be able to choose his purpose in life of 
his own free will, he needs information. If he doesn't have enough 
information to make an informed decision, then he has to be trusted 
to 'feel' or 'intuit' or 'just sense' the right decision; in other 
words we'd need to trust his 'purity of heart.' Indeed, Harry often 
makes the right decisions based on the wrong information, especially 
at the climax of every book. Harry didn't know that Quirrell was 
after the Philosopher's Stone, nor did he understand the nature of 
the protections in place -- it's likely that Quirrell would have just 
been stranded in front of the Mirror or Erised if Harry hadn't 
bothered to pursue him. But Dumbledore (and we) recognize Harry's 
actions as heroic. Harry had no idea that his mother's love would 
protect him from Quirrell, but that's what saves him in a pinch. 
Similarly, Harry didn't know that Tom Riddle was the culprit in CoS, 
nor that his loyalty to Dumbledore would effectively summon Fawkes 
and the sword of Gryffindor, but everything works out for him OK 
nonetheless. And in GoF, he had no idea what the Prior Incantatem 
did, but he instinctually knew how to handle it. So the point is that 
Harry somehow doesn't need objective knowledge to make the right 
decision, to be heroic. He needs, as darkthirty puts it, a 'good 
heart.'

There is a lot that Harry doesn't know about his situation: 1) why 
Voldemort wanted to kill him in the first place, 2) what Trelawney's 
first accurate prediction was, 3) the complete extent of his powers, 
both what powers the scar conferred upon him and what other unique 
abilities he may have, 4) the meaning of the Gleam in Dumbledore's 
eye, 5) the nature of his parents' involvement in the campaign 
against LV, 6) whether or not James was significant in some other 
way, such as being descended from Godric Gryffindor. And that's just 
off the top of my head. 

Now Dumbledore might be withholding some of these things from him for 
a good reason, and a few he might not even know for sure. And a few 
things we have to write up to plot convention -- we wouldn't be quite 
as curious for the next book if every mystery were revealed. My 
interpretation is that Dumbledore doesn't tell Harry everything not 
because the knowledge would be contaminating per se, but more 
overwhelming. Which is what Carol and bugaloo37 mean when they point 
out that some knowledge might be a little much for a child to handle. 

OTOH, Harry is no longer a child and you'd think that he himself 
would start to demand answers for some of these questions. I'm not 
100% sure that we can decide right now what the role of Harry's 
knowledge about himself will play since the gradual revelation of 
this knowledge is part of the story arc, and we're only halfway 
through the story. Still, we can observe that the books seem to 
privilege one type of knowledge over another, and the 
more 'objective' the knowledge, the more limited its usefulness. 

Darkthirty said:

<<
That is what makes me question the role of so-called truth in the 
books. I make connections between this and the adult reader's 
interest, fascination with the books. Don't we want not to have to 
know so much? Don't we want to drop what we know, and live by the 
heart?
>>

And Carol replied:

<<
I don't. And that's not really my interest in the books. In fact, I'm 
quite fond of Hermione's constant quest for knowledge, being like 
that 
myself.
>>

Porphyria:

I feel this way myself, but you have to ask yourself what good 
Hermione's constant quest for knowledge does in the plots. 

Carol continues:

<<
In addition, as I mentioned before, JKR seems to make a rather big 
deal about the importance of knowledge and its pursuit. Isn't 
Hermione constantly searching for knowledge and doesn't much of this 
knowledge find practical uses? (Polyjuice potion, Nicholas Flamel)
>>

Porphyria: 

See, the Polyjuice potion was cool, but it did them absolutely no 
good. The only thing they learned was that Draco was *not* the heir 
of Slytherin, plus Hermione learned the hard way why not to confuse 
cat hair with people hair. It didn't advance the plot or help to 
solve the mystery; it hit a dead end. And as to Nicholas Flamel, all 
Hermione's searching through history books and Harry's sneaking into 
the library netted them absolutely nothing. Harry found the answer on 
the back of a trading card that was a gift from Ron. In my post from 
Sunday I detailed as best I could the various ways that the type of 
booklearning Hermione brings to the table is good, but second best, 
in much the same way that Hermione herself remarks that being 
in "Ravenclaw wouldn't be too bad," as a sort of afterthought to her 
comment "I hope I'm in Gryffindor, it sounds by far the best." 
Harry's internal, instinctual knowledge always outdoes Hermione's 
objective, logical knowledge. So I agree with darkthirty to the 
extent that the books seem to endorse a sort of 'not knowing,' an 
instinct for the right choice over intelligence on its own. 

I'm not sure, however, if this is why adult readers like the books. 
While everyone wants to be a little like Harry, at the same time it's 
our adult curiosity for the knowledge of the books' secrets that 
drives us, that makes us all crave the next one. As a group, we 
constantly strive to figure out future plot twists and backstories; 
we're extremely curious. We scour JKR interview transcripts and buy 
the schoolbooks. We form discussion groups like this one. We write 
FAQs and maintain informational web sites and on and on. So while I 
tend to feel that the typically "Ravenclawish" personality gets short 
shrift in the books, I think there is lots of room for us out in the 
fandom.

~Porphyria