fading of the Order (was Tactics & Prescience)

[Wanda Sherratt]

No: HPFGUIDX 76778

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "David" <dfrankiswork at n...> 
wrote:
> dan wrote:
> 
> > And my sense is that the DA will, in some 
> > measure, supplant the OOP.
> 
> Yes, mine too.
> 
> I (along with many other listies) guessed in advance that the 
Order 
> of the Phoenix would be more or less what it turned out to be - an 
> association of anti-Voldemort wizards led by Dumbledore.  Where I 
> guessed (I hope, temporarily) wrong was that I thought it would 
turn 
> out to be an organisation so flawed that the reader would be very 
> ambivalent about the prospect of Harry joining - just as GOF 
leaves 
> one ambivalent about the prospect of him being an auror.
> 
> In fact it is clear (IMO) that the Order is flawed, the crucial 
> weakness being Dumbledore's use of knowledge from which Harry 
> suffers in OOP (the book).  That Sirius, Molly and the others have 
> no real compass for deciding how much to tell Harry is very 
telling, 
> IMO, and indicates the bankruptcy of the order to act as the 
> harbinger of Dumbledorian inclusiveness.
> 
Would it really be a good thing, story-wise, though, for the DA to 
become the main engine of the fight against Voldemort?  I completely 
acknowledge that these are primarily kids' books, and that a kid 
audience might very well love it that Harry & Co. succeed where the 
adults have failed, but I don't think it will make for a more 
involving story.  I've always found the adults in the HP books more 
interesting than the children, and to sideline them would be, in my 
opinion, a mistake. A reviewer of OotP in "The Spectator" compared 
the HP books to extended Scooby Doo adventures, and leaving it all 
to the students would just increase that theme.  I can visualize 
Voldemort at the end of Book 7, snarling, "And I would have gotten 
away with it, too, if it weren't for you meddling kids!"  Besides, 
it would, I think, knock HP down a rung in the "classic literature" 
competition.  Most really good children's literature manages to 
involve grownups in the story, and treats at least some of them in a 
sensible fashion.  They maybe be fiction, but they are taking place 
in a recognizable world, where children are NOT always superior, 
don't know everything, and can't handle it all by themselves.  
Dumbledore, the Weasleys, Lupin, even Moody, have up until now 
fitted into that world quite well, in the roles of wise councillor, 
loving, nurturing supporters, reflective steadying influence, and 
hardbitten but well-meaning expert.  Sirius's role was a bit more 
sketchy, and started to fragment in OotP, while Snape, being seen so 
completely from Harry's POV so far, is too nightmarish and 
conflicted to take a simple role like the others.  But I think to 
shunt these adults aside because they weren't fully successful in 
OotP would be a mistake.  The last thing I want is to see HP turn 
into a Renaissance Fayre version of "Spy Kids".

Wanda