TBAY: Kirstini's Big Theorising Adventure 3/3 - Timely Intervention.

[Kirstini]

No: HPFGUIDX 78533

Here's Part 3, which, as I noted before, is based almost entirely on 
an email conversation between myself and Talisman. I've not really 
edited, so everything Talisman said has been left intact.

**********************************************************************

On board the Narrative Ark, Captain Hayes and Temporary First Mate 
Kirstini had finally sat down to breakfast, having moved down to the 
cabin because the wind kept knocking their cups over upstairs. MC!
James was sitting very still in the corner, dumbly heroic. Hayes and 
Kirstini were chatting about the interesting shift in morality in 
OotP, Kirstini going over the revolutionary presence of Dolores 
Umbridge for the umpteenth time.

"I've personally felt that ethical questions in the first two books 
especially, were fairly clear cut black/white. With the exception of 
Snape, the child's eye-view knows who is good and who bad, and so it 
goes (muddying slightly as it touches off Sirius) until Umbridge 
appears
" she was saying, when she was interrupted by a loud 
shrieking noise. 

A set of red velvet curtains in the cabin had burst open, and a 
portrait of a woman was shouting at them from the corner of the room.
"Wrong! You're wrong you know! Besmirching the Ark of my fathers with 
your incorrect theories! You're both wrong!"
"Oh, sorry about that," said Hayes. "She was just sort of 
there, 
when I took over the 
Ark. I can't move her, for some reason. But normally she's very well-
behaved, she just sits there, theorising quietly."
"We could go and see if George is still open. He might do us 
breakfast. Apparently he's recently branched out into haute cusine." 
Kirstini suggested, rubbing her throbbing head.
"No, no, no. You can't escape me, or the fact of your incorrectness! 
I have a portrait in the Royal George too!" shrieked the woman. "You 
have to listen to wise old Talisman! Listen!"
"S'pose we might as well." said Hayes, who was still feeling rather 
weak from lack of sleep.
"Alright. What is it?" said Kirstini, grumpily. 

Now that they were actually paying her attention, the portrait seemed 
to calm down. 
"I merely wanted to point out that your idea that OotP marks some 
sort of enormous shift in morality is rather ill-informed. JKR has 
depicted a moral spectrum in infinite shades of grey since day one."
"Go on," said Kirstini, her interest piqued.
 
"Let's see." Talisman said.  "Dumbledore is a very popular character. 
But I've never recovered from the wrongness of leaving Harry to be 
abused at the Dursleys.  In every single book I've had to close my 
mind to this abandonment in order to try to like Dumbledore.  Many 
people posted protests (long ago) but then either the topic got too 
old, or readers became inured. (Instead of placating me, Dumbledore's 
speech in OoP convinced me that what I've felt all along is right.)
 
"The Goblins are certainly amoral.  They use dragons and magic doors 
(that trap culprits who are then left to starve) to protect 
valuables.  You know, under American law that would be murder.  I 
suspect it's the same in Britain.  No civilized country has had the 
death-penalty for theft in quite a long time.  But Dumbledore and 
Hagrid, etc. accept this as a good thing.
 
"I won't go to far into my theory that the SS was Voldemort bait, and 
that DD knew Quirrell was giving Voldy a ride.  It's enough that 
there is consensus that DD choreographed Harry's confrontation with 
Voldemort.  Wanted Harry to confront Voldemort. Again, when this was 
new, many people were upset by the idea that a teacher/parent figure 
would do that.
 
"And, of course, in order to follow the clues and helps that DD gives 
him, Harry & Co. have to break rules and lie repeatedly.  No one 
really likes Hermione until she starts breaking rules.
 When Harry is in Quirrellmorts clutches, and made to look in the 
Mirror of Erised, He thinks: "I must lie."  What a beautiful 
comparison to the message Umbridge's quill etches into Harry's 
hand: "I must not lie." 
 
"Everyone knows that Hagrid is good.  But he breaks wizard law by 
taking a contraband dragon's egg.   Draco, whom everyone knows is 
bad, is going to tell the authorities.  So HRH have to ask Charlie to 
take the dragon away.  Charlie/Charlie's friends agree immediately, 
though of course they'll have to do it at night because--it's 
illegal. 
 Harry defies Prof. Hooch's directions not to fly and we are to think 
it's o.k. because why? He wants to fight with Draco over Neville's 
bauble? He is rewarded by being made youngest seeker in 100 years 
and  getting a free Nimbus 2000.
 Of course, Snape remains a very ambivalent character, for most 
people. But I have a feeling you already covered that. It almost 
sounds like you think Umbridge is an ambivelent character.  I've 
never considered her anything but pure evil.  Ditto all the kids I 
know (i.e. for the child's eye- view)."
 
Kirstini and Hayes had been staring at her in admiration, and neither 
quite realised that they were expected to speak for a while.
"Of course. You're right." said Kirstini, finally.
"What I was trying to get at was that Umbridge is really a 
personification of the upside-down morality that you identified 
throughout the series. I was positing OoP as a rather revolutionary, 
almost subversive book (within the series as well as within the scope 
of traditional children's literature), as it mirrors the adolescent 
rebellion against authority at various levels. Textually: Hogwarts, 
Government, the emotional response against DD and MythicalConstruct!
James here. Ultra-textually: in that the book
turns Harry into an anti-hero within the scope of traditional 
children's lit, and not just by a realistic portrayal of adolescence. 

"Harry's trajectory now offers a deviation away from two norms: 
Muggledom, which we could also call real world adult 
normalcy/responsibility; and peer-group, which splits itself into two 
categories again. There's WW normalcy: Daily Prophet readers, 
Inquistorial!Draco not only sanctioned but given authority; there's 
also the isolation from Ron and Hermione which Harry feels
throughout the book, which prepares us for that agonising point at 
the end, where Harry has really outgrown both his friends and Hagrid. 
JKR tries to temper this note of isolation at the end with the
little station incident – Harry has people on his side – however, the 
dye has already been cast for the trajectory of the series. Not 
optimistic.

"So – back to Umbridge. I posited a theory some time ago called 
HUMBLE PIE (How Umbridge Modernises Badness Light Enquiries – Percy 
Is Evil. The PIE bit isn't that important - I was hoping to branch 
out into a range of products...), arguing that Umbridge introduces an 
entirely new note into the moral schema of the series. Yes, as you 
pointed out, way back in PS, Draco was with the law, and Harry 
against it, but Draco, and his racist beliefs, have always been 
firmly associated with his support for Voldemort. Draco = Bad. 

"Then Umbridge comes along. She's racist, she's arguably the most 
evil character in the book (perhaps more so than panto villain Voldy 
and his glamorous assistant, esp. to grown-up readers as more 
chillingly realistic), she creates most of the problems for
Harry. She's *not* a DE. She's technically "good", in that case.  But 
then you have Sirius' statement – "the world isn't divided into good 
people and Death Eaters"– and bang! The first time that *Harry* 
realises that it isn't. 

"You see," she said, adjusting her chair so that she could address 
the whole room, "this is where I was going wrong. The "child's-eye-
view" comment I made operated on two levels – I was talking about the 
focalisation of the narrative through Harry, but also the method of
narration, pointing to an increasing sophistication of not only 
literary technique but *theme* throughout the books. What I hadn't 
quite allowed for, and what you, Talisman, may have just helped me to 
restructure, is the fact that Harry and the narrative really are "in
essence divided".  The moral spectrum has always been there, glowing 
in its varying greynesses. The WW has always been a dodgy kinda 
place, because wizards aren't just cute, quirky people in funny 
clothes, they are humans. And humans really can't be trusted with 
magical power, because they are ultimately all self-motivated to some 
degree; therefore magical power, like any other kind of power (as we 
see increasingly) is abused. The trouble is that the reader is 
limited to Harry's development. This development is *narrated* (and 
has always been) by someone who knows much more than the protagonist, 
but who holds her knowledge back, keeping herself unobtrusive that 
the reader is forced to discover/develop themselves at the same pace 
as Harry - often frustratingly)."

Kirstini stopped, and glanced around the room. Talisman was nodding 
away in the corner. Hayes was still seated, apparently mulling over 
what she'd just said. Kirstini got to her feet.
"And now I really, really have to get some sleep. Finally. I've had 
one helluva night." she said, as MC!James scooped her up in his arms 
and bore her off to be tucked into a hammock.