HP, Alchemical Wedding, and Post-Modernism

[tigerpatronus]

No: HPFGUIDX 72126

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, Ivan Vablatsky 
<ibotsjfvxfst at y...> wrote:
>  
> Hmm, very interesting. An inverted alchemical wedding. Granger 
points out in his book that the rebirthing party is actually an 
inverted Mass; a kind of black mass. So why shouldn't Voldemort's 
effort to obtain immortality be an inverted alchemical wedding?>  
> Hans


G-G-G-G-G-**GRANGER!**

(ungh) . . . 

Sorry. I fainted there. I'm okay now. 

These are not accidents. 

A few little items here and there might have been amusing 
coincidences. This is way beyond coincidence. 

A quick word before anyone even contemplates the word *plagerism*: We 
are not accusing JR of *plagerism*. Plagerism is a specific legal 
term that means appropriating someone else's exact *words* and 
claiming them for one's own. There was a plagerism case a few years 
ago where a novelist copied verbatim several *pages* of another 
person's copyrighted *prose* without attribution. This is, of course, 
*not* what JR is doing. 

JR is utilizing themes and symbolism from some out-of-copyright tomes 
within an entirely original story composed of brand-new prose. Even 
if those alchemical texts were not centuries out of copyright, 
literary allusions and thematic or plot-level parallels are perfectly 
acceptable, such as in the recent novel *The Hours* (Cunningham), a 
literary riff on *Mrs. Dalloway* (Woolf), or anything written by 
James Joyce or Shakespeare. 

Completely over-the-top ivory-tower overly-literary musing: Allusions 
to classical texts suggests that the HP saga belongs to the elitist 
Modernism literary school, like Virginia Woolf, rather than to its 
presumed residence in the current Post-Modernism era. Most post-
modern literature instead alludes to pop culture (Andy Worhol and 
Thomas Pyncheon), though Harry's nearly stream-of-consciousness POV 
is more indicative of post-modernism. Yet, Modernism used SOC (the 
aforementioned *Mrs. Dalloway*), so perhaps the Modernism hypothesis 
stands. 

Yet, Post-Modernism deals with ontological/existential questions, 
such as: Who is the real me? What exists? Considering the wavering 
boundry between Harry's head and LV's, this question is deeply 
embedded in the saga. 

Post-Modernism is also concerned with the Reinterpretation of Grand 
Narratives, which means that all stories have been controlled by 
people at the top of the power structure (the victors write the 
history books and the novels) so the stories have been slanted to 
support the dominant paradigm. Post-Modernism seeks to subvert the 
dominant paradigm by revisiting grand narratives and finessing the 
actual stories from under the prevailing dogma. 

Harry, as a child in society, fits the underdog character type, 
though he is a white male, but also a minority wizard among the 
Muggle Majority (Oooo, I like that.) The PoA plot line fits the 
rebellion mindset of post-modernism, though the traditional narrative 
structure of all the novels belies this. 

Any other thoughts? 

TigerPatronus, BS, MFA, PhD.