The Hidden Key to Harry Potter

[pennylin]

No: HPFGUIDX 60277

Hi all --

First, before I get to a review of this book, let me say that I had a chance to meet the author and hear him speak on this topic in Houston recently.  As some of you may know, Granger will be one of the featured guest speakers at Nimbus - 2003 in Orlando next month (www.hp2003.org).  I found him to be a very engaging and entertaining public speaker.  He also quite graciously and effectively addressed some conservative Christians in the audience.  I think those of you attending Nimbus will find him to be a very interesting speaker.  

Also, before I get to my review of this book, let me address a point made by corinthum:

<<<<I haven't read the book, so I'm not too familiar with this argument. 
However, I'd tend to disagree.  Not that there aren't themes in the
series that agree with Christian beliefs; there certainly are. 
However, I think Granger is placing intent where there was none.  Both
Tolkien and Lewis were very religious men; Lewis wrote extensively on
Christianity, and Tolkien's Catholic beliefs strongly influenced his
mythology.  Rowling, on the other hand, writes to entertain.  Her
books contain strong moral themes, but these themes could be equally
applicable to many religions other than Christianity.  And unlike
Tolkien and Lewis, I doubt she conciously contructed the story to
parallel a religion.>>>>>>>>>>>>>

While I think you are quite right to note that symbols can have a variety of meanings (even conflicting meanings!), I do think you're presuming too much with respect to the authorial intent argument.  Rowling has not been explicit about her authorial intent with respect to anything, let alone any religious messages that can be gleaned from the series.  It may be your opinion that JKR is only writing to "entertain," but that's not something she herself has confirmed.  We do know she believes in God and attends the Church of Scotland more than sporadically according to her own statements.  

We also know the following (which can be found in full at:  http://www.prospect.org/print/V13/4/nelson-m.html 

<<<<<<<<<<<She's a member of the Church of Scotland and, whenever she's asked, 
says, "I believe in God, not magic." In fact, Rowling initially was 
afraid that if people were aware of her Christian faith, she would 
give away too much of what's coming in the series. "If I talk too 
freely about that," she told a Canadian reporter, "I think the 
intelligent reader -- whether ten [years old] or sixty -- will be 
able to guess what is coming in the books.">>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>   

So, again, I think you're presuming quite alot with your statements about her intent.  It may be that Granger is completely off-base with his interpretation of authorial intent, but it *is* more viable than you seem to give him credit for.

So, here's a review of "Hidden Key to Harry Potter," which I wrote awhile back and never got around to posting.  I've also got a combined review of some other Christian commentaries that I'll try to get finalized and off today too.

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Granger's principal argument is that Rowling is writing explicitly Christian books in the tradition of Inkling greats, C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien.  He makes a persuasive case that his is a viable, though not the only possible, interpretation of Rowling's novels.     

 

He begins with an exploration of current critical thinking on the Harry Potter novels (though he admits in an appendix that some of the most recent scholarship was unavailable to him), noting that early reactions to Tolkien's work mirror some of the criticism leveled at Rowling by the literary elite.  Granger believes that Rowling's writing, with its emphasis on the themes of prejudice, death, choices and change, is also reminiscent of two authors she cites amongst her favorites: Jane Austen and Charles Dickens.  

 

In evaluating some of the current critical thinking about Rowling, Granger divides commentators into "low road," "middle road" and "high road" categories.  The "low road" critics are those who deride Rowling's work because they believe it is poorly-written, not worth adult or critical attention, derivative, etc. or because they believe it is morally ambiguous or has occultic themes, gratuitous violence, etc.  He places those commentators who enthusiastically embrace the series on the grounds that it is well-written, a great read by a gifted storyteller, and/or has memorable characters in the "middle road" category.  He says the "middle road" critics fall short in failing to evaluate more closely exactly why the books are such a phenomenon.  He agrees that Rowling is a great writer, a gifted storyteller and has given her audience complex and engaging characters, but he argues that these factors are not alone enough to fully explain the unprecedented success of these books.  He believes his work goes a step beyond the "middle road" critics.  

 

Granger explores in turn each of the four prominent themes he identified in Rowling's work: prejudice, death, choice and change.  Aside from her explicit and implicit messages against prejudice and bigotry, Granger believes that Rowling reinforces the messages by forcing readers to confront their tendency to prejudge others with her surprise shifts (good guys become bad guys, bad guys are good guys after all).  Rowling's books contain many lessons and thoughts about death, and Rowling effectively allows her readers to experience figurative death and resurrection with Harry in each book.  Granger, however, doesn't believe her treatment of prejudice or death/bereavement alone is the key to Pottermania.  

 

He evaluates the theme of choices and how Rowling explores that theme in each novel.  Harry is on a journey of self-exploration, making choices about who he is and what to do and how to react in situations (particularly crisis situations).   It is change, the consequences of our choices, that interests Granger the most though.  He believes the series is mostly about "transfigurations, transformations and alchemical transmutations."

 

He gives a lengthy but interesting discourse on alchemy, both historically and symbolically.  The alchemical process is symbolic of the route to spiritual perfection, and Granger now gets to the heart of why he believes the series is so overwhelmingly popular.

 

Noting that 8 of the creatures featured in the Potterverse are symbols of Christ, Granger argues that Rowling "either is a Christian author or she has a remarkable fetish for Christian imagery and teaching."  He then takes each of the four books in turn to demonstrate Rowling's use of Christian symbolism, resurrection plot lines and moral teachings. In the CoS section, Granger makes a very persuasive and novel case that the real-life model for the character of Gilderoy Lockhart is Philip Pullman, author of the "Dark Materials" trilogy.  I found this to be particularly interesting, because it's something I've *never* seen discussed anywhere in the fandom.  I also liked his reading of the final climatic scenes in the Chamber as a medieval morality play, with Dumbledore as God the Father, Harry as Everyman, Fawkes as Christ, etc.  

 

Following his analysis of Christian symbols, themes and imagery in each book, he includes a short chapter analyzing how each book's title might be symbolic for "Harry Potter and the Christ" (IMO, this is by far his weakest chapter).  Granger then looks at possible symbolic meanings for the names Harry and Potter.  Emphasizing his belief that Rowling's writing is formulaic, he concludes with a section on his predictions for the remainder of the series (including an analysis of Harry as Heir of Gryffindor, whether Snape is for us or against us, what role Neville will play, whether Wormtail is Harry's "ace in the hole," whether Bagman is good or ESE, who will end up with who and whether Draco is redeemable or not).  I don't necessarily agree that Rowling's work is as formulaic as Granger contends, and I also think his predictions have all been raised and discussed extensively by people on this list for ages (i.e., they aren't anything new).  But, Granger has told me that he hasn't had any contact with the fandom at large so far, so his theories are his own (though they aren't, IMO, particularly novel in most cases).  

 

His book has two appendices: the first is a direct counter to He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named-on-this-List.  The second is an analysis of other secondary sources on Harry Potter.

 

Overall, I found this book to be very thought-provoking and engaging.  Granger has a very high-energy conversational writing style.  The book's messages probably won't appeal to everyone so much, but I hope this review will help some of you decide to give it a try.  Again, I think Granger is a great public speaker, and I found quite a number of his points from the book were strengthened in his lecture that I attended.  So, those of you attending Nimbus should give definite consideration to attending his lecture on Saturday morning.



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Penny 


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