A Look At Luna Lovegood (longish)

[dan]

No: HPFGUIDX 84152

Granny - Wouldn't any work of fiction be the author's perception of 
the relationship between a fictional world and the real world?  This 
is the real beauty and value of fictional literature.  A reader 
enters the authors world and draws parallels in his own.

dan - Well, not really. At the start of the whole series, JKR dropped 
a bomb and it hasn't yet exploded (Grindelwald and his "defeat.") It 
is specific to the HP universe, as well, that it is parallel to the 
muggle world literally - they are mostly unseen to each other, but 
affect and are affected by each other, at certain key points. This is 
not the norm in literature. It is, however, part of JKR's subject.
>  
> Dan:
> Potter's anger reflects the anger that an author might feel at the 
death of the literary reason d'etre of a book?!?! 
>  
> Granny:
> Sorry, can't agree here. Seems to me that Potter's anger clearly 
comes from his feelings of being kept in the dark.  His anger is 
clearly within the framework of the story.  What would his anger have 
to do with the literary raison d'etre?

Dan - That the series is a kid's book series is no longer an issue. 
This must be of some relief to JKR, I would imagine. And also, 
liberating, in the subjects with which she can deal in the series. I 
wonder if the alchemical interpretations of Hans, on one hand, and 
Grainger on the other are familiar to you. If analytical approaches 
like that to the book are germane, than aren't my more rhetorically 
based speculations also valid?

> Dan:
> Possibly. But, if I am correct, then what makes Luna different is 
that she is almost entirely RW - strangely enough a character 
satisfying certain fan ficcy type impulses, one one hand, but 
completely modeled, or rather designed, as a real-life, real person.
>  
> Granny:
> Luna, RW.  OK, I can see your point.  There is always a spicy 
distracted type in every crowd.  But the fact that she went through 
the entire ordeal of battling with the DE's in the Department of 
Mysteries along with Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny and Neville and was 
the only one that came out without so much as a scratch is 
significant in wizarding terms.

Dan - the fact that she went through the ordeal nearly to the end 
(you forget she was knocked out) I take as a subtle statement that 
what, in one situation, is spaciness, might come in handy in certain 
other situations as lack of panic. But my point is more towards the 
late introduction of the character, the fact of the chapter to 
herself, and the fact that her exchange with Potter at the end of OOP 
is the only emotional "opening" in the book, and is just what HP 
needs after Dumbledore's admission of fallability - an "openness" of 
a different sort. Why does Luna's character come into the book as a 
breath of fresh air? Her experiences of the world are not what we 
have come to know in the other books. The space between ourselves and 
Potter now has an intermediary, in some ways not unlike so-
called "mary sues" in fan fiction. But of course JKR has some 
essential role for Lovegood. Right now, that role is as another, 
alternate, more clearly emotional/spiritual, if you will, path to the 
Potter behind the scar. That is the function I am talking about, and 
in terms of the books, I propose that the alternate path is 
necessary. Neither Ron nor Hermione can take us there. Luna can. That 
is why she is necessary.

dan