Love vs. eros (was Harry Potter is a CHILDREN'S BOOK)

[urghiggi]

No: HPFGUIDX 79685


> Sue: "Why is it that it's ok for JKR to write about war, death,
> racism, oppression, torture, cruelty etc etc, but some people seem to
> think that it's not ok for her to write about sexuality?">>

Jim replied with a lot of interesting snipped stuff, plus this:
> JKR can, does, and will write about love.  Great literature has long
> dealt with love without getting sexual, or at least with sex in the
> background.  In canon, we have many kinds of love already: Lily's love
> for her son; Dumbledore's for Harry; Harry's for Sirius; the Trio's
> for each other; and the beginning of attraction as the characters get
> older. It's love we don't spend enough time considering these days –
> the kinds of love, who we love, and how we express it. Getting into
> sexuality might even overshadow some of the excellent points about
> love we're seeing.  It's an example of JKR's genius that we're seeing
> so much about love.>>
> 

And now urghiggi adds:
James Baldwin once said "All art is a kind of confession, more or less 
oblique."  If you look at the Potterverse as JKR's personal "confession" --=
 her 
recitation of the stuff she believes most necessary at a core human level, =
not 
just a commercially crafted work -- then I think it is somewhat easier to 
understand her emphasis on philea (friendship/brotherly love) and agape 
(selfless/divine love) at the expense of storge (affection for stuff/people=
, esp 
your family) and eros (sexual love).

It's not that eros is dispensable -- it's just that heaven knows kids are 
bombarded with eros messages in every aspect of pop culture. (Lordy, they 
sell thong underwear for 7-year-old girls at Abercrombie & Fitch....) What =
I 
think JKR must think tweens, preteens, and teens are not getting enough 
lessons about are philea and -- most especially -- agape varieties of love.=
 

As adults we're all (presumably) pretty danged interested in eros. But we'r=
e 
not the primary targets for the message. That we love it and are fascinated=
 by 
it seems to indicate to me that we, too, have some kind of thirst for model=
s of 
true philea and agape love -- as well as an obsessive interest in bizarre p=
lot 
twists and obscure predictive clues, of course.

urghiggi, chgo