Theoretical boundaries

[delwynmarch]

No: HPFGUIDX 120302


Alla wrote:
"Well, even those themes of abuse, etc, I would say have a lot to do 
with Harry's growing up and noticing that WW is not such happy place 
(Duh, Harry ;o)) as he may have thought.

(snip)

I remember that one of the first OOP reviews was talking about
symbolic meaning of "dissilusionment" charm - as Harry opening his
eyes  and seeing a lot of unpleasant things going on around him. I
happen to agree with such POV."

Del replies:
I agree too. But I don't think it's that simple. IMO, we have once
again run into the problem of the *narrator*'s function.

I have no problem understanding that for 11-year-old Harry, the WW was
magical all over, both literally and figuratively, and that as he
grows up his eyes get open to the much darker reality of that world.

But what I was originally protesting against wasn't the change in
*Harry*'s POV : it was the change in the *narrator*'s POV.

The narrator is very obviously not Harry, and it sometimes shows. At
the beginning of PS/SS in particular (and still at the beginning of
the next 3 books in some way), the narrator finds all the abuse the
Dursleys dish out at Harry funny, and presents it in a comical
fashion, even though it's quite obvious that Harry himself must not
have found any of it funny!

But as time goes by, as he gets to spend more and more time in Harry's
shoes, the narrator starts indentifying more and more closely with
Harry. On one hand, that's obviously a very good thing, because it
allows *us* to relate more and more to Harry's problems, and to know
better what's going on in our hero's head and heart. But on the other
hand, it means that the narrator's POV is shifting throughout the
series. As he becomes more and more concerned about Harry, the
narrator changes his mind about such things as the Dursleys' abuse.
And *that* is what makes me uncomfortable : not only do I have to deal
with the fact that almost everything goes through a first filter
(Harry) because the narrator tends to report things as Harry sees
them, but on top of that even the narrator himself is colouring his
own narrative according to his own fluctuating feelings!

No wonder we can never reach an agreement as a group about anything
even remotely subjective!

Del