JKR's Messages (was Re: Hermione In Trouble?)

[cubfanbudwoman]

No: HPFGUIDX 120886


Nora wrote:
> > My personal parsing is that, in JKR's world, I suspect that some 
> > people are more inclined to do what is good, and some inclined 
> > to do what is evil.  Those essences are affected by upbringing, 
> > but their manifestation into the world is a case of choice on 
> > the part of the person.  Draco, for instance, is naturally 
> > inclined to be selfish and jealous, and his choices as 
> > manifested in his actions show us this. Harry is naturally 
> > inclined to be a good person, and at times has to struggle to 
> > make the choices that correspond.  Compared to Draco, perhaps 
> > it's that Draco is unwilling to invest the effort?

Neri:
> Well, if we DO choose to argue about free will in a story, we 
> should differentiate very clearly between the plot level and the 
> author's intentions level. In the author's intensions level (I 
> leave it to Carol and Nora to supply the exact terms) no character 
> in the story has free will. They all do what the author makes them 
> do, so if she decides that Harry is good and Malfoy is bad, then 
> these are the "choices" she will make them take. But within the 
> story, there's no need to assume that someone is innately good or 
> innately evil. As long as they are persons, they have free will. 
> Some of them chose to do good and some of them chose to do evil. 
> Assuming they were innately bent on good or evil discredit their 
> free will and thus their personhood. 
> 
> So I'm sure that the trio will generally make the good choices 
> because in the level of the author's intensions they are obviously 
> the good heroes of the story. But I still maintain that within the 
> story, to assume that they are innately good is to discredit their 
> personhood. 
> 
> I know this sounds like a paradox, but it's not my fault. It is the
> built-in paradox of fiction. A "character" from outside the story 
> is a "person" within the story.   


SSSusan:
I do think I get the distinction you're making, Neri, but I'm not 
sure it's going to show in what I say here. :-| 

What do you make of the fact that it was JKR who was identifying the 
trio as persons she tends to see as "innately good"?  Do you think 
she's simply saying, that because of the choices she's going to 
*make* them make as their creator, she CAN see them that way?  Or is 
she saying that within the book, as characters, she sees them that 
way?  

Because I didn't see this comment as authorial intention when I read 
it.  It seems to me that, having this phrase come from the horse's 
mouth as it were, that if it's discrediting their personhood, then 
JKR herself did that.  I mean, is it problematic to you that *she's* 
the one who said it, or do you see it differently?

Siriusly Snapey Susan