Hogwarts a nice place? (Was Re: The Movie vs. JKR?)

[dan]

No: HPFGUIDX 100356

Let's bring this back from OT, because it is worth considering.

"snow15145" wrote:

> Hogwarts was like a comfortable old shoe; it fit well. When you're 
> tired and just want to escape to a magical world you could visually 
> go there via the movies....
> But most of all he changed forever that almost tranquil non-existing
> world of refuge into a real non-existing world. He took the
> magicalness (new word means beyond magic) out of the magic.

How many of us, from the books, have the impression that Hogwarts is 
a nice place, or tranquil? I mean, aside from the fact that, if we 
were wizards, we'd be able to accomplish certain things by waving a 
wand and saying stuff in latin?

Hogwarts is a place with bullies and bigots (Slytherin, Ravenclaw to 
Luna), nasty (Snape), evil (Lockhart - seriously debilitating charms, 
Umbridge - torture) or even murderous (Quirrell, Lupin?!?!) teachers, 
inept, dangerous politicians and bureaucrats (Fudge, Percy), children 
of radical racial purists, collapsed secret tunnels (the one behind 
the mirror), deadly hidden chambers (COS), nearly unusable washrooms 
(the girl's washroom where Myrtle hangs out), a poltergeist who 
delights in breaking stuff, throwing things at students and 
practising the insult of the day. In Rowling, that is to say, the 
muggle world is an exaggerated world (at least, through the home life 
of the Dursleys), and the magical world is a fair reflection of all 
the problems of the real world. That is her inversion. You can't use 
magic to be fabulously rich, or to get followers, or to get a 
political appointment. You still need to threaten, bribe, cheat and 
steal to do that in the magical world. Magic may be part of your 
technique, but it doesn't seem there's an incantation to be 
fabulously rich. Wizards just have a few more tools - wands, potions 
and such - to bribe, cheat, steal and threaten with. Bullies have 
different weapons/methods to bully with. And Umbridge has a 
fascinating torture-yourself pen, don't you think, to use on 15 year 
olds? That's not comfortable or tranquil, to me anyway.

Perhaps it has something to do with the value placed on self control. 
A wizard who loses self control can cause things to happen just 
thinking it. (Thank goodness we can't, at least not literally.) And 
end up in Azkaban for it. That's fine, if people don't react to the 
value placed on self-control by finding other means to acheive their 
inner desires. So, there's a premium on good behaviour, especially 
where muggles are involved. That being the case, hidden Hogwarts is 
like open season on spells and charms not allowed under usual 
circumstances. A bit unsettling, I'd say. The trials and tribulations 
of high school with portable power devices in everyone's pocket. 
Yikes.

I'd like to hear what others say about this. For me, Hogwarts is a 
place full of menace, jealousy and other such things, but also of 
friendship, courage and so forth. But I would never call it a nice or 
tranquil place. Even the architecture has traps (the stair in GOF).

Dan