What JKR Finds Important

[syroun]

No: HPFGUIDX 116064


Antosha:
> This strikes me as analogous to the standard high school English 
> teacher line that Hamlet is 'incapapable of action' in spite of 
> the fact that he plots, feigns madness, sets up traps, 
> kills a man, leaps into his girlfriend's grave... But, of course, 
> he doesn't kill the bad guy till the end. So he hasn't 'acted.' 
> Sheesh.

Syroun replies:

Actually, Hamlet becomes a victim of his own procrastination. That 
is his tragic flaw, and I strongly question if Harry has any 
similarity to Hamlet, at all. On the other hand, I agree with your 
assessment of Harry - he always has been, and always will be an 
emotive person.
 
Antosha continues:
> Harry IS emotional in the first four books--very emotional. It's 
> just that, like many kids, he has no language or awareness of what 
> he's feeling until it forces him into action. Anger and fear have 
> caused him to use magic without meaning to, from his escapes from 
> Dudley to blowing up Aunt Marge. He feels enormous concern (read 
> empathy or, if you feel like it, love for Ginny when she is taken 
> by Tom Riddle in CoS....Cho reduces him to mush. (That may be 
> hormones rather than emotion, if you want to get picky.)

Syroun adds: 
I agree but I tend to see these as an emotive reaction, all 
fundamentally defined through love or hate.

Antosha continues:
> My wife, who teaches teens, almost couldn't keep reading OotP 
> after a few hundred pages: the teen angst got to her. 

Syroun writes:
I agree with your wife...I find OOTP very dark. It leaves me with a 
feeling of impending doom. I have read it twice and the effect has 
not lessened. It only makes me fear what my reaction will be to 6 
and 7.

Antosha continues:
> The thing is, it is remarkable that JKR is following Harry (and 
> his friends) as they make that transition into self-awareness that 
> should be (but isn't always) adulthood.

Finally, Syroun writes:
I think that part of the attraction that many feel for the HP 
series, is that we can so easily liken it to our own life 
experiences. We relate to it on a personal level and for me, as a 
parent, I find it important that children (of the proper age) can 
read these books and watch what these kids are going through and 
find, in the end, that they survive despite their unfortunate 
families, bigotry and misguided societial norms, and even thrive 
despite the odds.