who is the hero? was DD and the rat (was:Re: Minerva McGonagall-/Dumbledore)

[justcarol67 at yahoo.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 116517


Kneasy wrote:
> > Without the adults it'd be as mindless as a Disney (spit) 'young 
> adult'  film, pandering to the limitless egos of idiotic adolescents 
> who somehow always know more than any grown-up, resulting in a 
> resolution that is facile, moronic and has all the credibility of a 
> nine-bob note. 
> > 
> > Adults dismiss such stuff as the rubbish it is.
> > Now if JKR goes along that route I shall be severely pissed - so 
> also, I'd venture to say, would many on the site; this is after all, 
> a site for grown-ups, not one for retarded teenagers with delusions 
> of social adequacy and a yearning for the stereotypical resolutions 
> reflecting the non-existent standards inherent in many a television-
> induced intellect narcosis, often called popular programming. 
> > 
> > Expectations are high and I'm confident that she won't crash and 
> burn at the final bend. It's much too intricate, detailed and 
> ambivalent for that sort of let-down to be likely.
> 
> Potioncat replied:
> But, face it, the series is about Harry Potter  It isn't "Severus 
> Snape and the Unfortunate Events at Hogwarts."  It isn't "Albus 
> Dumbledore: Puppetmaster of the Wizarding World."  It's "Harry 
> Potter and the..."  Harry gets to be the Hero.  He may not like it, 
> but he does. 
>  
> Where was Snape when the trio braved the enchantments and went after 
> the stone?  Where was McGonagall when Harry went into the Chamber?  
> Was anyone in the graveyard with Harry?  Snape's burst of glory, 
> rescuing the trio in the Shrieking Shack, earns him a headache and a 
> grand embarrassment.
> 
> Nope. It won't be the grownups that save the day...but I'm sure JKR 
> can pull it off and we won't be disappointed.


Carol responds:
While JKR is primarily interested in Harry, many of her readers,
especially adult readers are not. no one is disputing that Harry will
save the day. That's a given. No one is arguing that Snape or
McGonagall is the main character, only that it is possible and
profitable to analyze them in relation to plot or theme or motivation
or even, possibly symbolism because they add depth to what, as Kneasy
says, would otherwise be adolescent fantasy. Granted, the books are
mostly about Harry, and are presented mostly from his POV (which tends
to complicate matters), but they are not *all* about Harry--unless we
in this group are deluded in finding significance in conflicts that
occurred before Harry was born, or in attempting to define evil as it
exists in the WW (e.g., Dark Magic and the Unforgiveable Curses), or
in exploring the nature of Lily's self-sacrifice, to name only a few
examples. I believe, though this is just my opinion, that her adult
characters are greater literary creations than her juvenile
characters, realistic as her depiction of adolescence may be in some
respects. At any rate, if you're older than JKR, as I am, you
naturally find the adult characters more interesting than the
children, however realistically depicted.

As I said in another post, great literature, or even good literature,
remains open to interpretation (and I'm talking about finished works,
not WIP here) even after multiple readings. If we limit ourselves to
discussion of Harry, as if he is all that matters, we miss key
elements of the world JKR has created and its inhabitants. IMO, it is
absolutely necessary to examine other characters to recognize those
elements. And there are elements of setting, too--the nature of wand
magic, for example, or her use of mythological or invented
creatures--that enable us to better understand the books without
necessarily helping us to understand Harry. There is more to a book
than its protagonist and his conflicts and more to most of the
characters than their role as plot devices or their relationship to Harry.

Whether JKR knows it or not and intended it or not, these books are
bigger than she is, and I confidently predict that the characters she
has created will outlive her.

Sybill Trelawney, erm, Carol, stunned to find herself in total
agreement with Kneasy on this one