Theory of theme & Opinions

[Nora Renka]

No: HPFGUIDX 112024

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "sevenhundredandthirteen" 
wrote...

I'm not entirely sure what I'm doing here, honestly, but there's one 
thing that jumped out at me.
 
> Laurasia's opinion is that:
> 
> This means your irony/metaphor theory has just gone right out
> the window. It relies on knowing that JKR holds disdain for 
> the real world-occult, yet has written a book about it. Which 
> means she must have done so with the *intent* to be ironic. 
> By your own reasoning- it is not necessary relevant or any 
> of our (or your!) business, as you presume it is, to examine 
> whether JKR has an intent to be ironic or literal.

I suspect I may be misinterpreting what's being argued over at this 
point of the debate, but the relationship to 'real world occult' is a 
little interesting.

I will admit upfront that I find the attempts to read HP in 
light/frame of mind of actual occult traditions slightly on the 
obnoxious side, largely because it depends upon interpreting symbols 
that JKR has used to her *own* ends AS symbols that are being used 
with the original meaning, in my experience.

JKR doesn't believe in magic.  This is interview certified.  I 
suspect that most people who write fantasy novels with magic don't 
believe in magic.  The fun of writing a fantasy novel is, in part, 
that you get to make up the ground rules for the world that you're 
creating.  One cannot make terribly effective generalizations 
about 'magic' in fantasy literature because it varies so greatly from 
system to system.  We have so much fun in the speculating about the 
ground rules, too--how do Portkeys work, what does the noise in 
Apparation mean, etc.

Or maybe I'm just confused by the statement, whether it's being said 
as a pro or contra, that JKR is writing a book about the real world 
occult--because she's not.  She's cribbing symbols and mythology all 
over the place, but is fairly original in her synthesis of 
everything, so things often don't line up with the source material.  
Alas for the Death Eater fans out there, I really don't see any 
support for reading Voldemort as an esoteric Gnostic... (and yes, I 
have seen that argued).

-Nora is going to keep her nose out of the rest of this, but notes 
that Wimslett and Beardsley have taken a solid beating over the years