JKR Preaching? (was Re: Cultural standards ...)

[lupinlore]

No: HPFGUIDX 144432

 
> Ceridwen:
> I disagree.  Telling it to Snape's face is the same thing as 
invoking 
> love of Sirius and making it impossible for Voldemort to possess 
> him.  It's a way of informing the person, in this case Snape if it 
> were to happen, that Harry does see the things Snape did as 
> offensive, but not binding to him now.  It informs Snape that he has 
> no power over Harry, except that which Harry will allow.  It tells 
> Snape that Harry has grown out of his childhood grudges and is a 
> fully-grown man, capable of determining his own destiny, while Snape 
> is still caught in a cycle of remorse and hatred over James.
> 

Well, that may well happen, Ceridwen.  However, it would certainly 
give the lie to much of what JKR has said she's about, i.e. that she's 
not trying to "teach" lessons or "preach" at people.  Granted, she has 
said that her religious beliefs strongly determine the direction of 
the saga -- and rightly so, for if they didn't they wouldn't be much 
in the way of beliefs.  But for something like this to happen would, 
IMO, cross over into out-and-out preaching of the type she has said 
she does not want to do.  It would also, once again purely IMO, be so 
insipid as to inspire nausea following fits of incredulous laughter.  

Of course, it is possible to wed the scenario that you lay out, to an 
extent, with the position that Alla and I are espousing.  This is, in 
effect, what Tolkien did with Saruman and Frodo.  That is when Frodo 
forgave Saruman and spared his life, Saruman did not experience it as 
a release from punishment.  Far from it, his line "You have grown 
wise, hobbit.  Yes, wise and cruel," reveals that Frodo forgiving him 
was one of the most damning and hurtful things Frodo could possibly 
have done, for it meant that Saruman who had once been an angelic 
being was now reduced to accepting forgiveness from a furry-footed 
halfling, and that this would be an agony to him from then on out 
(which was about ninety seconds, until Wormtongue slit his throat).

Of course, depending on how it was done, such a scene might be just as 
preachy as the one you propose.  If JKR wants to avoid the label of 
moralist and still deal with the issue of forgiveness in this context, 
she will have to be very careful indeed.


Lupinlore