Writers Fiat (was: Stockholm Syndrome - was No sympathy for Kreacher)

[horridporrid03]

No: HPFGUIDX 124628


>>phoenixgod2000:
>That very special thing about Harry is called Writers Fiat.<
<snip>

Betsy:
You've hit the nail on the head, Phoenixgod.  Though I'm going to 
twist your original post around a little bit. <g>  Something we have 
to keep in mind is that Harry Potter is a certain genre. Kind of a 
mish-mash of many, actually, but I'm going to keep it simple for this 
post and use the one I think applies.  I, erm, can't think of the 
exact *name* for this genre (Hero's Journey, Magical/Special Child, 
Fairy Tale?) but I definitely know it when I see it.

It's about a child, with a special and amazing gift that s/he 
(usually he) knows nothing about.  The gift is usually very powerful 
and quite possibly dangerous if used incorrectly, and generally the 
only thing that can save the world from certain and horrible doom.

Ignorance of the gift is one of the rules of the genre.  Strange 
things may happen around the child, but he's got no idea why, and 
probably worries that he's a freak.  Which leads to another rule: The 
child is usually fairly friendless.  He may have one friend (often in 
a weaker position than the child), but on the whole, the child is 
fairly lonely in the beginning of the tale.

Here's another important rule:  The child must be an orphan - maybe 
discovered floating down a river, or crying on a hillside as an 
infant, maybe with a special object or strange birth-mark the only 
clue as to his birthright. 

And the most important rule for the purpose of this discussion: The 
child is badly treated by those who take him in to raise him.  He's 
usually given the crappiest jobs in the village or on the farm, the 
rudest place to sleep, the least amount of food, and generally gets 
the tar beaten out of him for the smallest of reasons.  He's 
mistrusted by the other villagers (though there may be a few folks 
who sympathize and do what little they can to make his life a bit 
easier) and picked on by his peers.

Harry Potter's life with the Dursleys perfectly fits those rules.  Of 
course, he's being raised in a suburbs rather than a farm, and his 
chores are relatively simple compared to a pre-industrial farm boy's, 
but JKR still follows those rules.

The interesting thing to me (as I've discussed in earlier posts) is 
per the rules of this genre, Harry actually has it fairly good.  He 
doesn't subsist off of the pigs' leavings.  He doesn't get strapped 
for breathing too loudly.  He doesn't have a back-breaking amount of 
labor to accomplish before the sun rises.  He sleeps inside.

I think there are two reasons for this -- first of all JKR chose to 
set her story in the modern era, and you just can't beat a pre-
industrial farm for horrible conditions (just think of the bed 
bugs!).  And second, I'm sure she knew that she'd be pulling her 
fairy tale closer to real life as the books progressed.  Behavior 
that we can let slide in a fairy tale setting becomes unacceptable in 
real life. (Not, of course, that JKR is going for straight realism - 
it's still a fairy tale.)

But she still needed to put Harry through the opening gambit of the 
fairy tale.  Enter the Dursleys.  However, the Dursleys, for this 
kind of tale are not that bad.  Compare their behavior towards Harry, 
with Aunt Marge's.  In the fairy tale, Harry should have lived with 
Aunt Marge (or Aunt Marge should have been living with the 
Dursleys).  Because Aunt Marge is the best character to really make 
Harry's life a hell and fulfill the rules of the genre.

But JKR chooses to keep Aunt Marge away. Petunia even nixes the idea 
of Marge as babysitter in PS/SS, chapter 18.  Through Aunt Marge, JKR 
is letting us, the readers, know that she's fully aware of the rules, 
can write them if she chose to, but has decided to go easy on young 
Harry.  Maybe because she knew that Dumbledore had to choose this 
life for Harry (usually in the fairy tale the child has been lost 
and/or thought killed).  Maybe JKR realized that eventually 
Dumbledore would have some explaining to do, and so, though she *had* 
to follow the rules as much as possible, she made sure Dumbledore 
didn't come across as completely heartless.  It worked for me 
anyway. :)

Betsy