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

[Jon Loux]

No: HPFGUIDX 124689



--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "horridporrid03" 
<horridporrid03 at y...> wrote:
> 
> >>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, 
>  (Edit)
> Betsy

Very good analysis.  As anyone who has read "Hero of a Thousand 
Faces" by Joseph Campbell knows, the hero/heroin must pass
through 
involuntary, and painful, phases, culminating in the revelation of 
his or her own greatness and destiny.  If he's lucky, he lives to 
ponder it later.  The hero is not a victim of his upbringing, he is 
the result of his upbringing because of his response to and triumph 
over it.  It makes him what he is in a way that any other upbringing 
would not.

Harry, like all heroes, has a choice.  He chose to go to Gryffindor 
house, even though he would have made a perfectly good Slytherin.  
Quite possibly he would have made a better Slytherin than 
Gryffindor.  Why couldn't he have lived in the lap of luxury in
the 
Wizarding World and still chosen to take the hard and humble road?  
Good question and it's been done before.  Siddhartha grew up as a 
prince and, due to a prophecy concerning his two possible destinies, 
was sheltered and coddled in exactly the way that Harry was not.  At 
the right moment, he chose to become the Buddha.  Harry could have 
been propelled along this literary pathway, too, but, well he 
wasn't.  Authors' choice.

Rowling shows us enough background in the forms of Riddle's,
Snape's 
and Harry's childhood to make emotional suffering a common 
denominator, and, therefore, factor it out, since each participant 
made a different choice.  Voldemort chose evil.  Harry chose good.  
Snape? We're not sure which one he chose. Do their past
experiences 
influence who they become? Yes.  Are they predestined to a 
particular role?  Not so sure.  The hero is formed and shaped by his 
adversarial relationships more often than by eleventh hour choice, 
as in Siddhartha's life.  This makes him the underdog overcoming 
adversary instead of being rescued from it or obsessing on it.  As a 
literary element, it makes for a better story.

Jon.