Innocent Alby? (longish)

[Renee]

No: HPFGUIDX 123040


--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "dumbledore11214" 
<dumbledore11214 at y...> wrote:
> 
> 
> Alla:
> 
>When 
> RW themes are brought up - it does not matter to me that it IS 
about 
> magic, because then magic becomes to me just a  setting, where 
> recognisable RW themes, characters, emotions take place and that 
is 
> exactly what happens in OOP IMO.
> 
> Again, I am not sure how well JKR managed the transition, but I 
don't 
> see mauch of fairytale aspect ona deeper level of OOP.
> 

Renee:
Oh, "fairytale" shouldn't be taken too litterally, but "fantastic 
literature laden with symbolism" (or something in that vein) is such 
a mouthful... 

To me, magic is not just a setting like any other. As I said, we 
don't exactly know the rules. Did you foresee what the veil in the 
Death room would do before Sirius fell through? Many readers felt 
not just sad because Sirius died, but also disoriented because of 
the way he died (a bit like Harry, who *is* our vicarious explorer 
of the WW but asks disappointingly few general questions). Compare 
this to a story about two people fighting close to the edge of a 
precipice, and it should become clear there's at least some 
difference.  

The characters and emotions are the elements that provide the 
recognition without which we couldn't relate to this story and its 
characters. But why introduce magic, why fill these books with 
symbols (the animal symbolism alone is overwhelming), just to 
provide a decorative and amusing backcloth? There's a lot going on 
underneath the surface that we won't pick up by merely looking at 
psychological, social and political developments. According to JKR, 
the big question of OotP is why DD didn't kill Voldemort when he had 
the chance. We know that Harry is destined to vanquish Voldemort or 
be vanquished. Between these two, do you think a mundane conclusion 
to the story is very likely? 

By the way, I agree with what Pippin and Geoff say about the more 
realistic tone of OotP reflecting a development in Harry's world 
view. In fact, I claimed something similar in message #118155 
concerning Harry's changing perception of Dumbledore. Still, the 
setting as such hasn't changed, the magic works like it did before, 
the symbols are still there, and the first books are still different 
in tone. And it's when the more realistic interpretation invited by 
OotP is projected back onto the earlier, less realistic books, that 
you get this transition problem. Which is why a more symbolic 
interpretation seems so promising to me: it has a better chance to 
keep the whole series together.

Renee