DD's dilemma + owl post

[Jen Reese]

No: HPFGUIDX 126375


> SSSusan:
> Yep, I did say something along these lines offlist.  To clarify a 
> wee bit, I had said that I *can* see JKR thinking so fully that DD 
> saw leaving Harry with the Dursleys as his only option, that she 
> never gave all the rest of those issues we've talked about that 
much 
> thought [not checking up on him; not going back & intervening over 
> the years; not threatening the Dursleys a little more -- *if* in 
> fact none of that happened].  
> 
> (I also wrote this before I thought more fully about the 
possibility 
> of a "return protection" offered by DD to Petunia.  This has 
altered 
> my thinking somewhat about DD's options.)

Jen: On another related thought: I try to imagine a story where 
Harry was raised a different way or where Dumbledore intervened or 
the Dursleys were different people.

Most of the scenarios I run through my head pale in comparison to 
what JKR actually created. I personally don't care to read about how 
DD attempted to convert the Dursleys, or save Harry from their 
fiendish ways. It sacrifices the story for political correctness 
IMO. The idea of DD placing Harry with the Dursleys, then spending 
the next 11 years trying to make them act a certain way sounds like 
a social service case history, not a compelling, one-of-a-kind, 
fantasy-based, fictional story.

Even if JKR did think through all the possible ramifications of her 
plot, and still decided to depict the story, Harry, DD and the 
Dursleys the way she did, I applaud her for that. She's created a 
moment in history as much as a ficitonal construct, and she's 
created nothing to be ashamed of, or to explain away or to correct 
for people who don't agree with her story. 

I can't say for sure, but if you removed the Dursleys from the story 
and had Harry raised with Wizards, or made the Dursleys different 
characters or even changed the scope of the DD character to more of 
an interventionist type, I think some of the magic would be lost. 

In the first scenario we wouldn't get to see Harry enter the magical 
world for one thing, as he'd already be there. That was the hook for 
me, the magic of the story--Harry got a one-of-a-kind oppoortunity 
to leave behind this totally disastrous life to be a *wizard*. Who 
can't relate to having someone appear and say, 'this isn't who you 
really are, let me show you the magical world you really belong to." 

In the second scenario, making the Dursleys different characters, 
well there's a bit of room there but nothing which is compelling for 
me personally.

Say the Dursleys are exactly as they are and raise Harry as 
a 'pampered prince' like Dudley. OK. Maybe JKR could get away with 
making Harry the same character he his now, but that would be a 
stretch. Some people say it's unbelievable that Harry is just a 
regular guy after being raised by the Dursleys, but that's not 
unbelievable to me. As a social worker in RL I meet phenomenal 
people like that all the time. It would be more of a stretch to have 
Harry be the character he is after being raised like Dudley, IMO.

One possibility would be to make the Dursleys  basically loving-if-
flawed parents like we all are, coaching Harry along, understanding 
and nurturing his magical skills when they appear. Treating him like 
a son, and welcoming his admission to Hogwarts with excitement and 
acceptance rather than fear and rage. Bleeech--that's a boring story 
IMO. The entire WW and the loving Dursleys behind him all the way to 
his ultimate defeat of the Dark Lord. Where's the magic in that?

No, I love what JKR has done and see it as a package deal. Even 
though I spend my time deconstructing the story, ultimately what JKR 
said in an interview is the lens through which I view the HP series: 

"I sweated blood over that story to make it work, but it really came 
from my heart. Only later can you start analyzing it. But you can 
overanalyze, too. I had a woman tell me it was clear to her that 
Harry was so abused that he becomes schizophrenic, and that 
everything that happens from the point of the arrival of the letters 
about Hogswart is his own escape into a sort of torture-fantasy. I 
tried to be polite and say something like, 'Well, that would be one 
way of looking at it, I guess.' But I was kind of scared. One of the 
nicest things about writing for children is that you don't find them 
deconstructing novels. Either they like it or they don't like it. " 
(Book Links, 1999).

Jen, who so loves Harry's story exactly as it is.