Transcendant Wisdom?

[Tonks]

No: HPFGUIDX 128471

Lupinlore said:
One of the GREATEST TEACHERS OF THEM ALL? Err, ah, uhm, yeah,
ahem. Sorry, but IMO that is also elevating JKR to a position well
beyond what she deserves. A very good writer she most certainly is,
most of the time anyway. But Shakespeare has nothing to worry
about, and she wouldn't have cut any great shakes on the Committee
of Translators that translated the King James Version of the Bible.
Much less is she in the company of the people who actually wrote the
contents of the Bible, or the Talmud, or the Koran, or the
Upanishads, or the Gitas, or the Tao Te Ching, or the Sutras.


Tonks replys:
Perhaps I should be very careful how I chose my words.  First I did 
not mean that JKR was THE greatest teacher of ALL TIME.  I said she 
was one of the greatest teachers of all.  I was thinking of our 
times and the Hogwarts experience.  I certainly didn't mean to 
equate her with the authors of great spiritual classics like the 
Bible, Tao Te Ching, etc.


Annemehr:
Here's one example of what she really did say (from the World Book 
Day
chat of March '04):

Majeed from Bristol Grammar School - Bristol: "To what extent did 
you conceive Harry Potter as a moral tale?"
****SCHOOLS COMPETITION WINNER****
JK Rowling replies -> "I did not conceive it as a moral tale, the
morality sprang naturally out of the story, a subtle but important
difference.
====================================

SSSusan:
Here are a couple of quotes which speak to this topic.

Q: What do you think of the people who want to ban your books?

A: I think they are... uh.. what's a good word? Misguided. I think
these are very moral books. (snip)
--
Now, I don't set out thinking, "this is what they're going to learn
in this book", ever. I have a real horror of preaching to anyone, or
of trying to make, you know, enormous points. You know, I'm not
driven by the need to "teach" children anything, although those
things do come up naturally in the stories, which I think is quite
moral. Because it's a battle between good and evil. [Diane Rehm
Show, 1999]


Tonks replys:
OK, so maybe she doesn't have this grand scheme that I thought that 
she had, but she does say that there is a teaching there.  Not a 
preaching, a teaching, and that is sprang from the story rather that 
the story coming from it, I guess.  

Still I do think that she is teaching us through the metaphor of the 
story.  The best teachers do not tell you straight out, especially 
when dealing with the lessons of life.  That is why there are so 
many folktales.  That is the reason why Jesus himself taught in 
parables.  Metaphors and parables speak directly to our subconscious 
mind, when the most profound learning takes place.  And that is what 
I think that she is doing, teaching in story form some profound 
truths of life to children of an age when they are most receptive to 
hearing.  I don't think that was an accident.  Either she thought of 
it herself or was inspired somehow to direct the story to 10-12 year 
olds.  That is the time when children are most receptive to stories 
of this type.  Earlier and they may not understand the subtle ideas 
of a morality that is not black and white, and older and they are in 
the rebellion years and not receptive any longer.  So if 
purposefully or just by some *chance* she is doing what needs to be 
done in the way, time and place that is right for our society.  
There is a saying in the East "when the student is ready the teacher 
will appear".  And I think that she has.  Sometimes we teach others 
without even knowing that we are.  So even if she says that she 
didn't set out to teach a moral truth, she is teaching a moral 
truth, and she does acknowledge that HP is a moral story.

Tonks_op