[HPforGrownups] Re: War

[IreneMikhlin]

No: HPFGUIDX 142466

kaitoujuliet wrote:

>>Sometimes war is not optional and it requires violent and ugly
>>acts from moral people.
> 
> Wellllll...that may be true in Real Life.  But in a fictional universe, 
> war can be anything the author wants it to be.  It can be optional or 
> not optional, just or unjust or questionable.  A fictional character 
> *may* be able to engage in war without becoming ugly.  It's all in the 
> spin the author gives it.
> 
> I humbly suggest that it would be more fruitful to ask what war means 
> within J.K. Rowling's fictional universe, what Harry's decision means, 
> and what the book is saying about the issues involved.

Well, in the terms of war movies it was fairly obvious to me that JKR 
thinks more in terms of "Alexander Nevsky" than "Apocalypse Now" if you 
see what I mean.

To go back to the original idea that the talk between Harry and 
Dumbledore was somehow scary and immoral, that's really depends if she 
sees the Order vs. Voldemort war as a just one, more similar to WW2 than 
to Vietnam. If she does, then I don't see how it's immoral even within 
Christian morality.

This most Christian of books, Narnia, has Aslan giving Peter a sword 
before the battle, encouraging him to kill his first enemy, and the only 
thing he wants him to be ashamed of is "not wiping his sword".

I think some readers have this preconceived idea of Dumbledore as a kind 
and jolly grandfather based on Harry's impression in book 1. But Harry 
grows, and learns and understands more of Dumbledore. Instead of 
shouting "who is this impostor and what'd he done with the 'real' 
Dumbledore", "the Dumbledore I know and love would never do that" etc. 
maybe we should take into account the impressions from the rest of the 
books.

Irene