Face it, there is a reward for being nice (was Re: Sadistic Snape)

[lupinlore]

No: HPFGUIDX 140403

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "pippin_999" <foxmoth at q...> 
wrote:


> 
> It distances us from the characters a little, yes. But that's
> JKR being post-modern again. Just because something would make
> the story more affecting doesn't mean it's true. Think of all the
> little kids who were disappointed that Snape wasn't the villain in
> SS/PS. Snape makes a much more satisfactory villain than 
> Quirrell or Voldemort, but it doesn't mean that's what he is.
> 

Postmodern?  By some definitions of the term, yes.  Perhaps JKR even 
intends it that way.  But I think it (the distancing effect by which 
we often find ourselves unable to sympathize with the characters and 
feeling contempt for Hogwarts) is much more likely to just be poor 
writing and bad characterization.  Let's face it, JKR is often ham-
fisted beyond belief and deeply enslaved to exhausted and boring 
formulas about heroes and their journeys.

I don't see much in JKR's writing or statements that leads me to 
believe that she is trying to particularly "postmodern" -- whatever 
that means, since if you ask ten people you'll get 25 answers, 
including multiple answers as to whether there really IS such a thing 
or not (a lot of times it depends on the field of expertise of the 
person you are asking).  She may intend to be postmodern sometimes by 
her own understanding -- although I haven't the slightest idea how 
she would define the term postmodernism.  

In fact, I think what JKR is really trying to do is emphasize her 
moral story (concerning which I don't think she has a "postmodern" 
thought in her head by almost any common definition of the term) by 
doing everything in her power to emphasize how "heroic" Harry and his 
friends are.  That means surrounding them with incompetent and 
corrupt adults, or no adults at all.  And thus her writing is 
sometimes ham-fisted and her characterization so unbelievable as to 
jar you right out of the narrative.  Why has Harry lost all his 
father figures?  To emphasize how heroic he is.  Why is the wizarding 
world corrupt?  To emphasize how morally heroic Harry and his friends 
are.  Why does no one pay attention to Harry's emotional and, often, 
even his physical hurts?  To emphasize how heroic he is. Why is 
Hogwarts such a poorly run school filled with such poor and/or 
abusive teachers?  To emphasize how heroic Harry is. 

Is she trying to create an alternative world with alternative values 
in some kind of literary multi-cultural exercise?  I don't think she 
is trying to do any such thing.  She is, quite to the contrary, 
trying to tell what is at its heart a very traditional story about 
very traditional kinds of moral heroism, and if emphasizing the 
shining quality of that moral purity means making the Wizarding World 
look like a repellant and unbelievable cesspool, then so much the 
worse for the Wizarding World.

It really is tiresome, boring, and often very poorly written.  Up 
until book 5, these unfortunate weaknesses were largely in abeyance, 
covered by periods of humor, fabulously quirky episodes, an overall 
sense of wonder, and a sense of confidence that the story was headed 
toward a delightful, creative, and well-written climax.  However, 
unfortunately it appears that near the end of GoF the story 
completely jumped the shark and became a ham-handed morality tale 
slavishly enthralled to exhausted formulas in which Harry must be 
completely alone and unsupported except for a few friends (and, of 
course, the love of his life!) and beset at every side by corruption, 
incompetence, treachery, evil, and strict boundaries fenced with 
thorns and enscribed with the Gospel according to Joseph Campbell -- 
because all of that makes him THE HERO, you see.  If the seventh book 
isn't a spectacular rescue of the series, I suspect in the future a 
very prominent theme will be wonder at how four such triumphs (the 
first four books) could be followed by three thunderous disasters 
(the last three books, if the seventh book doesn't manage to avoid 
the trainwreck set in motion by books five and six).


Lupinlore