Why are wizards so incompetent? (Was Face it, there is a reward for being nice (was Re: Sadistic Snape))

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 140452

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, Katherine Farmar
<puritybrown at g...> wrote:
> Pippin:
> > >
> > > 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.
> > >
> 
> Lupinlore:
> >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
andfeeling 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.

Pippin:
What I meant by 'postmodern' was that JKR writes with an awareness
of literary conventions and often uses them in unconventional ways.
I agree that her morality is not post-modern at all. There is
definitely good and evil in the Potterverse, but, IMO, she uses the
tools of postmodernism to expose the ways in which conventional 
thinking about  good and evil can blind us to what she considers the 
reality. 

Fudge is laughably incompetent -- and so we fall into JKR's trap,
because if I am right and JKR has one last unsuspected villain up
her sleeve, then *the readers* are Fudge, unable to take Voldemort 
seriously, hoping the wrong man will be caught-- while all the time  
the right man has stolen his way into their good graces and 
simultaneously prepared to stab Harry in the back. 

Katherine:
> But push it too far, and this explanation starts to crack. It
doesn't explain why Voldemort hasn't read the Evil Overlord List
 (*this* is the guy that had the wizarding world living in utter 
terror for eleven years?).

The ability to understand and account for human motivations 
and the ability to plan your way out of a wet paper bag are *not* 
things that magic can substitute for. So as far as that's concerned, 
yes, I chalk it up incompetent writing.

Pippin:
You're asking why Jo didn't make Voldie a grounded, reality-based
evil overlord?  Have you ever heard of a grounded, reality-based
person who *wanted*  to be  an evil overlord? Of course not! There
are very dangerous men in the world, to be sure, but unlimited 
ambition cannot possibly coexist with a realistic grasp of one's 
limitations. 

In real life, good people act like idiots all the time. It's only
in stories that we expect better. At least the wizarding world has 
some excuse. No one has a college education. And considering that 
the last generation was decimated by Voldemort, it's not surprising 
that there's a dearth of competent adults and the few
who remain are so overstretched that they can't help but fumble
some of their responsibilities. That's happened in history too.

And Harry has acted like an idiot, in fact I'm pretty certain
he's acting like an idiot now. In which case, JKR wants us to see
him as a hero not for his wisdom or his discernment, but, as 
Dumbledore said, for his ability to want nothing more than to see 
Voldemort defeated,  and for his willingness to use the special 
abilities he has received  for that purpose alone.

Pippin