Dumbledore's plans in HBP.

[lupinlore]

No: HPFGUIDX 162701

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "eggplant107" <eggplant107 at ...> 
wrote:

<SNIP>
> 
> I don't believe JKR is trying to send a moral message clear or
> otherwise, nor should she. Like any novelist her first 
responsibility
> is just to write a good story. Therefore in her books we have no
> reason to assume good will always be rewarded or evil always 
punished.
> Fortunately. 


And yet self-admittedly she IS trying to send a moral message, hence 
the "epitome of goodness."  Note, not "Dumbledore tries," 
but "epitome of goodness."  That reveals an enormous amount about 
what her intentions are.  And once you reveal your intentions, then 
you are liable for how well those intentions come across.

Actually, I think what you outline is a very good answer, IF the 
author herself had made it.  That is, if she had said "I'm not 
interested in the moral status of my characters but rather in telling 
a good story" then fair enough.  But ultimately, despite her 
professed "horror of preaching," that isn't what she's said.
> 

> 
> > yes, the issue of Harry being abused, 
> > and Dumbledore allowing it and evidently 
> > approving of it, is the very heart of the problem. 
> 
> Well, I suppose Dumbledore though Harry being abused was better than
> Harry being dead. I tend to think pretty much the same thing myself.

If that's what JKR thinks, she needs to make a much better case for 
it than she has to this point.  Otherwise she has an epitome of 
goodness who stands by and allows Harry to be abused by his guardians 
and his teachers -- which mucks up the moral message she very much IS 
trying to send.


> 
> Why? History will remember the books not the interviews. When she 
was
> writing OOP she said it would be shorter than GoF, she was wrong 
and I
> don't care.

History is not what we are dealing with.  History will take care of 
itself -- and indeed will change its mind multiple times.  Or rather, 
since there is no such thing as history per se but only what people 
say about the past, people who speak about these things in the future 
will say multiple things and change there minds multiple times.  We 
are dealing with the messages JKR is trying to send and whether or 
not they are getting across.  And in many cases, particularly with 
regard to Dumbledore and the abuse of Harry Potter, her message 
sending is a catastrophic failure.

Lupinlore