Dumbledore's plans in HBP.

[lupinlore]

No: HPFGUIDX 162744

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Lynda Cordova" <moosiemlo at ...> 
wrote:
>

> Lynda:
> 
is also inevitable, but since I don't
> think that the moral is the ultimate goal of the story, but that 
the story
> itself is the goal, it doesn't work me over extraordinarily when 
the moral
> gets lost for awhile. I have so far found that it reappears, 
although maybe
> in a slightly altered form.
> 
> Lynda


Well, I think that's true, with two caveats.  One is that many of the 
moral messages sent are, I think, unintentional and even 
contemptible.  In that the unintentional morals JKR sends "cross the 
wires" with the intentional ones, she has a problem, and sometimes a 
very severe one.  Pick your place, but there are many situations (the 
Dursleys, Dumbledore and his reprehensible policies toward Snape, 
Hermione and Marietta) where these unintentional morals -- if they 
indeed be unintentional -- become so overwhelming that not only is 
the intentional moral lost, but the story itself is drowned.  I.E. in 
many places where Snape is allowed to abuse his students and the 
response, at least on my part and that of others I know, is that "the 
Dumbledore you want us to believe in would never allow this and it is 
simply an hamfisted and contemptible device to make Harry's life 
difficult -- story disbelieved."

The second caveat is that sometimes when morals "resurface" as you 
say, they are disruptive even if intended.  The scene with DD at the 
Dursleys is a good example of a moral "resurfacing" like a submarine 
to devestate the storyscape, raising questions about consistency of 
character, and even creating unintentional moral issues in some 
people's minds -- that is, muggle-baiting.  It would have been better 
to keep the moral from disappearing in the first place.


Lupinlore