DD and Delores (Was: Bad Writing?)

[lupinlore]

No: HPFGUIDX 163072

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Talisman" <talisman22457 at ...> 
wrote:
>
<SNIP>
>  
> 
> Talisman, pointing out, yet again, that the HP series is written 
> predominantly in Romance mode, wherein DD is most certainly the 
> displaced god.  (He isn't an actual god, because this isn't mythology 
> proper, but he serves the literary purpose.)
>

Yes, I've seen that interpretation before from various people.  To 
which my answer is, if Dumbledore is God, sign me up for the First 
Church of Satan.  Sorry, but his failure to protect Harry from abuse 
really is, I think, that contemptible.

This does bring up a point that was made long ago in the context of a 
Dursley discussion.  The basic problem with DD is that he begins as a 
walking plot device in what is essentially a fairy tale.  By Book VI, 
he is supposed to be a full-fledged character in a very different type 
of story (dark fantasy or melodrama or whatever you want to call it).  
But he still has to carry the duties of a walking plot device, even as 
he is trying to act like a full-fledged character.  And the two 
functions sometimes don't coordinate very well, leaving him with huge 
problems of consistency and presentation  -- especially in situations 
like the end of OOTP or the middle of HBP when he's trying to act like 
a character but has to still work as a plot device.


Lupinlore