Moralising and preaching/Loose ends in Book 7

[Mari]

No: HPFGUIDX 145851

What an interesting thread, Geoff :-)


Geoff: 

> I think this may depend on how you interpret moralising and 
> sermonising.  We often draw comparisons with "The Lord of the 
Rings" 
> and the Narnia books. In these stories, here and there are 
occasions 
> when folk have suggested that Tolkien and Lewis were guilty of 
doing 
> just this in their works. In the case of Lewis, it is probably true 
> because he made it clear that he intended "The Lion, the Witch and 
> the Wardrobe"  to be an allegory of the Christian way to faith.

Mari:

Just had to jump in here; I did my honours dissertation on the Narnia 
series and C.S Lewis clearly states that "The Lion, the Witch and the 
Wardrobe" began with a picture in his mind; the faun, and the lamp 
post in the snowy wood. 

I can only imagine what a dreadful book it would have been if Lewis 
had sat down before he wrote and said "I am going to write a 
Christian allegorical story for children". The way he describes it is 
that Aslan came 'bounding in' and insisted on being a part of the 
story as it went along. I find the creative process a fascinating 
thing to reflect on, and think it is seldom something that a writer 
completely controls.

Geoff again:

> If someone has a strong faith, then that is going to permeate and 
> influence what they do and think and it will probably show itself 
in 
> their writing unless they make a great effort to mask it or write 
> from an opposite point of view for effect. It depends, as I said, 
as 
> to how far you consider writing from your own world view and 
letting 
> that underpin your fiction constitutes moralising and sermonising. 

Mari again:

I absolutely agree; this is one of the reasons I was not surprised to 
hear that JKR has stated she is a Christian; the underlying world 
view of the HP books is definitely compatible, at the least, with 
Christianity. I think if a person is a Christian, their books will be 
Christian in this sense whether they mention Jesus or God directly or 
not. Also, bad writing is bad writing whether it is Christian or not. 

<snip excellent discussion of morality in HP>

This is the thing I most enjoy about the HP series; as you say, the 
characters are human, they have real choices to make, and the choices 
are not always easy. I don't get the feeling that everything will be 
tied up into a nice little bow at the end, but the resolution will be 
satisfying I am sure. JKR is far too good a writer and creator of 
characters to oversimplify or cop out.

Mari.