Request for new topics

[lupinlore]

No: HPFGUIDX 152401

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "justcarol67" <justcarol67 at ...> 
wrote:
>
> Lately most of the posts on this list have involved attacking or at
> least passing judgment on certain characters, primarily Merope and
> other female characters (and, of course, Snape and Dumbledore). 
Rather
> than imposing our own standards of behavior and morality on people 
who
> have no way of knowing what postmodern Muggles think is right or 
wrong
> and probably would not care if they did know, or arguing about which
> is worse, Ginny's immature hostility to Fleur or Fleur's tactless
> indifference to the family's tastes in food and music, can we try to
> come up with some new ideas that actually help us find meaning in 
the
> books? Not Horcruxes, please, unless someone can find something new 
to
> say about them. I could talk about foreshadowing and narrative
> technique, but I'd probably put everyone to sleep.
> 
> Ideas, anyone? Any themes we can discuss besides love, revenge, and
> immortality? Can we look at the books themselves instead of our own
> lives and social views?
> 

But that is where ALL meaning comes from, our own lives and social 
views.  The books, or any books, have absolutely no meaning in and of 
themselves.  They are only bits of processed wood, bound together and 
splotched with ink.  The characters only have meaning in that they 
reflect or antagonize the real world.  They have no life or content 
or message or meaning or power, otherwise.  They do not in any way 
exist except as they are granted meaning by readers -- and readers 
ALWAYS grant meaning from their own lives and beliefs and views and 
experiences.

The plea that the characters do not know anything about modern muggle 
morality is, I think, beside the point.  The characters do not know 
anything because they are not real.  Wizards don't exist.  Muggles 
don't exist, either, in that that is a category defined in opposition 
to wizards.  WE are the real ones.  WE are the ones that exist.  WE 
are the ones whose views and experiences and beliefs are important, 
NOT imaginary characters described by the aforesaid ink splotches.

Therefore, I would say, the ONLY possible meaningful discussion is 
about our own beliefs and experiences as reflected through the 
characters.  The ONLY meaningful discussions, I think, are those that 
relate to the heartfelt themes of justice and revenge and love and 
family and all those other things that illuminate our own lives and 
that we bring to those ink splotches.  

Absent that sort of bringing the real world to the text, and our own 
experiences and beliefs, then all those ink blotches have, I think, 
no power whatsoever.  The beliefs of the characters are, I think, of 
no importance at all.  The culture of the characters is, I think, of 
no importance at all, in and of itself.  The world of the wizards is, 
I think, totally worthless, in and of itself, because it is not 
real.  Nothing about it exists.  Its only worth lies in its relation 
to US, the real and existing readers, who breath life into the 
characters as having relationship to our world.  Our world is, I 
think, always and forever the ONLY important one.  And absent that 
connection to the real world, the only IMPORTANT world, then I think 
any kind of search for meaning in these or any other books must be 
futile.


Lupinlore