Notes on Literary uses of magic in Terabithia, Pan's Labyrinth and Harry Potter

[tbernhard2000]

No: HPFGUIDX 167953

dan:
> > Magic presents  circumstances equivalent to real world 
circumstances in Rowling, so that Rowling can present, with some 
degree of safety from reactionism, a leftist, probably anarchist 
message.

SSSusan:
> Could you explain this final point a little more?

dan:

Let me add something unfinished from my essay in response to you.

If magic is practical in Rowling, magic folk are not - they are 
subject to the same foibles as muggles - Arthur's plugs are as silly 
in the magic world as in the muggle one - politicians are just as 
corrupt, and motived by self-interest. The importance of maintaining 
the appearance of peace, law and order is more important than any 
tangible, albeit hidden threat. Newspapers mislead, or outright lie. 
Government interfers directly in the affairs of education, if they 
deem it necessary. Abuse occurs where self-satisfied administrators 
are blind to it. In fact, these foibles re affirm on every page that 
Rowling is talking about THIS world, the one we live in, and not some 
separate artificial magical one. We are not muggles - muggledom is a 
state of ignorance we have left by picking up the books - our world 
is best described by Rowling's magical one -  we are magic - we have 
tools that can be and are used for good or evil - the chrome of magic 
is what allows Rowling to create situations where ethical dramas can 
be played out. The special circumstance is that the raw emotional 
honesty of youth can be brought to light because the youth in the 
magical world have powerful tools for making themselves heard, and 
their idealism, their learning, is essential in learning to use the 
machinery of magic. Yes, machinery - and I'm not the first to 
identify Rowling's magic as a machinery.

Can you, however, imagine having items in our real world schools that 
kill with a couple words spoken properly? In Rowling, kids have 
power, kids are the saviours of the world, the real ethical leaders, 
with assistance from sympathetic elders, like Dumbledore. It reminds 
me a little of the anarchist youth pre 9/11 in Seattle and Goteburg 
and so forth. But these kids are wiser and have more tools. Yet they 
are struggling with the same stupid leadership in political terms. 

We cannot talk about it the same way, without the chrome of magic. 
Rowling's genius is that she can.

dan