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

[cubfanbudwoman]

No: HPFGUIDX 167963

dan:
> > 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 reaffirm on every page that Rowling is talking 
> > about THIS world, the one we live in, and not a 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. 
> > 
> > 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. 

Lealess:
> I don't think it is unusual for literary works to take the view 
> that children know best and adults are idiots. <snip> This doesn't 
> translate to anarchism for me, however.  <snip>  Anarchy for me 
> involves not only self-determination, but the conscious choice of 
> alternate arrangements to answer the questions posed by arbitrary 
> and forceful authority.  The D.A., a voluntary organization closed 
> to some, was alternate only in its illegality and willingness to 
> act against expectation, but it was still set up with one 
> unquestioned leader and power was not distributed throughout the 
> organization, nor was dissent tolerated.  


SSSusan:
[Man, that was hard to snip & still keep the major points.  Sorry, 
folks, that I couldn't seem to cut more.] 

Dan, I want to thank you for taking the time to further explain that 
final remark from your initial post about the circumstances in the 
HPs and their relationship to a message of anarchy.  Your new 
comments really did help me to see where you were going.

I can agree with you that JKR really *is* talking about our world and 
that we, by picking up the books, have left 'mugglehood' and 
ignorance of that lack of separation behind.  I also can see that in 
doing so, JKR is able to show us this in a way which would be 
less 'accepted' if she were to have presented it all without magic, 
without the appearance of a separate world.

OTOH, I think Lealess has a point in that this doesn't quite feel 
like *anarchy.*  It's JKR's social commentary, that's for sure, and 
she clearly wants to make points about the failings of authority, 
leadership, media in our world.  But is she showing *anarchy* as the 
method by which youth are confronting this?

I'd again welcome further thoughts from you or others on that point. 

Siriusly Snapey Susan