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

[tbernhard2000]

No: HPFGUIDX 167964

lealess wrote:
> I honestly see Rowling's message as being more reactionary than 
> anarchist in its setting up of extra-state militias seemingly 
> answerable to no-one but a strong leader like Dumbledore or Harry.

dan:

It was set up as an educational organization dedicated to knowledge
the ministry didn't want the kids to have access to, didn't want them
to be exposed to - it acted in an anarchist manner when it become
obvious that the state was, in its ignorance and promulgation of
ignorance, endangering the safety of all. Ignorance, Rowling posits,
is above all else the most disenfranchising thing - knowledge and
truth - nothing good will come of pretense. Your label of militia is
wrong, I think, but this relates to your later point about guns. Wands
are required in the witchwizard school - weapons are banned in real
world schools. That is a big difference, and Rowling understands this
difference. Magic, with the wand as its representation, is an
extention of the person and their intention - it is the perfect
idealist tool, in a sense, and makes words into deeds. This object
allows Rowling to talk about ethical decisions made in that world,
with the wand as agent, without sending up commie gun control flags,
for example. But that IS a ruse. 

lealess:
> ...unfortunately, I can imagine kids with tools that destroy in an 
> instant, like guns and even words on the Internet, who do not use 
> such tools wisely....  Even Rowling's kids make disastrous mistakes,
> whatever their intention.

But I made no claim that anyone in the witchwizard world, or our
world, doesn't make mistakes. What Rowling does is put into kids hands
powerful tools, that are weapons, communication device, bandages and
so forth all at once. In her world, then, they become a tool for
Rowling to amplify her thesis about choices. The point is, in the real
world, kids don't have such an object - they can choose to bring
tools, for good or ill, to school, but we sure as heck don't require
it. In Rowling's witchwizard world, it IS required to have such a tool.

Rowling's world, again I say, creates the possibility that the raw
emotional honesty of youth can be given clear expression, and will be
influential there, for the evil or good of the world. That's what the
DA did at the ministry, in spite of the repression of the state - they
sent out a warning that the sympathetic adults, like Dumbledore and
Arthur and such, were incapable of sending, for whatever reason, be it
fear of the consequences, their job positions, or what have you.

Rowling clearly hates complacency.

dan 

dan