Courage, was Re:Children's Books (was Re: A Sense of Betrayal)/Malum Blah blah/JO's

[sistermagpie]

No: HPFGUIDX 174475

Bruce:
> For those who don't understand JKR's valuing courage above all 
virtues, consider
> this: Without courage, all other virtues are useless.  Compassion 
(for example)
> without courage will only be compassionate when it is safe to do 
so.  Loyalty
> without courage will be loyal only when there is no price to pay 
for loyalty.
> Any other virtue not accompanied with courage will be virtuous only 
when it is
> not risky to be so.

Magpie:
As someone who has been discussing the topic of JKR's courage based 
system, I assure you I do understand it in exactly this way. I also 
think one could say the same about systems that used other virtues as 
the basis: Courage (for example) without compassion can be empty 
reckless. Loyalty without compassion can be loyalty to a cruel 
master. Any other virtue not accompanied with compassion will be can 
be used for bad reasons. No one virtue is enough in itself.

It's not that I disagree with JKR's take on courage being necessary--
I happen to agree with it. You do need courage is necessary to put 
forward other values when you face opposition, even if it's not the 
value I'd probably put at the top for me. I think there's more to the 
story and problems people have with it than disagreeing that courage 
is necessary. This is one idea of JKR's I have no problem with. I 
don't fully like the way it wound up translated into a story, but 
I've got no problem with the premise in itself.

-m