Would Harry forgiving Snape be character growth for him? Re: CHAPDISC: HBP 29,

[lupinlore]

No: HPFGUIDX 164310

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "pippin_999" <foxmoth at ...> 
wrote:
>
>  
> > Alla:
> > 
> > Well, yes, Harry being right about Snape may have nothing to do 
with 
> > power of love theme or it may have, I am just not sure why it 
cannot 
> > be the theme on its own. I totally think that power of love, 
> > forgiveness would turn out to be one of the main themes in the 
book, 
> > but who says it would be the only one?
> > 
> Pippin:
> IIRC, it was Aristotle.  Seriously, a theme is supposed to be the 
> unifying idea of the work, so if you have unrelated ideas then it's
> pointless to talk about themes at all. 
> 


Well, I guess that would apply if we were sure JKR is an Aristotelian 
in her approach to her writing.  Aristotle's model is only one scheme 
for literature or drama, even in the context of the ancient Greek 
world, much less Latin literature, just as the ideas of Sophocles are 
only one model for ancient tragedy.  Being a classics major, JKR 
could as easily be basing herself on Vergil or Homer (or Aristophanes 
or Seneca or Menander or Ovid or Juvenal) as Aristotle, and in fact 
is more likely to be doing so, as they were practicing artists rather 
than philosophers putting forth theoretical explanations of art.  In 
Homer, for instance, one can discern multiple themes that constantly 
weave in and out of one another and the narrative (the capriciousness 
of the gods, the binding power of fate, the importance of personal 
nobility, the destructiveness of selfish arrogance, the blinding 
power of rage and lust, the transcendance of loyalty in friendship 
and in love, the power of human decision even in the face of gods and 
fate).  Homer stubbornly resists all attempts to find a "binding 
theme" and instead, like many passages from Judeo-Christian 
literature (which are assuredly much more relevant for JKR than any 
classical reference), points in many different directions within the 
same narrative.
  
In fact, I doubt JKR is doing any such conscious "basing" at all - at 
least not on classical works like Aristotle.  Like Alla, I doubt she 
has a single "theme" but rather has multiple messages she is sending, 
some deliberately and some not, some more important that others.  In 
that she does have more important messages, she has said already that 
her particular religious beliefs give them away, which is why she 
doesn't want to talk religion until the books are complete.


Lupinlore, who thinks that in most aspects of the narrative JKR is, 
perhaps unfortunately, not thinking all that deeply anyway