I am about to rant....

[dan]

No: HPFGUIDX 173545

Geoff wrote:
> enter into the author's world and enjoy?

dan:
Hear hear!! Of course, look at my two posts this week - one in 
response to someone else who identified the activist political core 
of Rowling, which I jumped on, as if saying,"at last, a new 
direction!" and one in defense of the camping trip as THE most 
important part of book seven. Number of responses, zero. Why is 
this? 

I think there is resentment and confusion that the books hold sway 
without a lot of introspection, and that ethical implications are 
just that, implied and not written out as sermons - the television 
cues are missing, the literal moral at the end of the story is 
complex, and slightly unfamiliar. Also, they remain children's 
books, while not avoiding large symbolic gestures that can be parsed 
as systems, but of course do not MEAN those systems.

> He is Christ-like insofar as any Christian attempts to be and if a 
person of a different faith or world view sees it otherwise, that is 
their choice. I hope that I'm not going to repeat myself for ever 
trying to bludgeon another member into accepting my point of view 
just to shut me up.

dan:
Of course, again. Harry's journey is toward the enlightenment of the 
heart and mind as promoted by Islam, or socialism, of Taoism, just 
as much as it is Christian. But the identity of the books withing 
the spectrum of fantasy, and the weight of those far more Christian 
writers Lewis and Tolkien, act by association as evidence of 
Christian intent. But this begs the question of what is it 
specifically that indicates Christianity in the narrative.

> ...there are lots of unanswered questions; but isn't that the 
> situation in our own real lives?

dan:
Well, exactly, again. I identified the camping narrative as 
essential because it was our lives in literary form - we, if we are 
to ever move completely from the deathly banality of Dursley-like 
muggledom, or from rote learning, must be willing, like Harry and 
Ron and Hermione, to risk everything (not just about everything, or 
a lot, or some bits). In the great battle of Hogwarts, we see 
finally a situation that allows all characters the chance for such 
truth. That is why it is moving.

> In DH, JKR brings us to a similar place where hatred and war make 
mockery of what we would deem our desires. But, in real life and in 
the Potterverse, there are things which are positive. It isn't all 
doom and gloom despite what the Daily Prophet or the Telegraph or  
the New York times would have us believe.

dan:
And I have said many times in Harry Potter debates, the real joy in 
the series is that the real joy in the series comes from 
acknowledging the true state of things, and still being able to 
laugh and dream - to only laugh and dream by ignoring reality is 
just awful - and yet, I suspect, much of blockbuster land is jsut 
such banality. I think of some recent movies for example, that are 
supposed to be funny, but are really just puerile.

> I think I'll go and find some soothing fanfic



dan:
This is partially a response to your own post, right? Cause much 
resentment seems to come from a proprietorial sense of the books 
that is entirely false.