Jo's OWN Words about Political and Religious Overtones in the Books

[Katie]

No: HPFGUIDX 173774

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, Janette <jnferr at ...> wrote:
>
> Kathryn Lambert <anigrrrl2 at ...> wrote:
> >
> >
> > SOOOOO.....I can totally live with this. She didn't keep her 
spiritual
> > stuff secret because Harry was a symbol for Jesus - she kept it 
quiet
> > because she didn't want to give away that people live on after 
death, as in
> > Heaven. For me, a story about spiritual struggle and questions of 
faith is a
> > lot more interesting than a book about how great the Bible story 
is! I knew
> > Jo wasn't that traditional. I appreciate the struggle to keep 
believing, and
> > that makes for a complex book. A simplistic allegory to the 
Biblical story
> > isn't it.
> 
> 
> montims:
> taking slight issue with the phrase above: "she didn't want to give 
away
> that people live on after death, as in Heaven" - I'm not convinced 
that JKR
> is referencing a heaven at all.  I suppose one is entitled to ask 
where she
> feels dead people go (or not, if they are scared, like Sir Nick), 
but as I
> see it they are gone until they are called back under special
> circumstances.  Where they are gone is not made clear to me.
> 
> I am a pagan, so I could picture them in Summerland.  I can also 
envisage
> them being reincarnated, when they are ready to use the lessons 
lerarned in
> their earlier life/lives.  But Heaven specifically?  I don't see 
that she
> has said that.  If someone could reference detailed canon, I would 
be
> grateful.
<<<<snip>>>>


*****Katie replies:
Being more pagan than Christian, though I have history with both
(raised Catholic, turned pagan, married a Buddhist), I certainly have 
no ideas personally about a "heaven" specifically, and as my previous 
posts on the subject clearly state, I have rejected ANY ideas about 
these being religious books, per se. 

That being said, we know Jo is a member of the Church of Scotland, we 
know she has stated, here and previously, that she didn't want to 
talk too much about religion in the books until after DH was 
published, and we know (now) that she struggles with her faith. Many 
people at HPfGU had been interpreting her silence about religion as a 
clear indication that the end of DH was an event-for-event recreation 
of the Bible (40 days in the wilderness, and all kinds of other 
stuff). Sufficed to say, I had a HUGE problem seeing the book that 
way. And now, I feel strongly that Jo's interpretation of life after 
death was very Christian, and she simply didn't want to give that 
away. It made me feel better, knowing that she wasn't making an 
allegory to the Christ story. 

I see her religion in the books, particularly in the end of DH, as 
more of a personal religion and struggle to have faith in oneself and 
one's destiny, which Harry is eventually able to do. If anything, 
Harry is having a crisis of faith in himself, especially after Ron 
leaves, and then again after the revelations about DD. He feels like 
he isn't as capable and in-the-know as he once did. Ok, I'm veering 
off track...

My original point was that I feel better knowing that Jo just didn't 
want to reveal her ideas about death, not that she didn't want to 
reveal Harry as some kind of Christ figure. Cheers, Katie