The Dark Arts (Re:help with JKR quote/ Children's reactions)

[lizzyben04]

No: HPFGUIDX 176575

> zgirnius:
> What I take away from this, myself, is that all the magic I brought up 
> to date *is* Dark, down to the teeniest, most amusing little jinx. 
> Rowling said so on her website, and her statements are consistent with, 
> and would to an extent be logically deducible from, the text. There is 
> no logical flaw in the magical foundations of the Potterverse regarding 
> what is Dark. 
> 
> So in particular, James and Sirius were adept and frequent users of 
> Dark Magic as schoolboys. So is Harry, though his use is more judicious 
> in my view. Draco also knows and uses his Dark Arts. Severus was an 
> expert who created new spells of this type. His pal Mulciber was 
> another person who used them. 
> 
> All the good guys who go about looking down their noses at those greasy 
> Dark Arts obsessed oddballs? Hypocrites, up to a point. 

lizzyben:

Yeah, it's hypocrisy - hypocrisy that runs right through the novel,
and right through the series. Without a good definition of the
distinction, it becomes hypocritical for our heroes to hate someone
solely for using dark magic. And sometimes I get the feeling that we
never got a definition because the actual function of dark magic isn't
important. 

What's important is who is using it. Dark Arts becomes associated
w/Slytherin house, Durmstrang, Sirius' creepy family - people who are
different and foreign and odd. And the connotation of "Dark Magic"
makes us feel really good about hating it; almost self-righteous
about hating it. Dark Magic is evil, right? (When they do it, not
when we do it.) So when we hate these people, take revenge against
these people, use violence against these people, we don't have to feel
bad about it - we can actually feel very good & self-righteous about
it. Normally, you would feel bad about hurting someone, but when that
person is a "Dark Wizard", you can feel like it's actually justified
as part of a larger battle between good vs. evil... and you are now on
the side of good.

When Harry tells Sirius about SWM, Sirius tries to come up w/something
to assure Harry that his father was a good man. And he doesn't talk
about how James loved Lily & Harry (which he undoubtedly did), or how
he cared about Muggle rights; no, Sirius talks about what James hated.
James *hated* the Dark Arts, and this hatred proves that he was a good
person. Hatred, not love, shows your own goodness. You can prove your
goodness in how much you hate "the other", the Darkness. Associating
the bad guys w/"Dark Magic" just gives us another good reason to hate
them. And IMO that's the real function of dark magic in the novels.


lizzyben