[HPforGrownups] Re: Parallels in other's fiction to that of JKR.

[Shaun Hately]

No: HPFGUIDX 192438

On 6/14/2013 7:17 AM, Geoff wrote:
>
> There is one place where JKR does diverge from the other writers  as
> does Alan Garner. Their worlds are contemporary and interface with our
> own everyday world. Harry and Hermione can live both in the Muggle and
> magic worlds successfully. In Alan Garner's books, the real world main
> characters can meet the magic beings of Alderley walking along a road
> or call magical beings to their aid.

I can think of another series that has this type of feature - the "Young 
Wizards" novels of Diane Duane. From what I have heard, Diane has often 
been annoyed by people suggesting she 'ripped off' Harry Potter in some 
way, people who are not aware the first book in that series "So You Want 
to Be a Wizard" was published fifteen years before the first Harry 
Potter book. There are currently nine books in this series, as well as 
three others in a parallel series in the same universe.

The discussion below necessarily contains some spoilers.

The "Young Wizards" books revolve primarily among three main characters 
- Nita Callahan and Kit Rodriguez, who are in their early teens, and 
Nita's younger sister Dairine, who is not quite a teenager yet. They 
live in New York state, in the United States and all three of them are 
wizards - as well as being relatively normal kids. The premise of the 
"Young Wizards" series is that there are Wizards all over the planet - 
ordinary people who were offered a choice by the universe, by nature 
itself, to be part of the group of people who try to keep nature on 
course. They are offered a chance to take an oath ("In Life's name and 
for Life's sake, I say that I will use the Art for nothing but the 
service of that Life. I will guard growth and ease pain. I will fight to 
preserve what grows and lives well in its own way; and I will change no 
object or creature unless its growth and life, or that of the system of 
which it is part, are threatened. To these ends, in the practice of my 
Art, I will put aside fear for courage, and death for life, when it is 
right to do so - till Universe's end.") and once they take it, they have 
the chance to learn how to use wizardry for those purposes. But, for 
most of them, they have to live a normal life as well - Nita, Kit, and 
Dairine have to deal with going to school. Even some of the very senior 
wizards we see have mundane day jobs.

The way Wizardry works in the books is a combination of raw power and 
skill using it. Young Wizards have the most raw power - a child who has 
just become a Wizard has an incredible amount of strength - but the 
least skill and knowledge as to how to use it. As Wizards get older, 
their power fades but they get more subtle and skilled in what they do. 
So in the books, Nita, Kit, and Dairine, find support from older Wizards 
who guide them and mentor them in what they need to do, while the older 
wizards need the younger ones to carry out some of the tasks needed.

Wizards use a language (called the Speech) to manipulate the universe. 
By subtly changing how you say a word in the speech you can actually 
change things - describe a tree in the speech for example, and just 
change the appropriate syllables, and you might make it bloom better. It 
is magic, but it has a structure behind it that is quite scientific - 
and lot of powerful wizardry relies on understanding things like 
physics, biology, etc, as well.

The books are full of - I hesitate to call it 'Christian symbolism' 
because it's more accurate to say, in the context of the books, that 
Christian symbolism reflects what is known to have happened in the 
history of the universe - wizards oppose "The Lone Power" - one of a 
number of Powers who rejected working with the others, and created death 
and entropy for his own reasons. Wizards work against his ends, but also 
hope that one day he can be redeemed.

I love the Harry Potter books, but in many ways, I regard the Young 
Wizard books as superior. They are never as 'silly' as the Harry Potter 
books can sometimes be - there is much more of a feeling reading them 
that this really could be happening without the rest of us knowing. They 
are kids books, but like a lot of the best kids books, they get into 
some deep and dark areas at times - there are books in which the kids 
must face - and accept - a very real risk of death, and where they watch 
people they love hurt badly.

The books are contemporary, but in a slightly odd way - each book is set 
about the time it was written, but the characters have aged only a 
couple of years over the nearly twenty years the series has been 
published (1982 for the first book to 2010 for the most recent - 
hopefully it will continue). So in 1982, Nita gets her 'manual' - her 
magic book - as an actual book. By the third book in 1990, young Wizards 
are getting computer versions, and in the most recent books some of the 
youngest wizards have wizPods. I don't think it does any harm, but it 
can be a little odd to deal with.

One thing to note - in this universe, not only humans can be wizards - a 
number of other species on earth have wizards among them, including 
dolphins/whales, cats, and dogs (the parallel series I mentioned of 
three books is about a group of cat wizards). There are also many other 
places in the universe with intelligent life that can be visited using 
wizardry and those planets may have wizards as well.

Shaun