[the_old_crowd] The Protection of the Prophecy Plot (Was: Themes and theories)

[Eva Thienpont]

Catherine wrote:
<As much as I enjoyed OoP (and I'm surprised and intrigued to discover that there are at least 3 newcomers to this list who cite it as their favourite of the series so far), I was very dissatisfied with the whole prophecy plot line.  Not so much regarding the prophecy itself, but I still cannot comprehend why exactly it was so important to guard the prophecy - or even keep it in existence.  Yes, there is the whole insanity thing to get around, but why on earth couldn't they have just smashed it?  Dumbledore, after all, had (allegedly) perfect recollection of it.  I can only think of two reasons - one, that Voldemort wasted almost a whole year trying to get hold of the prophecy, and so bought Dumbledore some time, and two, that he was trying to lure Voldemort into revealing himself at the Ministry, which he presumably expected only to work if Voldemort failed to lure Harry there first, hence the importance of occlumency.>

<snip>

 

Sigune here:

As one of those newcomers who offered OotP as their favourite, I feel inclined to reply to this. After reading the recent complex discussions on this board I am very painfully aware of the fact that my contribution is going to sound exceedingly simple and naïve, but well, so be it.

First I want to say that my partiality for OotP has much to do with the characterisations and complexity - with Harry growing up, with the Snape glimpses, with James and Sirius becoming more problematic than before. I am not much of a sleuth (clues to mysteries simply pass me by - this probably makes all of you wonder what I am doing here, but hey, I *do* enjoy reading other people's speculations and like to keep them in mind when re-reading), so I just let the plot meander towards its finish and keep myself amused with other elements instead.

But now to the prophecy.

There are, indeed, mighty holes in the Prophecy plot line, but they never bothered me while reading and/or reflecting afterwards. The reason for this is that, despite Dumbledore's and Voldemort's efforts to the contrary, I have never been convinced of the genuine importance of the prophecy. That is, although it has obviously been the engine behind the actions that lie at the basis of the Potter series' plot - the murder of Harry's parents and Dumbledore's meddling with Harry's life - I have always felt that both Dumbledore and Voldemort have been fixated on the wrong thing. To me, the idea of a prophecy determining a person's fate is in entire contradiction with the theme of choice that is repeatedly pushed to the fore in the series. Apart from that, I, prosaic Muggle, am simply very sceptical of predictions to begin with. All great 'prophets' owe their renown to interpretations post factum. Prophecies are pretty useless as guidelines because they are *always* vague; and stories
 featuring a prophecy tend to have a nasty twist in the tail, Oedipus's being the classic example. I was rather astounded to read that Dumbledore set such great store by something as uninteresting (or, to put it bluntly, *STUPID*) as a prophecy.

So, actually, what I read in the Prophecy plot (but books six and seven may of course prove me spectacularly wrong) was a glaring instance of weird wizard thinking - that is, a way of thinking devoid of the logic Muggles are supposed to more easily take recourse to because they have to do without magic. The more powerful the wizard/witch, it seems, the less use s/he makes of logic. Magical minds make funny leaps - I suppose Harry's actions in OotP promise great things for his wizarding future ;-).

 

Yours severely,

Sigune


           


		
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