Externalities

[Olivier Fouquet]

Olivier:

Allow me to step in.

 >Hey, hey, now, steady on. I think it's possible and interesting to
 >ask and try to answer questions such as the following without being
 >smug.

 >Economic: how do you think that JKR's experience of penurious single
 >parenthood might show up in her depiction of Harry at the Dursleys?

Or more broadly, we could wonder what kind of image JKR offers of the 
english society if we accept the idea that the wizarding world is 
reflection of the real one.

 >Political: the wizarding world is portrayed as having many
 >injustices, which are sometimes regarded by fans as unrealistic.
 >How do you think JKR's experience of working for Amnesty
 >International might come across in this aspect of her work?

Clearly, anti-discrimination values and harsh criticism against torture 
and exceptional justice (whether under the guise of child punishment à 
la Umbridge or treated seriously, for instance in the Crouch sub-plot) 
seem to indicate that she passed on some of the values of her former 
employer into her books. I wish that this depiction was unrealistic, 
but extreme poverty, race discrimination, forced labor and torturing 
law officers are not unknown in our world. And we French have our own 
personal Voldemort (according to a poster-board in an anti-racist 
demonstration that came to national attention a few years ago). 
Snipping the question about religion because I'm not sure my insights 
about that are of any value, I jump to

 >So: how does the Harry Potter series appear to show the influence of
 >CS Lewis' Narnia series? Does JKR's known liking for Jane Austen
 >make us re-think her handling of romantic relationships? How does
 >Harry Potter stand in the tradition of the British boarding-school
 >story? Are there genre conflicts between the school element, the
 >fantasy element, and the detective element?

Indeed I wish someone could enlighten me on all these aspects, since 
part of my enjoying of the series clearly stems from the clever 
intertwining of the fantasy/detective/school genre.

 >Oh, and here's one I have not the least knowledge of, but would love
 >to hear: JKR studied French at university: does the Harry Potter
 >series suggest any French literary influences?

JKR once said studying French was a mistake for her. At any rate, as a 
French with a reasonable knowledge of my culture and literature (though 
not an expert as say Iris), I have the impression that the influences 
are rather mild. Beauxbatons, Fleur Delacour, bouillabaisse and 
Hermione holidays in Dijon fall under the case of english preconception 
about France (correct or incorrect). Nicolas Flamel and Perenelle come 
to mind as real references to french culture. But they are rather minor 
characters. I must say that all in all the series strikes me as clearly 
anglo-saxon in tone and mood, if only because it is set in a school 
that so embodies the differences between english and french mentality. 
Then again, I am quite confident one could construe an argument that HP 
is in fact a heavily disguised version of Les Misérables (resp. Le 
Misanthrope resp. Le Discours de la Méthode resp. La Comédie Humaine 
resp. Zadig) with Harry in the role of Cosette, Ron being Gavroche, and 
Sirius Jean Valjean. I am sure one could even find an acronym for it.

 >David, who thinks the French academics provided bad answers to good
 >questions last year

Ah, but this defines academia, and I speak as a member of it ;-). If 
only I could provide even a bad answer to the questions that torment me 
now...
Olivier


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