Harry Potter and the happy fan

[mona1610]

Two nights ago, I finally finished the last of the Potter series and my first reaction was to go to sleep. Four days and four nights of mindless transition between my real world and Harry's wizarding one had taken their toll on me, and it was with three-quarters regret and one-quarter relief that I finally returned to the world I really belonged

Comments

[latelyontime]

I completely agree... and that is why I felt cheated that a writer of her scope and style had to succumb to introducing small diversions just to fill pages. There was no rule that said that she had to fill the 700 pages. It could have had been a tighter, more gripping 350 page book which might have concentrated the attention on the thing that is the most important - the battle between Good and Evil. I think I read some fan fiction which had more important and beautiful plots - though not the style - in their writing. I also feel (and perhaps unfairly) that all the characters 'knew' this is the end and hence there was a lot of uncharacteristic behaviour and worse of it all - some quick fix solutions to more complex questions. I had hoped that Rowling will surprise us all with a new plot structure and a more detailed rendering of the battle than waste so much time on all the random roaming around and red herrings for "whodead?" that she has indulged in. As an editor, I can see at least eighteen things which either require a better explanation or need to be dropped completely out of the book to make it tauter. If I get the time, I have a good mind to just sit down and edit the book and send it back to Bloomsbury. I guess I was disappointed because the book read like the last chapter out of an Agatha Christie novel - the most uninteresting part of it all.

Now coming to the more interesting questions. Both the terms 'witch' and 'wizard' have only been paired up by Rowling to talk about people of different sexes who can practice magic. If you look at the cultural etymology (in Europe) of the two words you will find that they draw from different origins and practices. While witchcraft was necessarily associated with practices of heathenism and paganism (both getting currency with the rise of Christianity), Wizardry actually takes coinage from alchemy and chemical sciences and related practices. It is a very obvious sign of the patriarchal and violent nature of early missionary christianity that women who participated in the public domain, in any manner, were looked upon as either sluts or witches. Also, the primary religion that Xianity was trying to battle was a religion of the goddess. The most obvious way of fighting it was to have the goddess painted as a demonised evil witch and hence the witch becomes a suspicious category and witch hunting, for two centuries (or more) remains a favourite sport.

The wizard on the other head was associated with wealth, with a certain notion of science and administration. Wizards were often counsellors to the kings and weilded great powers, not in their magic but in their administrative and governance skills. Even when the wizards were idol worshippers, their phallic presence as men prevented them from persecution like the women were. Also, it is good to remember that not all witches were always women. In the wiccan tradition, you have a male and female witch. If you look at contemporary practices of witchcraft (you will be astounded to see the number of people still practicing those) even in the predominantly Christian West, you will realise that a lot of the participants are witches. The traditional pairing is that of a witch and a warlock; not that of a witch and a wizard. So when Rowling combines the two together, she does a very sensational thing - she de-demonises witchcraft and she de-canonises wizardry and produces a startling effect of painting them in a light of 'normalcy' and partial acceptance.

There, just first thoughts on the idea. I actually wrote my Masters thesis on Rowling's books...so getting me started talking about them is generally inviting trouble :)

[mythrandyr]

Master's thesis on Rowling's books? That would be interesting reading. What was it about?

[latelyontime]

Oh... thanks! It was quite a time ago and it now seems slightly simplistic and naive when I look back upon it. In my Master's Thesis I was looking at a gendered deconstruction of fantasy and the production of childhood, looking at some of the children's fantasies, including Harry Potter. (Only four books had released then... maybe I will go and revisit it sometime).

[mona1610]

No, no trouble at all! I thoroughly enjoyed every word of that excellent summary. Inspite of her (apparent) misuse(?) of the two terms, I'm quite impressed by Rowling's research and ability to borrow vignettes of information from the real world, for example, the references to ancient runes (which were attributed with magical and divination powers) and as I have discovered, 'Elder' is actually the oldest runic alphabet. It gives me a sort of an absurd thrill to enter the writer's head through her creation. :)

Tell me, do you think the comparisions with WWII or those between Lord Voldemort to Hitler are legitimate? (I'm shortly going to post those queries/doubts that were stuck in my head after reading book 7, you may wish to reply this question there instead).

[latelyontime]

I agree... I too think that Rowling is one of the most accomplished writers we have writing for children right now - even when you take away the hype, the hoopla and the waily waily waily, she remains a compelling story teller and an excellent anecdoter of varied histories.

WWII and Hitler and Voldy? Hmmm not a connection I made or would like to either. I prefer to think that fantasies were not just pale imitations of life - the Aristotlean distinction between the probable and the possible.

[mona1610]

oh the WWII thingy was just something I found repeated on a couple of websites, including wiki. so the question. Personally, I thought it was too far-fetched... but still, thought i'd ask.

anyway, I made a nice long post about the spoiler questions and then the browser did that nasty thing that browsers often do and it was all lost. I didn't have the patience to type it all again. Someday if a cup o'coffee finds us sitting together, I'll pick your brains then. Be Warned! :)

[latelyontime]

Hmmm I have been resolutely staying away from potter sites... Most of them are generally disappointing and filled with emo kids going waily waily waily.

The cuppa coffee and potter talk sound good.All we need to do now is to arrange to be in the same continent-country-state-city; in that order :)