A Question about Harry Potter.

[troldtog]

Suffice it to say I think this piece at The Awl by Maria Bustillos is almost completely rubbish, and that -- after several readings -- I have come to suspect her main complaint isn't so much with the material (Rowling didn't title the last book Harry Potter and the Proletarian Class Struggle) as it is something buried in the volley of personal

Comments

[hungrytiger11]

Lol, I bet it would help if I read this woman's thoughts on HP before commenting on your thoughts on her thoughts... seeing HP as a parable or sermon about tolerance seems...strange. As if there is religious overtones to it. (which may or may not be her point.) And HP is definitely not very religious, even if there is an afterlife in it. I mean, what do they think of religion? (although, I'm glad this wasn't covered and its totally a whole other topic than this post...)

I'm like you. Stories about the clean up and the success and failure of changing people's minds is interesting. Another parallel that could be drawn to this clean-up era, though I doubt JKR would have thought of it, is the period right after the Civil War, what with the brothers who fought on different sides and the desire to economically crush the South (obviously this analogy wouldn't extend to anything concerning African Americans and the former slaves, who still experienced many hardships even following the war.)

If you were looking at how muggles and muggle-borns are made to keep that secrecy, you do get into a lot of very ethically iffy situations, such as Oblivion. I mean, what if a relationship didn't work out and a magical person had to obliviate (or wanted to obliviate) the non-magical person? If you've never read Fernwithy's fanfiction concerning Teddy Lupin, you might enjoy her take on the magical politics. Its not really the main focus, but its hinted at that one of Teddy's schoolmates does take to extreme political rhetoric when he is an adult, as a person who wants to take the extreme opposite of Voldermort. Though he's technically a wizard, he hates wizards and the ignorance they force on the muggle world. Its interesting.