Tunbridge Wells calling

[woman_ironing]

Barack Obama has been elected, the Bank of England has reduced interest rates, Labour have won the Glenrothes by-election, but I’m going to have a moan about an obscure lj Harry Potter community, deathtocapslock.

Comments

[woman_ironing]

I’d say HP’s emphasis is on humanity rather than morality. The conflict that’s going on for Harry - and for Dumbledore, and Snape, and Draco - is between love and power. (I talked about this in my comment in deathtocapslock.) If they’re involved in a battle against evil - and I guess they are because Voldemort is evil and he threatens them all, including his supporters - it’s a battle between humanity and evil. Voldemort is evil, the rest of them are human. I don’t know if you think this is shallow, sistermagpie, or if either of you think it's untenable. It does mean that the opponents of Voldemort - as they represent humanity rather than good - won’t always behave well and be in the right, and that his followers - as they represent humanity too - won’t always behave badly and be in the wrong. This is what we see in the series, isn’t it?

The comic is at least as much a part of humanity as the serious, and so comedy is important in HP - there’s comedy in the defeat of Voldemort. It doesn’t mean it’s shallow.

I’m not sure where you see the ‘self-conscious back-patting on the subject [of morality]’, sistermagpie.