DH discussions on ethics, violence AND SRS SPOIL

[slashpine]

NOTE: Spoilers behind cut, and in all discussions linked!

magnetic_pole kicked off a much-needed discussion of how the gender roles in DH reveal some rather strong and, as most see it, conservative "norms" being promoted. Suffice it to say, the book's ending (yes, including that "E" part) may be "conclusive" for the canon, but are only just the beginning for

Comments

Animal rights, and Levinas and Harry

[slashpine]

Ooh! thanks for the comments. I was looking at yours, and some on hp_essays which I only just now found (headdesk) and I know I'm so tedious and rambly by comparison. (Cannot "see" my structure when I compose on a computer

Re: Levinas

[slashpine]

Yeee! You know Levinas. So cool. I need to read about him; that book sounds very neat.

I would LOVE to see you turn that novel into O-fic. It was such an awesome glimpse of the pre WWII eastern European world that most westerners know very little about.

But look at Levinas - there is all this influence, and so the reader of such a story of yours has the thrill of a double payoff. They begin the fic knowing nothing, so as they learn, that's marvelous. But then they begin to also realize they *did* know things, but they were never fit into a frame, and now they do. So -click- a second payoff. I love it when I both learn things I didn't know -- the "original" creativity in a fic -- but at the same time, also discover things I knew, but not in this way.

[sylvanawood]

Thank you so much for pointing me here. While some of it may go a little over my head because I know little about formal ethics theory, this is summing up in an educated way what is floating around in my head in a wild tumble. I'll link to this from my own journal and bookmark it, too.

[sylvanawood]

Oops, sorry, it was alienor77310 who pointed me here, but I'm glad that I arrived.

[slashpine]

You're so welcome! Thank you for finding it not too appallingly academigeekish. My brain must have been in Research!Mode :D

I wish I was actually *teaching* ethics this year - I'd have the students study each ethical theory in HP instead of dense texts or made-up case studies - that would probably be really fun!

[sylvanawood]

Actually, I find it so interesting that I want to educate myself a bit more on the topic in the future. :)

[mary_j_59]

Thanks for this! I am not familiar with all of these ethicists, but the ethical and moral shallowness of DH has distressed me greatly. That's why I'm having a hard time at some of the Christian boards I frequent; everyone is so delighted at Rowling's Christian imagery that they are failing to look at her ethics. There is no doubt in my mind that she is Calvinist, and very conservative, at that. Although I'm a Christian, I'm a liberal Catholic, and this mindset is entirely alien to me. I believe that what you *do* matters - you are a good person if you do good, no matter what your ancestry or earlier mistakes -, and I see Snape as both a hero and a Saint. He strikes me (still, after DH) as about the most ethical person in the whole miserable Wizarding World, as well as the bravest. And it infuriates me that Rowling is so cruel to him, both in the text itself and in interviews.

But now I'm rambling! Thanks again for a fascinating essay.

[slashpine]

Ah, thank you so much for your perspective! Christianity is a *big* religion, and it concerns me too when one of many viewpoints is taken as speaking for all

[mary_j_59]

Speaking of thoughtful, religious-minded fans, my livejournal friend Anne has a wonderful essay up right now. As I told her, I agree with every word of it. Here's the url (she asked me to pass it on to people who might be interested):

http://anne-arthur.livejournal.com/2639.html