Harry Potter thoughts
Sep. 2nd, 2003 02:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
grinninfooleI've been reading Order of the Phoenix at my parents' house on weekends when I have been back there visiting M's mom in the hospital. (Who is, incidentally, much recovered, and will soon be able to start rehab.) I still haven't finished the book, but I am ejoying it and I think it really is quite good.
A few things that have struck me:
1) It's interesting that we never see how Malfoy does in potions, or in any other subject. Snape always favors him over Harry, but we have no idea if this is pure bias, or if Malfoy actually is good at making potions.
2) I think learning to be a witch or wizard would be rather hard, quite aside from the whole issue of magical ability. The magic presented by Rowling doesn't appear to have a coherent internal logic or grammar. How, for example, would one go about modifying the summoning charm "Accio" to have the object fly to someone else's hand? Rowling doesn't appear to be attempting to create a coherent 'magic system' in the way that someone writing a 'gamer novel' might do, and the details of magic aren't her focus, yet I think it's significant that in five books we don't have any idea how spells, potions, etc are constructed.
Since it is magic, Rowling doesn't need to have an internal logic for it, of course, and I don't see it as a weakness if she doesn't. Rather, my point is that it makes learning the art much more difficult. If there's no rhyme or reason to why you have to say "Wingardium Leviosa" with one emphasis instead of another, much less why you have to say those words at all, or why you have swish and flick your wand so, then learning magic isn't a matter of coming to understand principles and laws, however abstract or difficult, but rather a matter of rote memorization, the hardest kind of learning. If so, it becomes clear that Hermione's talent for magic is that she has a fabulous memory and is one of those few people who are really good rote learning; equally clear is why Neville, with his horrible memory, is so bad at everything except Herbology.
3) Related to this, is the political reality Rowling has created. Because almost every human in wizard society is a wizard or witch, they are all enfranchised in a way that people in our society (and more so in Britain) are not. Everyone with a wand is effectively armed with a deadly weapon. This means, of course, that the state has no monopoly on force, which helps explain the Ministry's paranoia about power bases outside of its control. Much as in pre-industrial Europe, a fear of mob violence looms large for any government which can not deploy a small cadre of loyal troops and quell a large riot. Today, we muggles can call out the national guard, which shows up with tanks, APCs, machine guns, grenade launchers and other heavy weapons. Even the cops have heavy weapons, and less-lethal options like tear gas, mace and rubber bullets.
Wizards like Voldemort, Dumbledore and others are scary because they can wield destructive powers that the state may not be able to counter. If there are wizard equivalents to WMDs, Voldemort has them, not the Ministry of Magic.
A further contrast to our lifestyle in the wizard world is that it's much more DIY than ours. Yes, there are products offered for sale, but the commercial culture of wizards pales compared to ours. The mass media appears to be limited to one crappy newspaper, advertising seems like only a small part of wizard childrens' lives, and who needs to buy home appliances when you can charm up a supper with a few words and a flick of the wrist?
So, we have a population that really doesn't need a lot of complicated and expensive stuff, that can be largely self-sufficient and seems to have no barriers except interest and talent to any or all individuals having 'the bomb'. No wonder there seems to be no wizard government at all except the Ministry, which seems at times a national, and at others an international, organization.
Again, I know that Rowling isn't trying to write a political screed a la Robert Heinlein in Starship Troopers (to pick one example), but I'm really interested in how the wizard world differs so radically from ours.
(I'm not even going to get started on what, to me, would be the most fascinating part of this secret world: that there are non-human intellects with whom one can actually converse. A big part of what's so interesting about SETI is the idea of finding out just how differently one can view the universe, and what the limits of human thought might be. But, why build radio telescopes when you can just walk into the forbidden forest and just ask. Xeno-anthropology, for lack of a better term, awaits....)
OH, and SPOILERS:
1) I commend Rowling for showing us that Harry's dad was an even bigger bully than Malfoy when he was a kid.
2) I suspect Snape stopped following Voldemort because V is mudblood, not out of any real moral objection to him. This may well be the basis of his instant dislike for Harry. Also, Snape at 15 reminds me of Mike from Something Positive
(see, for example, this: http://www.somethingpositive.net/sp08082003.html )
A few things that have struck me:
1) It's interesting that we never see how Malfoy does in potions, or in any other subject. Snape always favors him over Harry, but we have no idea if this is pure bias, or if Malfoy actually is good at making potions.
2) I think learning to be a witch or wizard would be rather hard, quite aside from the whole issue of magical ability. The magic presented by Rowling doesn't appear to have a coherent internal logic or grammar. How, for example, would one go about modifying the summoning charm "Accio" to have the object fly to someone else's hand? Rowling doesn't appear to be attempting to create a coherent 'magic system' in the way that someone writing a 'gamer novel' might do, and the details of magic aren't her focus, yet I think it's significant that in five books we don't have any idea how spells, potions, etc are constructed.
Since it is magic, Rowling doesn't need to have an internal logic for it, of course, and I don't see it as a weakness if she doesn't. Rather, my point is that it makes learning the art much more difficult. If there's no rhyme or reason to why you have to say "Wingardium Leviosa" with one emphasis instead of another, much less why you have to say those words at all, or why you have swish and flick your wand so, then learning magic isn't a matter of coming to understand principles and laws, however abstract or difficult, but rather a matter of rote memorization, the hardest kind of learning. If so, it becomes clear that Hermione's talent for magic is that she has a fabulous memory and is one of those few people who are really good rote learning; equally clear is why Neville, with his horrible memory, is so bad at everything except Herbology.
3) Related to this, is the political reality Rowling has created. Because almost every human in wizard society is a wizard or witch, they are all enfranchised in a way that people in our society (and more so in Britain) are not. Everyone with a wand is effectively armed with a deadly weapon. This means, of course, that the state has no monopoly on force, which helps explain the Ministry's paranoia about power bases outside of its control. Much as in pre-industrial Europe, a fear of mob violence looms large for any government which can not deploy a small cadre of loyal troops and quell a large riot. Today, we muggles can call out the national guard, which shows up with tanks, APCs, machine guns, grenade launchers and other heavy weapons. Even the cops have heavy weapons, and less-lethal options like tear gas, mace and rubber bullets.
Wizards like Voldemort, Dumbledore and others are scary because they can wield destructive powers that the state may not be able to counter. If there are wizard equivalents to WMDs, Voldemort has them, not the Ministry of Magic.
A further contrast to our lifestyle in the wizard world is that it's much more DIY than ours. Yes, there are products offered for sale, but the commercial culture of wizards pales compared to ours. The mass media appears to be limited to one crappy newspaper, advertising seems like only a small part of wizard childrens' lives, and who needs to buy home appliances when you can charm up a supper with a few words and a flick of the wrist?
So, we have a population that really doesn't need a lot of complicated and expensive stuff, that can be largely self-sufficient and seems to have no barriers except interest and talent to any or all individuals having 'the bomb'. No wonder there seems to be no wizard government at all except the Ministry, which seems at times a national, and at others an international, organization.
Again, I know that Rowling isn't trying to write a political screed a la Robert Heinlein in Starship Troopers (to pick one example), but I'm really interested in how the wizard world differs so radically from ours.
(I'm not even going to get started on what, to me, would be the most fascinating part of this secret world: that there are non-human intellects with whom one can actually converse. A big part of what's so interesting about SETI is the idea of finding out just how differently one can view the universe, and what the limits of human thought might be. But, why build radio telescopes when you can just walk into the forbidden forest and just ask. Xeno-anthropology, for lack of a better term, awaits....)
OH, and SPOILERS:
1) I commend Rowling for showing us that Harry's dad was an even bigger bully than Malfoy when he was a kid.
2) I suspect Snape stopped following Voldemort because V is mudblood, not out of any real moral objection to him. This may well be the basis of his instant dislike for Harry. Also, Snape at 15 reminds me of Mike from Something Positive
(see, for example, this: http://www.somethingpositive.net/sp08082003.html )
