Comments on: Travis Prinzi on Potter Fairy Tales and Morality

By: Arabella Figg

Arabella Figg — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 16:52:42 +0000

Perhaps a great moral/spiritual theme of PS (also the series) is “Greater love has no man than he who lays down his life for a friend.” Harry, only beginning his spiritual alchemical journey, was willing to die to save his friends, Hogwarts and WizWorld, (see his impassioned speech to Ron and Hermione, PS Scholastic 270). This demonstrates his “Christ symbolism.”

Re my #3: I was thinking of both Harry and Nicholas Flamel. Flamel had been triumphant in the spiritual alchemical process and lived a pure, transcendant and long life. Yet, for the greater good, he destroyed the Stone, seeing death as only “the next great adventure.”

Dumbledore ruminates that “the Stone was really not such a wonderful thing. As much money and life as you could want! The two things most human beings would choose above all–the trouble is, humans do have a knack of choosing precisely those things that are the worst for them.” (PS Schol., 297).

And cats laugh…

By: Arabella Figg

Arabella Figg — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 03:12:38 +0000

Speaking of telling a book by it’s cover, have you seen the 10th Anniversary edition of Sorcerer’s Stone with a gorgeous new cover by Mary Grandpre? See and read about it at Barnes & Noble; the copy says:

‘The special anniversary cover of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone depicts 11-year-old Harry looking into the Mirror of Erised, which Harry comes across in his first year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and learns that the mirror shows you what you most desire.

“It’s a real treat for me to get another chance to visually bring Harry back to his fans in not only a new scene, but in a new light,” said American illustrator of the Harry Potter books, Mary GrandPré. “Going back to draw the first cover for the anniversary edition was an opportunity for me to show another side of Harry… a vulnerable side. Having come to know and love Harry the way we all have, after experiencing the whole series, I think we can appreciate him even more on an emotional level.”‘

On to your interesting idea Red Rocker, about each book’s morals. For PS, I offer the following:
1. Longing for the past prevents you from moving on to your future.
2. Blood and heritage don’t determine a person’s worth.
3. A life well-lived is more worthy than a life long-lived.

Even a cat could agree with those…

By: Red Rocker

Red Rocker — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 01:57:59 +0000

So can we agree on what the moral point of each of the books is?

This is not to question the author that there is indeed a moral point. I can see many. I’m just wondering if we can agree on one, or more realistically, a distinct cluster of moral points for each book.

I can start the ball rolling.

For PS three of the moral points would be: if wishes were horses, beggars would be riders; the only person who can be trusted with power is the one who doesn’t seek it; you can’t tell a book by its cover???

By: Arabella Figg

Arabella Figg — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 00:29:07 +0000

Unlike what SeaJay wrote at HPPRogs, there really isn’t an either/or regarding intentional vs. accidental moralizing. I don’t think any author moralizes by accident. An author does have a point to make and I like how Rowling speaks of morals naturally unfolding out of the story situations she creates. She has a great gift for this. And how even she could be surprised by her own story. It’s a clever and careful author who can both “delight and instruct,” with just the right amount of weight.

Kitties delight and instruct, but can sometimes leave you scratching your head…