From: Roger Sutton <rsutton>
Date: Tue, 09 Nov 1999 14:50:10 -0700

My comment about the arbitrariness was meant to refer mostly to the fact that whenever the action in Harry is dragging, there always seems to be a nifty new trick to rev things up again. This is partly reasonable--Harry *is* at a school of wizardry--but it sometimes feels artificial. (I must say that the tricks are in themselves often very clever.)

I don't agree that Harry has won the Lottery for Life. Like the Baggins boys, Harry is having greatness thrust upon him. (In more ways than one, he can't resist adding.)

Roger

Well, I didn't make the comment about arbitrariness (hey, Roger?), but I'll give it a shot.

Speaking generally, in High Fantasy, magic has meaning; it is not randomly or capriciously assigned, and there is an intertwining between metaphor and the expression of magic. There do tend to be Cosmic Rules, so to speak -- the use of power has profound implications for and ramifications upon the users of magic and their worlds. There is also a sense of cost and effect; magic is no more free than any other resource; one might actually say that it is _sourced in_ something comprehensible. Examples of high fantasy include the works of George MacDonald, C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Susan Cooper, Robin McKinley and Patricia McKillip.

In low fantasy, the use of magic as a story element tends to be more arbitrary -it is a prop rather than an inherent aspect of the Story. Some critics complain about these stories which hold the trappings of fantasy without the ethics (?) of fantasy... a common complaint is of a romance or mystery that seems plopped down inside of a fantastic world, but which might just as easily have taken place in New York or Kansas. Popular examples of low fantasy include works by Anne McCaffrey, Marion Zimmer Bradley, Roger Zelazny, and J.K. Rowling.

And isn't this, after all, just what so many have raved about regarding Harry Potter? Harry lives in the 90's western world - he is, as one member of child_lit astutely pointed out, very subject to the whims of materialism, cynicism and greed. What I find fascinating is that he is such an expression of the Something-for-Nothing ideology of today's society; Harry has essentially won the Lottery of life. Through no work of his own, he is magically rich, talented and famous - adults crave contact with him, idealize him, and yes, even hate him, just for his existence. In High Fantasy, this would come matched with an incredible responsibility, and the protagonist would spend a great deal of the story searching for the resolution to their inner need to contribute to the cosmic good. (Whew!) Harry gets off the hook -- his confrontations with the evil one are more random events than elsewise. What Harry really wants, it seems, is to succeed at school with little work, win the Cup, eat candy, fly owls and play with magic creatures, and perhaps date a pretty girl. Even his conscience is largely externalized, in the person of Hermione. Harry would not be the protagonist in a High Fantasy novel; Hermione might be.

Maia

p.s. You mentioned franchise - well , see ACHUKA - stationary, stickers and action figures are on the way!


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Received on Tue 09 Nov 1999 03:50:10 PM CST