{"id":7252,"date":"2016-02-02T00:58:32","date_gmt":"2016-02-02T04:58:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/arts.umich.edu\/ink\/?p=7252"},"modified":"2016-02-02T01:30:49","modified_gmt":"2016-02-02T05:30:49","slug":"acknowledging-the-flaws-of-harry-potter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/2016\/02\/02\/acknowledging-the-flaws-of-harry-potter\/","title":{"rendered":"Acknowledging the Flaws of Harry Potter"},"content":{"rendered":"

I am part of the Harry Potter generation, the generation of kids for whom Harry Potter was a formative experience. Harry Potter\u2019s influence has obviously been massive, to the point that it\u2019s its own culture. It transcends art\u2014reading the books isn\u2019t really like reading a book, it\u2019s like being in another dimension, and even watching the movies is the same just because they\u2019re so inextricably tied to the books. Words like \u2018Gryffindor\u2019 and \u2018Voldemort\u2019 are so familiar that when I hear somebody mention them in public, I don\u2019t think Hey, they\u2019re mentioning my favorite books!<\/em> I don\u2019t think anything, really. They\u2019re just words that have somehow entered the cultural canon as comfortably as any other name.<\/p>\n

And personally, I feel totally shaped by Harry Potter. I respect so much about J.K. Rowling, personally and professionally. Somehow, she created a world. To attain her level of fame and wealth is impressive to begin with, but to attain her level of influence on children everywhere is incredible. And yes, adults love the series too\u2014I just think it\u2019s particularly amazing that she could shape so many young minds. I was one of those minds, and I will always love every book, every character, every word of Harry Potter.<\/p>\n

But I\u2019ve always believed that you can criticize the things you love, just like you can like pieces of things you hate. \u201cElf\u201d was my first favorite movie, and looking back at it now, I find the climax a little problematic. Sure, the scene with Jovie singing to the crowd of people is great, and Walter Hobbs saving the Clausometer by finally joining in is brilliant. The celebration of Christmas cheer is a great thing to focus on, but isn\u2019t it a little cheap that Michael has to get the Clausometer kick-started by blatantly revealing<\/em> Santa\u2019s list on live TV? The whole point of faith is that you have some internal compulsion to believe. It\u2019s based on your intrinsic belief, not proof. By revealing Santa\u2019s list, Michael isn\u2019t asking people to believe in something they can\u2019t see; he\u2019s forcing them to see the truth. And that\u2019s not as powerful.<\/p>\n

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But \u201cElf\u201d still might be my favorite movie, and that thematic flaw doesn\u2019t come anywhere close to undoing the countless laughs, the tear-jerking moments, Will Ferrell\u2019s hilarious performance, and the overwhelming Christmas cheer it instills in me whenever I watch it.<\/p>\n

And I feel the same way about Harry Potter. It holds a special place in my heart and can never be tarnished, but I think it has some problems. And I think it\u2019s okay to acknowledge that.<\/p>\n

Starting with the first book, the Sorting Hat\u2026doesn\u2019t make a lot of sense when you think about it. By itself, it\u2019s a pretty cool little idea, but does it really make sense to try to categorize people that way in real life? Pretty much everyone I know would be either a Ravenclaw or a Hufflepuff. Maybe a Gryffindor or Slytherin every once in a while, but kindness, loyalty, and intelligence are more visible and common than bravery and cunning. It\u2019s kind of hard to think of anyone I know as \u2018brave\u2019\u2014I mean, yeah, there\u2019s casual everyday bravery, but the characters in Harry Potter were able to more easily show their bravery when facing magical death every day.<\/p>\n

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And let\u2019s be honest: as much as J.K. Rowling and many fans might defend Hufflepuff and Slytherin, they really are the boring house and the evil house, respectively. Claiming that Nymphadora Tonks is a Hufflepuff doesn\u2019t really redeem the severe shortage of characters that the house has, and seriously, it\u2019s hard to say that Slytherin\u2019s defining characteristic is \u2018cunning\u2019 or \u2018ambitious\u2019 when almost all of them seem to be racist traitor Dark Lord sympathizers. J.K. had plenty of opportunities to make Slytherin more of a morally gray house (she helped a little bit by making Peter Pettigrew a Gryffindor). If Sirius Black had been a Slytherin like the rest of the Blacks, he could\u2019ve been a great example of a good guy Slytherin. But not enough was done to make Slytherin more than the House of Dicks.<\/p>\n

Speaking of moral relativism\u2026let\u2019s talk about Snape. Let\u2019s be clear: I love the character. I think he\u2019s the most morally gray character in the series. But J.K. does stumble a little bit at the end of The Deathly Hallows<\/em> in glorifying him by having Harry name his son after him when there were many more trustworthy, loving people he could\u2019ve chosen (Hagrid, Lupin, etc.). J.K. confirmed in a series of tweets that she was aware of Snape\u2019s bitterness and the horrible way he projected his hatred of James onto his son, but she explained it this way: \u201cSnape died for Harry out of love for Lily. Harry paid him tribute in forgiveness and gratitude. There\u2019s a whole essay in why Harry gave his son Snape\u2019s name, but the decision goes to the heart of who Harry was, post-war. In honoring Snape, Harry hoped in his heart that he too would be forgiven. The deaths at the Battle of Hogwarts would haunt him forever.\u201d Honestly, it\u2019s a great explanation, and explains a lot. I\u2019d totally embrace it\u2026if it had actually been implied in the book. Unfortunately, in the book, we never get to see Harry struggling with post-war guilt. As far as we can see, Harry is honoring two men who continually withheld information from him and behaved selfishly.<\/p>\n

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Speaking of which, that\u2019s a thing J.K. does a lot: talk about the future for these characters. I didn\u2019t really mind the epilogue of the last book (though it\u2019s unnecessary) because this is the kind of series where it\u2019s okay to skip forward and show a much-deserved happily ever after, but I\u2019m not a fan of the way she still talks about the characters\u2019 futures after the fact. John Green has spoken about this before\u2014the author isn\u2019t necessarily allowed to say what happens to the characters after the events of the book, because that\u2019s not part of the contained story of the series. Just like John simply didn\u2019t know<\/em> whether Hazel Grace Lancaster dies after The Fault in Our Stars<\/em>, J.K. isn\u2019t necessarily allowed to just say that George grows up, has a baby with Angelina Johnson, and names him Fred. I also don\u2019t like how she just claims that Harry is an Auror, and Hermione works for the Ministry. If it came out in the epilogue, that\u2019s fine, but it\u2019s unnecessary to draw out this elaborate future for every character outside of the story itself.<\/p>\n

In fact, most of my problems have to do with the story\u2019s conclusion. The idea of the Deathly Hallows is super cool, but if you think about it, it\u2019s pretty unsatisfying that the villain\u2019s inevitable demise happens because of a logical fallacy involving who a wand\u2019s owner is. J.K. made Horcruxes feel integral to the plot by setting them up in the previous book (and laying clues throughout the series), but the Elder Wand is something we couldn\u2019t have anticipated playing a role in Voldemort\u2019s death.<\/p>\n

Like I said, most of these problems barely affected my reading of it, maybe partly because I was a kid who didn\u2019t understand narrative like I do now. Maybe if I was reading it for the first time now, I\u2019d love it, but I\u2019d be a little let down by the end. It\u2019s hard to tell. But my ultimate point is that it\u2019s okay to acknowledge that everything has flaws, even the stories you love the most. Nothing is perfect. Not even Harry Potter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I am part of the Harry Potter generation, the generation of kids for whom Harry Potter was a formative experience. Harry Potter\u2019s influence has obviously been massive, to the point that it\u2019s its own culture. It transcends art\u2014reading the books isn\u2019t really like reading a book, it\u2019s like being in another dimension, and even watching […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2178,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7252"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2178"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7252"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7252\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7256,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7252\/revisions\/7256"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}