My Review of the last Harry Potter Book
Well, I got the Harry Potter book. And of course I had to see who died. Basically, Harry kicks Voldemort's ass. And all live happily ever after.
I was a bit disappointed, though, that Harry marries Ron's sister. I would have preferred him to marry Ron instead. You know, for "diversity"'s sake. That would make for an interesting plot twist (and win the affection for JK Rowling of every sexual deviant everywhere).
In any case, I wrote a review for Shelfari. This isn't something you will see in any children's magazine anytime soon!
Most people see in the "Harry Potter" series a story about a boy who casts all kinds of spells and kills a bad wizard in the end. Then there is the element of all the wizards and witches falling in love and marrying one another - something Hollywood has trumped up (which is why I stopped watching Harry Potter movies). Some see an adventure story, some see a mystery tale.
However, this "Harry Potter" series has a lesson about socio-economic systems, especially many social issues that have been dealt with over the 20th century. And "Harry Potter and the Deathly Harrows" give a clear lesson in the dangers in many of the 20th century belief systems.
Unless you live under a rock (or have covered your ears), by now you know Harry Potter defeats Lord Voldemort and everyone lives happily ever after - like any fairy tale. The Harry Potter book reads much like a Hollywood movie - they are constantly on the move, like many a Hollywood adventure movie - something you do not see if real life - or pre-Hollywood literature, either, for that matter. Until they go hiding in their tent, which they spend many months doing nothing - much as to what is expected in a Hollywood movie. Then the book gets moving again, as the school year comes to an end - and the book ends toward the end of the last school year - rarely is real life, or pre-Hollywood literature, quite so exact.
The real lesson that J.K. Rowling gives, however, has nothing to do with magic. Everyone knows that it's impossible to get the Avada Kedarva spell to work as it should - or any other spells or techniques mentioned in the book, for that matter. It instead has to do with many of the big issues the last few generations had to grapple with.
When Lord Voldemort takes over the magic world, and by default, Hogwarts, he attempts to create his own totalitarian society on the wizard community. And he attempts to engage in his own social engineering with the wizard world, by expelling mudbloods and blood traitors - as well as beating up muggles by default. As any good totalitarian does, he attempts to brainwash the entire community into thinking that anyone who is less a full-blood should be punished (by having a meeting with a dementor, for example), preventing mudbloods from attending Hogwarts, brainwashing all young wizards at Hogwarts (where attendance is now mandatory) into thinking that muggles are evil ones (and hence, must be eliminated). He also turns the "Defense of the Dark Arts" class into just a "Dark Arts" class, allowing the young wizards to learn what magic is "really" about.
We find out that Lord Voldemort has the characteristic of three loathsome 20th century figures - Hitler, Stalin, and Pol Pot. Basically, his belief in "blood purity" mirrors that of Hitler. But Hitler did not apply his Nazi regime as strigent as Lord Voldemort did. Like Stalin and Pol Pot, he changed his name into somethiny more menacing. Like Pol Pot, he got busy with his social engineering right away (not even Hitler or Stalin moved this fast), and controlled all the levers behind the scenes. Like Stalin, he completely controlled all information to turn Harry Potter and the other member of the Order of the Phoenix into most despicable figures (in the eyes of the wizarding world). This also is in the way he controlled the educational institutions (eg Hogwarts). And it also shows in Voldemort's willingness to do away with all those who led to his rise in power, to replace those who are only 100% loyal to him - and him only.
And like these three beasts, Lord Voldemort had an ideology as a tool to gain absolute power over all. This of course being blood purity. He uses Stalinist techniques (show trials) to achieve Hitlerian ends (eliminating an entire "race" of individuals). Even the horcruxes have something in common with these totalitarian movements. Both Nazism and Communism were to be the end product of history - for Hitler, the creation of an Aryan society; for Stalin and Pol Pot, there was absolutely no other socie-economic structure that could exist once communism had been achieved (at least this is what Marx said).
Unlike these three, however, he uses an ideology that has deep historical roots. As Voldemort is the very last heir to Salazar Slytherin, whose followers hate anything associated with muggles, he is accomplishing a goal that had been pursued by the evil elements of the wizarding community for nearly a millenium.
This builds on the rest of the series. First, the second book seems to attack the thinking behind the Jim Crow policies that existed in the US during the first half of the 20th Century. The next books extend this to basically attack the British class system - or, what is left of it (which is now merely a ghost of what it was). The final book takes this to an extreme, whereby revolutionaries try to maintain this rikety system with a very severe control over their society.
Yet, Lord Voldemort is overthrown by a resistance movement, inspired by Harry Potter himself. This is also Hollywoodesque - totalitarian regimes either collapse from within or without; they never collapse at their peak. After destroying all the sources of Voldemort's strength, he outwits him and defeats him with a deflecting spell.
One part I have left out is that much of the series deals with love - Voldemort's great fear. This is something that helps to defeat him. I needn't go into this theme. I only need explain that it shows that totalitarian leaders are emotionally (as well as psychologically, and spiritually) unbalanced, and thus have weaknesses in certain aspects that can defeat them.
"Harry Potter and the Deathly Harrows" is a good finale to a child's civic education, in that it can be used (after the other books have been read) to show the reader the dangers that attractive ideologies pose to a society as a whole. As one of the dark arts teachers said in one of the earlier books, everyone needs "constant vigilence" when it comes to decision making.
There! That's a better review than anyone else out there will write!!!
I was a bit disappointed, though, that Harry marries Ron's sister. I would have preferred him to marry Ron instead. You know, for "diversity"'s sake. That would make for an interesting plot twist (and win the affection for JK Rowling of every sexual deviant everywhere).
In any case, I wrote a review for Shelfari. This isn't something you will see in any children's magazine anytime soon!
Most people see in the "Harry Potter" series a story about a boy who casts all kinds of spells and kills a bad wizard in the end. Then there is the element of all the wizards and witches falling in love and marrying one another - something Hollywood has trumped up (which is why I stopped watching Harry Potter movies). Some see an adventure story, some see a mystery tale.
However, this "Harry Potter" series has a lesson about socio-economic systems, especially many social issues that have been dealt with over the 20th century. And "Harry Potter and the Deathly Harrows" give a clear lesson in the dangers in many of the 20th century belief systems.
Unless you live under a rock (or have covered your ears), by now you know Harry Potter defeats Lord Voldemort and everyone lives happily ever after - like any fairy tale. The Harry Potter book reads much like a Hollywood movie - they are constantly on the move, like many a Hollywood adventure movie - something you do not see if real life - or pre-Hollywood literature, either, for that matter. Until they go hiding in their tent, which they spend many months doing nothing - much as to what is expected in a Hollywood movie. Then the book gets moving again, as the school year comes to an end - and the book ends toward the end of the last school year - rarely is real life, or pre-Hollywood literature, quite so exact.
The real lesson that J.K. Rowling gives, however, has nothing to do with magic. Everyone knows that it's impossible to get the Avada Kedarva spell to work as it should - or any other spells or techniques mentioned in the book, for that matter. It instead has to do with many of the big issues the last few generations had to grapple with.
When Lord Voldemort takes over the magic world, and by default, Hogwarts, he attempts to create his own totalitarian society on the wizard community. And he attempts to engage in his own social engineering with the wizard world, by expelling mudbloods and blood traitors - as well as beating up muggles by default. As any good totalitarian does, he attempts to brainwash the entire community into thinking that anyone who is less a full-blood should be punished (by having a meeting with a dementor, for example), preventing mudbloods from attending Hogwarts, brainwashing all young wizards at Hogwarts (where attendance is now mandatory) into thinking that muggles are evil ones (and hence, must be eliminated). He also turns the "Defense of the Dark Arts" class into just a "Dark Arts" class, allowing the young wizards to learn what magic is "really" about.
We find out that Lord Voldemort has the characteristic of three loathsome 20th century figures - Hitler, Stalin, and Pol Pot. Basically, his belief in "blood purity" mirrors that of Hitler. But Hitler did not apply his Nazi regime as strigent as Lord Voldemort did. Like Stalin and Pol Pot, he changed his name into somethiny more menacing. Like Pol Pot, he got busy with his social engineering right away (not even Hitler or Stalin moved this fast), and controlled all the levers behind the scenes. Like Stalin, he completely controlled all information to turn Harry Potter and the other member of the Order of the Phoenix into most despicable figures (in the eyes of the wizarding world). This also is in the way he controlled the educational institutions (eg Hogwarts). And it also shows in Voldemort's willingness to do away with all those who led to his rise in power, to replace those who are only 100% loyal to him - and him only.
And like these three beasts, Lord Voldemort had an ideology as a tool to gain absolute power over all. This of course being blood purity. He uses Stalinist techniques (show trials) to achieve Hitlerian ends (eliminating an entire "race" of individuals). Even the horcruxes have something in common with these totalitarian movements. Both Nazism and Communism were to be the end product of history - for Hitler, the creation of an Aryan society; for Stalin and Pol Pot, there was absolutely no other socie-economic structure that could exist once communism had been achieved (at least this is what Marx said).
Unlike these three, however, he uses an ideology that has deep historical roots. As Voldemort is the very last heir to Salazar Slytherin, whose followers hate anything associated with muggles, he is accomplishing a goal that had been pursued by the evil elements of the wizarding community for nearly a millenium.
This builds on the rest of the series. First, the second book seems to attack the thinking behind the Jim Crow policies that existed in the US during the first half of the 20th Century. The next books extend this to basically attack the British class system - or, what is left of it (which is now merely a ghost of what it was). The final book takes this to an extreme, whereby revolutionaries try to maintain this rikety system with a very severe control over their society.
Yet, Lord Voldemort is overthrown by a resistance movement, inspired by Harry Potter himself. This is also Hollywoodesque - totalitarian regimes either collapse from within or without; they never collapse at their peak. After destroying all the sources of Voldemort's strength, he outwits him and defeats him with a deflecting spell.
One part I have left out is that much of the series deals with love - Voldemort's great fear. This is something that helps to defeat him. I needn't go into this theme. I only need explain that it shows that totalitarian leaders are emotionally (as well as psychologically, and spiritually) unbalanced, and thus have weaknesses in certain aspects that can defeat them.
"Harry Potter and the Deathly Harrows" is a good finale to a child's civic education, in that it can be used (after the other books have been read) to show the reader the dangers that attractive ideologies pose to a society as a whole. As one of the dark arts teachers said in one of the earlier books, everyone needs "constant vigilence" when it comes to decision making.
There! That's a better review than anyone else out there will write!!!
posted by EricMatthew at 2:16 AM
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