More on Albus Dumbledore_

[mary-j-59.livejournal.com]

Hi, everyone. This will be quite short, but something sunnyskywalker said in a previous discussion rang bells with me. What if these books aren't quite what we think they are?


I am thinking of an interview with Rowling some years back, when she answered a question about her faith with words to this effect: "I struggle to keep believing". If anyone has the exact quote, I'd be grateful!

Because, you see, that is quite moving to me. It is hard to keep believing in God when you witness truly evil things happening to people you love. At least, you can't go on believing, like a child, in the wise old man with a beard who will make everything all right. That's so obviously not what God is.*

But, in these books, we have a wise old man with a beard. And he is very, very imperfect. Rowling's depiction of Dumbledore does, indeed, seem like an indictment of sorts.

But Dumbledore is obviously not God. He is just the headmaster of a wizarding school. Harry, despite some of the imagery surrounding him, is just as obviously not Jesus. Who is he? As I said on my blog some time back, he is an everyman character - specifically, he's Percival, the fool.

And - I think there is some kind of sense there, lurking deep down. I can't quite put my finger on it, but sometimes I think it's there.

Because, if there is a Christ figure at all in these books (but I don't think there is), that is definitely Severus Snape, in spite of his obvious imperfections. If Harry is Percival, Snape is the Fisher King; the wounded king of a wounded land. And what heals the Fisher King? Compassion and curiosity. Percival is supposed to ask a question. We all know that Harry never does that, don't we?

But, if Snape is the Fisher King and Harry Percival, who on earth is Dumbledore? Because he's not God. Not consciously, anyway. And - it's interesting that one of his names is Percival. What I'm getting at is that I sometimes think that the 'lost boys' of Hogwarts are all facets of him.

Rowling is playing with some very powerful archetypes in these stories, I think, and that's why we are still struggling to find meaning in them.

My two cents!

* As those who know me know, I'm a devout Catholic. To me, God is nothing like Dumbledore.

Comments

[wolf-willow31.livejournal.com]

Percival and the Fisher King? Oh, wow. I hadn't thought of that.

As far as what JKR might have meant, I think that consciously, she was just fooling around with tropes and archetypes. But this discussion makes me wonder: Was JKR subconsciously expressing anger against God, Death, etc.? Not to suggest that JKR came to any profound conclusion on those topics, but unfocussed anger and pain might explain why, by the end, the whole thing had turned into a confused rant.

But like a surrealist painting, does it matter what the artist/writer actually meant? What's important may be the different things that we see can in it, depending how we look at it, and the fact that it makes us think. And that's why I love this comm: you folks show me new perspectives all the time (and thanks for that!).

You know, if whole HP series wasn't such a totally messy Rorschach blot, we'd probably get tired of it and drift off looking for new tales and new fandoms. Instead … *goes off to ponder possible meanings of Dumbledore, the Fisher King, and the Old Testament*

[sunnyskywalker]

That sounds plausible - maybe she consciously set out to complicate the wise mentor archetype, with or without realizing the God parallels. But since the parallels were there, her subconscious got away with her and started confusedly ranting at God, even as consciously she was trying to do something else. If she was trying to do anything by the end but fill in the outline to be done with it all :D

[danajsparks.livejournal.com]

Was JKR subconsciously expressing anger against God, Death, etc.?

I think she has said that her feelings about losing her mother greatly influenced the story.


A Rorschach blot is a really good analogy for the HP series!