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The next part of my essay on HP.
4) Escapism, “comfortableness”, and allure of the books
No matter what may be thought of the series of books under discussion, it has to be noted that they are a phenomenon, and their success forces an acknowledgement of their having struck a chord somewhere. The reasons for this mass appeal are not hard to find.
A completely average protagonist
This is probably the biggest draw the books can exercise on a lay reader. The protagonist is not the son of a God, nor is he some god incarnate, nor is he of some fantastic species, nor is he excessively strong or talented in any field, nor is he in any way deviate from the mean. He has never done anything exceptional to earn his status, nor has he ever become fully at ease with it. This is tremendously alluring, because most people can immediately identify with him, and can see a reflection of themselves in him.
This is alluring for two reasons. The first is the identification. Teenagers, when they read the books, feel that he is someone who can understand them and who they can understand. This feeling of not being alone and of having someone to identify with is a great comfort in the teenage years of uncertainty. A lot of times, it can also appeal to adults, who can revisit their childhood and teenage years through the books.
The second reason is because of the message it sends out – that heroes aren't really exalted beings who are above the mass of humanity, that the reader too may be a hero the way the protagonist is, and that a trial by fire is not really necessary in order to ascend to herohood. It offers a short-cut to herohood, by making the hero so completely normal. It is unfortunately (or fortunately) untrue that heroes are perfectly normal beings – they are usually intensely abnormal – but it an alluring escapist fantasy nonetheless.
An expectedly and conveniently bigoted conservative order of ethnically pureblooded magic users
Though this may be a controversial thing to assert, it can be made out that throughout the books, there is a sense of conservatism being equated with bigotedness or prejudicial attitudes. The people trying to preserve the old order are almost inevitably Slytherin, pure-blooded, and usually bigoted or prejudiced. They are also equated with the people who want to maintain the blood-purity of the magical community. Change is almost always hailed as for the better.
This is quite appealing to the target audience, because the teenage years are ones of rebellion. That is usually the time to experiment, to find a new balance between the old and the new, and anyone in the books who seems to be going through the same (or analogous) issues is bound to identify with the books and its protagonist. There is, however, not a single believable conservative character with which anyone can sympathise or understand. The old order is shown to be uniformly prejudiced and bigoted, and equally uniformly Slytherin.
This is, of course, something that we cannot blame anyone for – the author's opinions do have a way of making themselves felt, and it's unavoidable in a book which has to reduce things to the simplicity to which they are reduced in the books, but it still adds to the allure of the books.
No “difficult” ideas
This is one of the series' greatest shortcomings. No truly morally difficult ideas are ever encountered in the world of the books. There are no ideas presented which force the reader out of their comfort zone, which force him to re-examine the fundamental axioms of human existence, which are expected of works of a speculative nature. There are no ideas which are difficult to grasp, or difficult to communicate.
This may be entirely intentional, given the nature of the target audience of children, but the lack is sorely felt, specially in the books after the Goblet of Fire. All the ideas presented are those which an eleven year old reader may grasp (no offence here is intended to eleven year olds). True intellectual stimulation is completely missing, and the books never bother to re-examine the fundamentals of morality or religion or art or any other aspect of human life which make us what we are in the context of a society of magic users.
This makes the books very alluring, as no serious intellectual effort is required to understand them. People are not comfortable with truly speculative ideas, and a book which presents old ideas and old morality repackaged in an easy-to-understand, intellectually-unchallenging package is far more likely to appeal to people than something whose premises themselves may be hard to understand or unfamiliar.
No real moral ambiguities or moral dilemmas
This point has been partially covered before. Till now, nobody in the books has ever found themselves on the horns of a dilemma. They have never been forced to make a choice between two equally undesirable options. The example was taken earlier of a choice one of the trio has to make between the other two. For a world so fundamentally unjust at the one of the books, these choices should be more numerous.
This ties in with two other points. The first that in none of the books has the protagonist ever had a climax where he was the prime actor – every time, somebody or something came and saved him. This ties in with, and was possible only due to the fact that the world of the books has no real constraints placed on it. There are a few, such that death is irrevocable, and that nothing can block the killing curse, but these seem to be the only ones that really matter. Even the restraint on the killing curse is partially lifted when two “brother” wands are forced to duel.
In the books, there is always a “right” and an “easy” way. The question remains: Why is there never a situation where there is no “right” way at all?
Such questions are uncomfortable, and it is possible that a large number of readers read the books simply to escape them. This is another reason why the books are so tempting in their escapism – the choices we have to make between bad and worse in the real world are reduced to choices between good and bad in the Potterverse.
No insurmountable problems or constraints in the world; anything may be shown to be possible
This is another very appealing aspect of the Potterverse – there exist practically no real constraints on the nature on the magical world. There seem to be only two exceptions to this – the first being that death is final, and the second being that nothing can block a killing curse. The point remains, however, that both these have been violated, at least partially. Death is final, but ghosts do exist. And nothing can block a killing curse, but this restriction does not apply if two “brother” wands are forced to duel. Only using this method can the killing curse be forced back or neutralised.
This lack of realism is the reason why, at the end of each book, something extraordinary can happen, and save the day in the face of insurmountable odds. This detracts from the books considerably. A comparison can be drawn here between the Potterverse and the Robot stories of Isaac Asimov. In the case of Asimov's stories, he drew up three laws of robotics, and the entire enjoyment to be derived from the stories was in seeing the implications and interactions of the three laws with reality. In none of the stories were the three laws violated, and it is this fact which makes them stand out as truly excellent.
Again, probably the same reasoning is applicable here as was to the last point – that people may read these books to escape a world with constraints, to enter a world where anything may be possible, and to see these possibilities and potentialities in action.
Escapism and “comfortableness”
All the above points go towards making the books extremely escapist, and extremely comfortable to read. They offer us an escape from the real world, which has constraints, which has those same constraints leading to insurmountable problems, and which has these problems leading us to compromises which neither we nor the world is comfortable with. In its stead, we are offered the Potterverse, where magic comes and solves everything, or at least makes no demands upon the world, which has no real constraints, and which is rich enough that we can lose ourselves in it.
The books are also very comfortable to read. They offer no intellectual challenge (thus they do not force us to think, and to stretch our minds beyond what is regularly expected of them), and they offer us a world which we can identify with very easily – the world of an adolescent who has to cope with things completely beyond his control. This comfort, born of familiarity, is a prime reason why the books appeal so much to so many.
They appeal to the fundamental human urges and ideas which have permeated the world, and thus have a very broad appeal.
A link to the rest of the essay.
4) Escapism, “comfortableness”, and allure of the books
No matter what may be thought of the series of books under discussion, it has to be noted that they are a phenomenon, and their success forces an acknowledgement of their having struck a chord somewhere. The reasons for this mass appeal are not hard to find.
A completely average protagonist
This is probably the biggest draw the books can exercise on a lay reader. The protagonist is not the son of a God, nor is he some god incarnate, nor is he of some fantastic species, nor is he excessively strong or talented in any field, nor is he in any way deviate from the mean. He has never done anything exceptional to earn his status, nor has he ever become fully at ease with it. This is tremendously alluring, because most people can immediately identify with him, and can see a reflection of themselves in him.
This is alluring for two reasons. The first is the identification. Teenagers, when they read the books, feel that he is someone who can understand them and who they can understand. This feeling of not being alone and of having someone to identify with is a great comfort in the teenage years of uncertainty. A lot of times, it can also appeal to adults, who can revisit their childhood and teenage years through the books.
The second reason is because of the message it sends out – that heroes aren't really exalted beings who are above the mass of humanity, that the reader too may be a hero the way the protagonist is, and that a trial by fire is not really necessary in order to ascend to herohood. It offers a short-cut to herohood, by making the hero so completely normal. It is unfortunately (or fortunately) untrue that heroes are perfectly normal beings – they are usually intensely abnormal – but it an alluring escapist fantasy nonetheless.
An expectedly and conveniently bigoted conservative order of ethnically pureblooded magic users
Though this may be a controversial thing to assert, it can be made out that throughout the books, there is a sense of conservatism being equated with bigotedness or prejudicial attitudes. The people trying to preserve the old order are almost inevitably Slytherin, pure-blooded, and usually bigoted or prejudiced. They are also equated with the people who want to maintain the blood-purity of the magical community. Change is almost always hailed as for the better.
This is quite appealing to the target audience, because the teenage years are ones of rebellion. That is usually the time to experiment, to find a new balance between the old and the new, and anyone in the books who seems to be going through the same (or analogous) issues is bound to identify with the books and its protagonist. There is, however, not a single believable conservative character with which anyone can sympathise or understand. The old order is shown to be uniformly prejudiced and bigoted, and equally uniformly Slytherin.
This is, of course, something that we cannot blame anyone for – the author's opinions do have a way of making themselves felt, and it's unavoidable in a book which has to reduce things to the simplicity to which they are reduced in the books, but it still adds to the allure of the books.
No “difficult” ideas
This is one of the series' greatest shortcomings. No truly morally difficult ideas are ever encountered in the world of the books. There are no ideas presented which force the reader out of their comfort zone, which force him to re-examine the fundamental axioms of human existence, which are expected of works of a speculative nature. There are no ideas which are difficult to grasp, or difficult to communicate.
This may be entirely intentional, given the nature of the target audience of children, but the lack is sorely felt, specially in the books after the Goblet of Fire. All the ideas presented are those which an eleven year old reader may grasp (no offence here is intended to eleven year olds). True intellectual stimulation is completely missing, and the books never bother to re-examine the fundamentals of morality or religion or art or any other aspect of human life which make us what we are in the context of a society of magic users.
This makes the books very alluring, as no serious intellectual effort is required to understand them. People are not comfortable with truly speculative ideas, and a book which presents old ideas and old morality repackaged in an easy-to-understand, intellectually-unchallenging package is far more likely to appeal to people than something whose premises themselves may be hard to understand or unfamiliar.
No real moral ambiguities or moral dilemmas
This point has been partially covered before. Till now, nobody in the books has ever found themselves on the horns of a dilemma. They have never been forced to make a choice between two equally undesirable options. The example was taken earlier of a choice one of the trio has to make between the other two. For a world so fundamentally unjust at the one of the books, these choices should be more numerous.
This ties in with two other points. The first that in none of the books has the protagonist ever had a climax where he was the prime actor – every time, somebody or something came and saved him. This ties in with, and was possible only due to the fact that the world of the books has no real constraints placed on it. There are a few, such that death is irrevocable, and that nothing can block the killing curse, but these seem to be the only ones that really matter. Even the restraint on the killing curse is partially lifted when two “brother” wands are forced to duel.
In the books, there is always a “right” and an “easy” way. The question remains: Why is there never a situation where there is no “right” way at all?
Such questions are uncomfortable, and it is possible that a large number of readers read the books simply to escape them. This is another reason why the books are so tempting in their escapism – the choices we have to make between bad and worse in the real world are reduced to choices between good and bad in the Potterverse.
No insurmountable problems or constraints in the world; anything may be shown to be possible
This is another very appealing aspect of the Potterverse – there exist practically no real constraints on the nature on the magical world. There seem to be only two exceptions to this – the first being that death is final, and the second being that nothing can block a killing curse. The point remains, however, that both these have been violated, at least partially. Death is final, but ghosts do exist. And nothing can block a killing curse, but this restriction does not apply if two “brother” wands are forced to duel. Only using this method can the killing curse be forced back or neutralised.
This lack of realism is the reason why, at the end of each book, something extraordinary can happen, and save the day in the face of insurmountable odds. This detracts from the books considerably. A comparison can be drawn here between the Potterverse and the Robot stories of Isaac Asimov. In the case of Asimov's stories, he drew up three laws of robotics, and the entire enjoyment to be derived from the stories was in seeing the implications and interactions of the three laws with reality. In none of the stories were the three laws violated, and it is this fact which makes them stand out as truly excellent.
Again, probably the same reasoning is applicable here as was to the last point – that people may read these books to escape a world with constraints, to enter a world where anything may be possible, and to see these possibilities and potentialities in action.
Escapism and “comfortableness”
All the above points go towards making the books extremely escapist, and extremely comfortable to read. They offer us an escape from the real world, which has constraints, which has those same constraints leading to insurmountable problems, and which has these problems leading us to compromises which neither we nor the world is comfortable with. In its stead, we are offered the Potterverse, where magic comes and solves everything, or at least makes no demands upon the world, which has no real constraints, and which is rich enough that we can lose ourselves in it.
The books are also very comfortable to read. They offer no intellectual challenge (thus they do not force us to think, and to stretch our minds beyond what is regularly expected of them), and they offer us a world which we can identify with very easily – the world of an adolescent who has to cope with things completely beyond his control. This comfort, born of familiarity, is a prime reason why the books appeal so much to so many.
They appeal to the fundamental human urges and ideas which have permeated the world, and thus have a very broad appeal.
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