I wanted to write about Harry Potter's last book ever since I finished reading it, on the third day of its release in July. But I didn't have a blog then. So I thought that my imaginary top 5 (or however many) end-of-year lists could be a good place to discuss this.
I got quite late into HP, it was when I was writing up my PhD, and although I think that not all books are great (for example 1 and 2 are admittedly childish and 5 is quite over ambitious) I am sure that there is something substantial in this series that touched all these people all over the world. Beyond the craze and the mania and the endless tribute sites and (until July) countless conspiracy thories, most importantly beyond the straightforward battle of good versus evil, HP has something more.
Although I know that there are no (or very very few) truly original works of art, Harry is another version of the beloved brainchild of 20th century: the antihero. What has arguably started with Euripides's Orestes and Shakespere's Hamlet, who don't want to do what is expected of them (resulting in far worse things that they would have, had they been decisive when they should) Harry is not indecisive, he is just... a boy. Harry is an antihero not because he is not certain about his actions, on the contrary he is very certain of what he wants and has to do. But he is a mediocre kid, a mediocre wizard, far less important than his reputation.
And he knows that and he cannot deal with it easily. He wishes he was better, but at least he has his friends, none of which is exceptionally good by himself but all together make a decent team. And it is this decent team that is joined by the common beliefs and by the love for each other that manages to defeat evil in the end of this series. The end of the Harry Potter saga is not yet another analogy of good and evil, not a hidden Christian analogy, none of that. It is the triumph of love and the triumph of mediocre friends. Like all of us. Nothing new though, just somehow fresh.
2 comments:
We're the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our Great War's a spiritual war... our Great Depression is our lives. We've all been raised on television to believe that one day we'd all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars. But we won't. And we're slowly learning that fact. And we're very, very pissed off.
somehow this post reminded of these lines from Fight Club. Mediocre, all of us. And I cannot be content with it. I am indeed very, very pissed off.
Youkali, your comment makes so much sense: Harry is the mediocre hero of our times because we are a bunch of mediocre idiots. This is great!
For some reason this does not make me pissed off, it is better to be mediocre and know it than to wish your were special all the time and get depressed about it. (She says sitting on her mediocre sofa!)
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