The release of the latest Harry Potter film has evoked reflections on power – the power of individuals and the power of story to change the world.
Torey Lightcap who usually presides over the Sunday segment of The Lead has reviewed Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 for the web site explorefaith.
Holding a book or an e-reader—it’s … well, to state the obvious, it’s a different world from the theater. The owner of a book controls his own means of consumption. I tore through my now spine-split copy of Hallows like a downhill skier, dodging potential spoilers as one dodges the edges of cliffs, and hitting all the big notes and moments like moguls. I didn’t want to be scooped. Now, it seems, my path is slowed and the turns are harder; the snow is sloggy; the film wants me to linger over its characters, tracing their pathos back up the mountain.
What that lingering produces is primarily intimacy with the landscape of desolation, abandonment, fear, and hopelessness. It’s not unlike what one is meant to feel after reading the first act of the Book of Joel, when nothing is left to eat or even be sacrificed, and grasshoppers have destroyed everything. The film moves from place to place with a frustrating and calculated syncopation, desolation to desolation. We the viewers just have to take it as it comes.
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There’s more at stake in this desperate race than merely some kind of magical bragging rights; the toys and trophies of Harry’s past as a Hogwarts student are but the playthings of children. This isn’t “Wand Out at the J.K. Corral.” Voldemort has the Wizarding World held tightly in his cold grasp, from the head of the government on down, and it’s plain from the first and second scenes that his first order of business after killing Harry will be the total genocide of any Muggle, that is, a human who doesn’t have purely magical blood running through his or her veins. After that … with whatever and whoever remains … fear, intimidation.
So there it is. They must face off. They must do one another in. Someone will die in the bargain.
Only Harry, I think, understands something Voldemort does not. Given that his old wand is broken, that something may be his only real weapon, and, in the end, the only weapon worth possessing.
That something is simply this: These books and films are not about magic per se, odd as that probably seems. They’re fundamentally about power, and what you do with power when you find out that you have it. Some will hoard that power and learn how to use it to intimidate, coerce, and even kill on a terrible scale. All for themselves.
Others, like Harry, will use their power to increase not themselves but the forces of love and friendship that dominate a larger world. Those who choose this path live, even if they die.
Religion Dispatches wonders about the power of story in the essay Imagine Better: Can Harry Potter Change the World?
Stories are dangerous. They have the ability to re-make the world; to take us outside of ourselves, and make real the experiences, feelings, and situations of other people in other places. Stories activate our imaginations and rearrange the furniture of our minds. This is why narrative—may it take the form of myth, folklore, parable, or history—has always been such an integral part of religious life and the formation of religious imagination. Historically, stories have been vehicles for moral formation, though their ability to influence the world has been used to subvert hegemonic power as well as to bolster it.
Though many fundamentalist religious groups preach against the Harry Potter books. JK Rowling notes that the books contain a lot of Christian imagery and themes:
She further elaborates by asking, “What did my books preach against throughout? Bigotry, violence, struggles for power, no matter what.” The continued popularity of Harry Potter stems, at least in part, from the power and universality of its message. Rowling succeeded in creating an alternative world that is so real, and so compelling, that it makes you want to become a part of it.
J.K. Rowling’s creations have taken on new life as they are embraced by fans that make them their own. Fans joined together to create Harry Potter social network sites such as The Leaky Cauldron, and Mugglenet, which also features extensive archives of fan fiction and fan art. In addition, Harry Potter has also inspired the creation of a genre of music called Wizard Rock (commonly referred to as “wrock”) as well as the creation of the International Quidditch Association, which held its fourth annual Quidditch World Cup on Nov. 13-14, 2010, in New York City. Potter fans are often passionate, creative, and imaginative, and no organization demonstrates this more clearly than the Harry Potter Alliance.
The Harry Potter Alliance (HPA) was founded in 2005 by Andrew Slack, Executive Director, and Paul DeGeorge, of wrock band Harry and the Potters, as an organization whose mission is to draw on the language and lessons of Harry Potter to create real world social change. Their vision was to create a Dumbledore’s Army of Harry Potter fans that work for justice in the real world.
Just as Dumbledore’s Army wakes the world up to Voldemort’s return, works for equal rights of house elves and werewolves, and empowers its members, we: Work with partner NGOs in alerting the world to the dangers of global warming, poverty, and genocide. Work with our partners for equal rights regardless of race, gender, and sexuality. Encourage our members to hone the magic of their creativity in endeavoring to make the world a better place. Join our army to make the world a safer, more magical place, and let your voice be heard!
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In her 2008 Harvard commencement speech, Rowling reminded us that “We do not need magic to change the world, we carry all the power we need inside ourselves already: we have the power to imagine better.” This is the message at the heart of the Harry Potter Alliance. I am not sure how long the story of Harry Potter will continue to have traction with the public imagination after the final film finishes its run next year, but for now the HPA makes the argument that social change can be both fun and accessible. It may not enable the kind of systemic social change that truly alters the status quo, but the HPA is introducing a new generation of young people to the power and importance of being socially aware and engaged. This is at least a very important first step.
The Harry Potter Alliance is on Facebook here
I don’t know – is social media too weak to change the world? Do you need a strong hierarchy to do social change and systemic justice work? Or is this trend just the beginning of a whole new network centric set of relationships that can change the world?