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Entry tags:
gadgets, magical races and Potterverse economics...
Way back when, I pre-ordered Deathly Hallows, not realizing that summer classes didn’t end until August 1st. This past weekend I finally had a chance to read the book. It’s kind of strange reading it now, when most other people have had time to mull over their reactions to it – I’m even having trouble finding interesting reaction articles and posts at this point. Oh well. Having read it completely unspoiled and not being infected by online squee, my interpretation is king. ;-)
I really enjoyed this book. I got nearly everything I wanted out of it and I was comfortable with it. Deathly Hallows is not an especially challenging book but I don’t think that the rest of the series was either. It was, above all, a good read.
One of my favourite aspects of the Potterverse has been the magical gadgetry. Everything from the Weasley twins’ Puking Pastilles to the moving portraits. Not only has it added a lot of unique character to the series, and been fun, but it’s one of the better ways that JKR mirrored real world issues. In the Potterverse magic isn’t pure – it’s been gadgetized, commodifed. It’s traded and sold, packaged and repurposed. It’s gone mass market and the market just keeps on expanding.
I think that the Death Eater/Ministry roundup of Muggleborns is part of a reaction against this. They’re terrified of how they no longer seem to control their world, or the basis of power in their world. Magic is now in the hands of undesirables and those undesirables are entering the magical market and creating new and scary magical technologies. There has been throughout the series a disdain for ‘low’ magic, but at the same time, even the Purebloods and Death Eaters are just as caught up with finding the latest cool thing or killer ap. ;-) It’s a focus on magical utility rather than magic itself.
One of my favourite moments is Voldemort, and later Snape, flying without the use of a broom, and how it genuinely freaks everyone out!
Hallows vs. Horcruxes is a magical technology race that consumes most of the powerful wizards in the series (Grindelwald, Dumbledore, Voldemort, the Death Eaters by proxy). They’re all searching for, or trying to make a magical gadget that will overcome death. Above and beyond the power these gadgets will give them, they’re all consumed by fear of death. They’re all trying to use magic to conquer it, sidestep the rules of being human – even move beyond being human. They’re the scientists of the Potterverse; expanding human experience is bizarre and terrifying ways.
Favourite gadgets:
* The Deluminator. Operating on what? The principle that light wants to return to its source? Bizarrely Dumbledorian.
* Hermione’s little beaded bag. I had a feeling she’d do something like this but how cool is it that Hermione of all people ends up carting a beaded handbag around the countryside?
* The Elder Wand AKA the Deathstick. Good name, bad name! But I love that there’s a dead man’s gun of the WW.
Another thing that’s always been interesting is the various magical races of the Potterverse. Magical races and alien species are most often explorations of particular aspects of human character, or a prop for discussion of race relations. In the Potterverse we get both. I was so excited by the facetime elves and goblins got!
I’ve always been interested in house elves and was happy to learn more about their ‘nature’. Hermione’s comments about how utterly constrained they are by their compulsion to loyalty were interesting – house elves are the most disturbing sign that there is and has always been a horrific potential in the WW. Their existence is a kind of cultural or racial genocide. They’ve ceased to exist as a species outside of servitude. I think that even more than Dobby, Kreacher underlines this point.
Dobby’s death was the saddest and most hopeful moment in the book. Hopeful because he dies as Dobby, a free elf.
Then we have Kreacher (one of my favourite characters!) who is transformed by kindness yes, but also respect. I think there’s potential there for a radical and ruthless house elf leader.
Another favourite bit is the interlude at Shell Cottage where we finally learn more about goblin culture and get some perspective on the endless goblin ‘uprisings’. I can’t help but think that there may be another ‘uprising’ in the offing, considering Voldermort’s treatment of the Gringotts staff, and what seems to be a fundamental misunderstanding between the two cultures.
It’s interesting that Bill can’t call any goblins friends without qualifying, saying that the cultures and mindsets are fundamentally different. Here again economics creeps in – the fundamental difference boils down to different conceptions of property. Questioning property means questioning the foundation of the economy, either goblin or human – no wonder their interactions are so limited.
I think that Griphook’s arc finally moves the series past the “How you treat your lesser…” theme, because Griphook is most definitely not lesser. He may be a douche, but he is no less canny than the Trio. In the context of the struggle against Voldemort he is wrong, but we are allowed to see that in the context of goblin-human antagonism, he may be right.
Goblin-human relations seem to be an economically-driven, purposeful mutual misrecognition. They simply cannot acknowledge each other’s difference. They cannot tolerate it and instead have to attach moral judgment because that difference is so threatening. Yet, at the same time they have to accommodate it because their economies have become so entwined. So they interact uneasily, abase each other as money-grubbers and thieves, and never solve the underlying problem.
It’s also interesting to consider these relationships in terms of control over magic. The mutual animosity between humans and goblins over their respective magical technology is telling, and it’s particularly interesting that the house elves have powerful magic that the WW is unable to understand. Instead of trading for it, as they do with the goblins, the WW seizes control, and suppresses it, by breeding elves into a subject race.
Anyway, I think I’ll leave the rest for another post. ;-)
I really enjoyed this book. I got nearly everything I wanted out of it and I was comfortable with it. Deathly Hallows is not an especially challenging book but I don’t think that the rest of the series was either. It was, above all, a good read.
One of my favourite aspects of the Potterverse has been the magical gadgetry. Everything from the Weasley twins’ Puking Pastilles to the moving portraits. Not only has it added a lot of unique character to the series, and been fun, but it’s one of the better ways that JKR mirrored real world issues. In the Potterverse magic isn’t pure – it’s been gadgetized, commodifed. It’s traded and sold, packaged and repurposed. It’s gone mass market and the market just keeps on expanding.
I think that the Death Eater/Ministry roundup of Muggleborns is part of a reaction against this. They’re terrified of how they no longer seem to control their world, or the basis of power in their world. Magic is now in the hands of undesirables and those undesirables are entering the magical market and creating new and scary magical technologies. There has been throughout the series a disdain for ‘low’ magic, but at the same time, even the Purebloods and Death Eaters are just as caught up with finding the latest cool thing or killer ap. ;-) It’s a focus on magical utility rather than magic itself.
One of my favourite moments is Voldemort, and later Snape, flying without the use of a broom, and how it genuinely freaks everyone out!
Hallows vs. Horcruxes is a magical technology race that consumes most of the powerful wizards in the series (Grindelwald, Dumbledore, Voldemort, the Death Eaters by proxy). They’re all searching for, or trying to make a magical gadget that will overcome death. Above and beyond the power these gadgets will give them, they’re all consumed by fear of death. They’re all trying to use magic to conquer it, sidestep the rules of being human – even move beyond being human. They’re the scientists of the Potterverse; expanding human experience is bizarre and terrifying ways.
Favourite gadgets:
* The Deluminator. Operating on what? The principle that light wants to return to its source? Bizarrely Dumbledorian.
* Hermione’s little beaded bag. I had a feeling she’d do something like this but how cool is it that Hermione of all people ends up carting a beaded handbag around the countryside?
* The Elder Wand AKA the Deathstick. Good name, bad name! But I love that there’s a dead man’s gun of the WW.
Another thing that’s always been interesting is the various magical races of the Potterverse. Magical races and alien species are most often explorations of particular aspects of human character, or a prop for discussion of race relations. In the Potterverse we get both. I was so excited by the facetime elves and goblins got!
I’ve always been interested in house elves and was happy to learn more about their ‘nature’. Hermione’s comments about how utterly constrained they are by their compulsion to loyalty were interesting – house elves are the most disturbing sign that there is and has always been a horrific potential in the WW. Their existence is a kind of cultural or racial genocide. They’ve ceased to exist as a species outside of servitude. I think that even more than Dobby, Kreacher underlines this point.
Dobby’s death was the saddest and most hopeful moment in the book. Hopeful because he dies as Dobby, a free elf.
Then we have Kreacher (one of my favourite characters!) who is transformed by kindness yes, but also respect. I think there’s potential there for a radical and ruthless house elf leader.
Another favourite bit is the interlude at Shell Cottage where we finally learn more about goblin culture and get some perspective on the endless goblin ‘uprisings’. I can’t help but think that there may be another ‘uprising’ in the offing, considering Voldermort’s treatment of the Gringotts staff, and what seems to be a fundamental misunderstanding between the two cultures.
It’s interesting that Bill can’t call any goblins friends without qualifying, saying that the cultures and mindsets are fundamentally different. Here again economics creeps in – the fundamental difference boils down to different conceptions of property. Questioning property means questioning the foundation of the economy, either goblin or human – no wonder their interactions are so limited.
I think that Griphook’s arc finally moves the series past the “How you treat your lesser…” theme, because Griphook is most definitely not lesser. He may be a douche, but he is no less canny than the Trio. In the context of the struggle against Voldemort he is wrong, but we are allowed to see that in the context of goblin-human antagonism, he may be right.
Goblin-human relations seem to be an economically-driven, purposeful mutual misrecognition. They simply cannot acknowledge each other’s difference. They cannot tolerate it and instead have to attach moral judgment because that difference is so threatening. Yet, at the same time they have to accommodate it because their economies have become so entwined. So they interact uneasily, abase each other as money-grubbers and thieves, and never solve the underlying problem.
It’s also interesting to consider these relationships in terms of control over magic. The mutual animosity between humans and goblins over their respective magical technology is telling, and it’s particularly interesting that the house elves have powerful magic that the WW is unable to understand. Instead of trading for it, as they do with the goblins, the WW seizes control, and suppresses it, by breeding elves into a subject race.
Anyway, I think I’ll leave the rest for another post. ;-)