1:10 a.m. - 2003-07-05
The Pen is Mightier
A very nice, unexpected note arrived in my mailbox today. It was from the gentleman who interviewed me on Wednesday. He had sent a note thanking me for giving him my time. I have gone through a lot of interviews because I work contract, but one is rarely treated as if one's presence is a gift. Two other interviewers have treated me that way, but most make you feel as if you are somehow of lesser value than them. I don't recall ever receiving a thank you note.
I was trying to explain the effect of the note and the interview to one of my sisters when she called later today. I mentioned that at one point the interviewer had mentioned possibly working with a highly controversial government agency. I joked with her about my feelings about that particular level of government, since she knows my opinions of the damage that has been done to a lot of vulnerable people.
Truth is though, it isn't any different than working for Elections Canada. When I first went to Ottawa for training, I got onto the elevator, complete with my regional ID badge, with what turned out to be a lot of career civil servants. They switched to French, I guess believing that because I was from Western Canada, that I wouldn't be able to understand them. I made no effort to diabuse them of that notion, because I wanted to hear what they truly thought. It was the consensus among them, that there was no worse posting than the central election office. At the time I couldn't understand that attitude - I do now. I've managed to handle my responsibilities well, despite the abuse of power at the highest levels of that department and I would be able to cope if the local bete noir(black beast)happens to be offered as a new assignment. I learned a long time ago how to pick my battles and when to hold fire.
I've just completed reading about 2/3 of the new Harry Potter novel out loud to my guys. Harry turns from 14 years of age to 15 in this book. One of the things I found curious was a review by one our local writers, complaining about his adolescent behaviour during the course of the story. Well, yes. As a mom who has survived raising six sons through those dreaded teen years as well as spending countless hours volunteering in their junior high where the teachers, in their kinder moments, referred to the little darlings as "walking bags of hormones", I'm not certain what that reviewer was expecting. James Bond Jr.? Well let me try again, since those movies are just male adolescent fantasies with bigger, more expensive toys. The manners may be better, but the behaviour and attitudes are much less acceptable - at least to me.
Anyway, I digress. Remember, that in this novel it is just two months after Harry has witnessed the violent death of one of his classmates. He returns to face a determined denial of the events around that death. Think of the reaction survivors of the September 11 events at the World Trade center would have, if they were all told it was only a made for tv drama and had never happened. Or the effect of the denial of the holocaust of WW II on survivors of the death camps - or, for that matter, any of the recent concentration camps still hidden around the world. Ok now, think of someone in a position of no power - a student - not only being told that, but also being publicly ridiculed and threatened with retaliation if they continue to talk about it by administrators, teachers, and students. Wouldn't a strong expression of anger and frustration be a normal response in an adolescent?
So, why would JK Rowling choose such a diffcult and "far-fetched" scenario for a child hero to find themselves in? Well, first of all, is it so far out of the ordinary behaviour evidenced in everyday society? Ask rape or domestic abuse survivors about that. It's gotten better than it was, but it still is a common reaction among a lot of society. Rowling seems to be exploring, through all of the Harry Potter books, the many forms bullying takes. She also seems to be able to capture the full range of responses that are common in our society; the good, the bad, and the downright ugly. The moral and ethical dilemmas are set up in a way that everyone can recognize a time that they have been called on to address similar situations in their own lives. If some of the scenes make one uncomfortable then maybe one needs to recall similar events in their own lives when they failed to stand up to or speak out about a bully for one reason or another.
Maybe the reviewer needs to look at a time when they denied someone else the right to express the pain and frustration they were feeling, because it wouldn't "look good" or would require them to take a stand that was uncomfortable. Wonder how much of what Rowling writes about comes from personal experience. Wonder if her tormentors recognize themselves. It is said that the pen is mightier than the sword, and living well is the best revenge. If that underlies even some of her storyline, then I think she has succeeded in both ways.
�
�
