Interview with "Wisdom of Harry Potter" Author -
Edmund Kern - conducted by TLC Staff Summary:
Edmund Kern has written a book about the moral issues in Harry Potter, "Wisdom of Harry Potter" - TLC have conducted an interview with him.
Article: Interview with "Wisdom of Harry Potter" Author
Edmund Kern, an author has just written a book called
"The Wisdom of Harry Potter: What our favorite hero teaches us about moral choices", centered around the Harry Potter series.
A picture of Edmund Kern, can be seen
here.
To read the interview and article, both conducted by the TLC Staff, go
here.
Quote:
TLC: Which is your favorite book? Why?
EK: Azkaban, without a doubt. It's incredibly clever and gives readers some important clues about Harry's backstory. It also introduces Professor Lupin, who's one of my favorite characters.
Azkaban's moral ambivalence is also appealing to me; it illustrates how acting morally is an uncertain thing. I love how what is perceived as bad becomes good, and how what is seen as good becomes bad. In the book, Harry really breaks the rules a lot, just because he wants to. In addition, he surrenders to his rage in wanting vengeance on Sirius Black. But he also comes to understand the importance of acting responsibly by the end of the story—even if it means breaking more rules—by refusing to allow Lupin and Black to kill Peter Pettigrew and by rescuing the innocent Black and Buckbeak from the seriously misguided Ministry of Magic.
Quote:
TLC: And your favorite character?
I tend to be most intrigued by the adult characters. (I imagine that if I had first read the books as a child, I might feel different.)
Snape is fantastic—Rowling's most complex character. In Latin, "severus" can mean "serious" or "strict," but let's not forget that in English (or French) "sever" can mean "to separate" or "to divide." Who has he separated from? Voldemort? Or Dumbledore?
Lupin is great—a tragically flawed character. Since in Roman mythology, Remus was murdered by his brother Romulus, I suspect we're all going to learn something more about him. Does he have a brother? I could go on, but I’ll only say that Tonks intrigues me as well, even though we’ve caught only a few glimpses of her.
Quote:
TLC: Favorite episode/scene?
My favorite scene has to be Harry and Dumbledore's discussion before the Mirror of Erised. I know. BORING!
Within it, Dumbledore encourages Harry to balance his desires against unchanging realities. In other words, he must recognize that many things are beyond his control but his own responses to them are not. He must make his desires correspond to reality. As the headmaster points out, those who fail to do so are driven mad and wither away. Here, Rowling first clearly draws out the tensions between fate and free will—things beyond an individual's control and things within one's control—which are so important to her development of Harry's adventures. Harry is drawn as both a victim of fate and a hero free to shape his own destiny.
Quote:
TLC: What, if anything, do you think you learned while writing this book?
I think I now have a better sense of how kids think about moral issues. They like autonomy, adventure, rule-breaking, and being frightened, but they're also perfectly capable of thinking about moral ambiguity and individual responsibility. Unlike J. K. Rowling, I don't have an easy time imagining myself back into childhood—which makes me guilty of one of Dumbledore's great sins in Order of the Phoenix.
Quote:
TLC: Did your opinion about the books or Ms. Rowling alter at all when you were done writing?
After studying them, I really became impressed by the quality and scope of J. K. Rowling's achievement. She updates the classic hero of folklore for twenty-first-century kids. Her prose is simple but evocative, and her use of elements drawn from history, legend, and myth is brilliant. Her literary alchemy reconciles both real-world experiences and inventive fantasy for her young audience by expertly blending both familiar and fantastic aspects of the past and present. She tells a very old story in a very new way.
Quote:
TLC: You talk a lot about the moral conscience in the book, and how those who say Potter is evil are clearly wrong because there’s such a moral compass. What makes Harry Potter more than a book about witchcraft and wizardry?
EK: Well, first off, the books are primarily about good and evil. Harry cultivates himself with due attention to the needs of others; Voldemort thinks only of himself and his desire for power. Quite simply Harry is a good kid, trying to do what is right, pitted against an evil villain bent on world domination. Seen from this perspective, the books’ depictions of witchcraft and wizardry are just window dressing.
Quote:
TLC: Can you conjecture about his best friends, Ron and Hermione, and where their values, as opposed to Harry’s, will lead them? Are they all Stoics?
Ron’s chief virtue is his loyalty. I expect this to be tested before Harry’s final confrontation with Voldemort. He’s Lancelot to Harry’s Arthur. He’ll likely have to make a hard decision. Hermione’s chief virtue is her intellect. It’s her protective shell, but she might find that it will fail her. She’s Merlin to Harry’s Arthur. She too will probably be faced with a tough choice.
The interview, in it's enitirity, can be found over at
The Leaky Cauldron.
Thanks to
The Leaky Cauldron for this fantastic interview.