There’s always more to a fairy tale that its simply being a “simple and heartwarming fable.” And if you don’t realize that, you risk being called a “nincompoop” by Albus Dumbledore (p. 11, Standard Edition).
“The Wizard and the Hopping Pot” is a tale of a “kindly old wizard” wizard who uses his magic to help his Muggle neighbors with their maladies (while pretending that the remedies came out of his cooking pot). When he dies, his son does not take up his cause, shutting the door on Muggle after Muggle, believing Muggles to be evil and weak. But his father had enchanted his pot, so that every sickness the son refused to heal showed up in or on the pot, which made so much noise and became such a vat of sickness that the son was driven to begin helping Muggles.
What makes this more than a “heartwarming fable” is the fact that Beedle wrote it while wizards and witches were experiencing severe persecution from the Muggle world, Dumbledore notes. This is a story of “love thy neighbor.” It goes completely against our every inclination; you do not help people who are persecuting you. Beedle thought differently. He did not think Wizards should respond to Muggle persecution by fighting back or by hating them, but with kindness and love. This falls in line, I think, with my reflections on how social change happens. One must be a loving person – even loving one’s own enemies – in order to create lasting change. In other words – “What we achieve inwardly will change outer reality” (Plutarch).
Dumbledore’s notes that the story was banned and burned are interesting in light of the history of the Harry Potter stories in our own world. The quick glimpse of Malfoys ancestors show that not much has changed over the years, and that the prejudices Beedle fought still exist today.
Rowling does get one great shot in at folks who sanitize fairy tales so that they don’t scare children. Dumbledore’s commentary hits a point of hilarious irony when he notes that Mrs. Bloxam’s re-written version of “The Wizard and the Hopping Pot” – to exclude references to “bodily effusions” – produced “uncontrollable retching” in children who hear her version the story (p. 19). For more on this issue of sanitizing fairy tales, see chapter three of my book, Harry Potter & Imagination (Shipping soon!).
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{ 13 comments… read them below or add one }
Talking of sanitizing fairy tales, what burns me the most is the pathetic, wimpy, neutered cartoons we get nowadays. Any edginess or offensiveness has been stripped out, so why even bother to watch the things! The worst is how the pc crowd have gone in & censored or sanitized the great old classic cartoons like Bugs Bunny or Tom & Jerry.
Sure, they were products of their time & had a fair amount of rascist elements in them at times but censoring them is equivalent to banning Huck Finn. Ah well, maybe I’m just not postmodern enough.
Still waiting for my copy of Beedle.
I liked the dig at those who would sanitize stories for children.
I was also intrigued by the revision of the tale by Muggle fearing/hating wizards in the 16th century. JKR has created a world which is very dynamic, a world in which stories are revised to reflect historical events and accompanying sentiments. Her world also has intellectual politics (for lack of a better term), much like ours: there are politically correct – and incorrect – ideas. That takes creativity to unprecedented levels. It’s like fantasy for the postmoderns.
The stories are wonderful. Dumbledore’s comments ditto. But the old liar is up to his tricks again. I can’t wait until we get to discuss the last of the tales.
The last story will be fun to discuss! He’s definitely playing his hiding game with what he knows about that last story.
I just finished, and I’ve got to get a bit more work done on the thesis before putting up posts on the other tales.
Dumbledore hide things from us?! Even lie to us! I find that hard to believe. Shocked, shocked I am at such a suggestion!
Actually, I’m pining for the moment when I can read his lies. I hope my book comes today. The UPS guy always comes late afternoon. Sigh.
Well, my copy of Beedle finally came this afternoon. I liked The Wizard & the Hopping Pot as a story but I’m not sure I agree entirely with Dumbledore’s first conclusion. To wit, “The young wizard’s conscience awakes, & he agrees to use his magic for the benefit of his non-magical neighbors.”
Certainly, he agrees to use his magic for the benefit of his Muggle neighbors but where’s the evidence his conscience was awakened? One could just as easily say he only agreed to help because he was being driven mad by the Hopping Pot. That’s only outward change, not inward. And while that’s good for the neighbors, it’s not necessarily beneficial for the son.
Liked how it’s shown that Sir Nick was executed during the time of persecution & how JKR explains why some real Wizards did fall prey to the witch hunters.
The subversion & co-opting of the tale for promoting anti-Muggle beliefs is also so very true to life & history. And the part about Beatrix Bloxam & her rewriting of the Tales for sensitive & innocent children was hilarious! There’s a fine line between protecting children & helping them cope with the problems of life or totally insulating them from reality & acting as if they’re incapable of handling the hard issues of life.
Anyone else think that her slam on Malfoy and Mrs. Bloxam were as close as she could get to the Harry Haters? Unable to find a satirical parallel to the occult controversy, she has Dumbledore portray those who would protect their children by banning or bowdlerizing books as sentimental hypocrites and racists.
Straw men?
I think it’s as you said yesterday, John, absent an organized religious structure in the Potterverse, Malfoy & Bloxam had to do as stand in’s. But really Malfoy’s position & Bloxam’s positions are problems in their own right. There are people who would ban books because of their desire to enforce a superior view of race, sex, religion, economics, what not on everyone else. There are also the politically correct who want to do essentially the same thing, using the cover of promoting tolerance & non-offensiveness, to ban things with which they disagree. Imagine a book entitled “Heather has a mommy & a daddy & that’s the way it should be” & the reaction of the pc crowd! And then there are those who will want to bowdlerize children’s books & not for any necessarily religious reason, just prudishness or a lack of respect for children’s intellect.
But all that being said, yes, I think Malfoy & Bloxam are the closest she could come to the Harry Haters, who are really rather passe nowadays.
The association of Harry Haters with exogamy and miscegenation opponents, the obvious real world parallels with Muggle-Wizard “mixed marriage” opponents, is borderline outrageous, no? Those concerned about occult influence on their children aren’t Nazis and Klansmen.
I was trying to figure out what the Mrs. Beatrix Bloxam analogy was. My first guess was Beatrix Potter, because she did write somewhat sweet stories for children – and of course because of the first names.
I don’t really see Bloxam or Malfoy as slams on the Harry Haters, but rather on the ultra politically correct on the one hand, and racists or bigots on the other. I don’t really see the Harry Haters in the tales – or commentaries.
Bloxam is the stand-in for what Rowling found a few years back when she came to the States around Halloween time and found, according to her, three TV shows in a row discussing how to sanitize Halloween, how to remind kids the scary stuff isn’t real, how to keep kids from being frightened, etc.
I’m not sure if the mention of Malfoy or Bloxam is a stand-in for Harry Haters. Malfoy is a wizard and Bloxam is a witch, and the Harry Haters would certainly be horrified at the thought that either of them were satirically represented by those figures, both wizarding folk (Harry Potter’s “magic” is evil to them). Besides “witchcraft” is not the issue here, but Malfoy’s prejudice and bigortry towards Muggles and Bloxam’s softening of the tales to protect young children. I think Travis was referring to the Stephen Fry interview where she said that a child that’s protected from the dementors in literature will probably fall to them later in life.
Thinking about John’s last comment, I think Rowling, through the use of Bloxam, may be taking a swipe, not at parents who try to protect or guide their own children, but at those who try to keep other people’s children from being exposed to ‘dangerous or harmful’ ideas that might mentally & emotionally scar them.
There’s a difference between responsible parents who are trying to raise their children in accordance with their values & who are also trying to make sure their children deal with hard topics but in age appropriate ways & there’s a difference between those who try to persuade others to their point of view on what’s good or bad for children as opposed to the busybodies who try to IMPOSE their values & objections on other people.
And busybodies may be found in all shapes & sizes, in all sorts of political, cultural, & social parties. It’s not a phenomenon that’s unique to fundamentalist Christians.
As much as we’ve been opposed to RA & his opposition to the Potter books, I think he’s mostly constrained himself to trying to persuade people to his point of view as opposed to trying to force it upon us. Unlike Laura Mallory.
I don’t think JKR realizes that the busybodies who are most ascendant nowadays are people she would agree with. That is the pc, liberal (for lack of a better word) culture warriors, who are using the power of the government or society to silence anyone they disagree with by labeling them as racists or homophobes or intolerant or whatever.