In between the strict rationalism of the scientific fatalist and the elusive, esoteric musings of gnostic spiritualism, and as a necessary alternative to both, is “Myth.” Clyde S. Kilby writes,
We intellectualize in order to know, but paradoxically, intellectualization tends to destroy its object. The harder we grasp at the thing, the more its reality moves away.
So what is to be done? Man finds himself a third characteristic called imagination, by which he can transcend statements and systems. By some magic, imagination is able to disengage our habitual discursive and system-making and send us on a journey toward gestures, pictures, images, rhythms, metaphor, symbol, and at the peak of all, myth….
Myth is necessary because reality is so much larger than rationality. Not that myth is irrational, but that it easily accommodates the rational while rising above it. (Forward to Christian Mythmakers)
Note the place of imagination in discovering and comprehending truth. [click to continue…]
This story, the most gruesome of Beedle’s tales, draws a little bit more directly from a tradition Rowling has already pulled from for the creation of Horcruxes: the magical ability to remove one’s heart and keep it in a safe place. As Colin Duriez notes in A Field Guide to Harry Potter and I expound upon on Harry Potter & Imagination, Horcruxes bear certain similarities to George MacDonald’s story, “The Giant’s Heart.”
I had wondered if the comparison was too much of a stretch, but this story (would that I had it in my hands before the book went to the printers!) confirms the parallel. Dumbledore makes the point clearly, commenting on the young warlock’s magical removal and locking away of his own heart: “The resemblance of this action to the creation of a Horcrux has been noted by many writers” (p. 58).
There is, of course, the obvious moral lesson: if you lock away your own heart for fear of love, you will turn into an evil person. But deeper than this is the philosophy of life and humanity espoused by the story: You cannot separate from yourself what is essential to humanity – and that includes pain and death. “To hurt is as human as to breathe,” Dumbledore writes (p. 56).
The story also confirms the definition of evil that I argue for in chapter 4 in Harry Potter & Imagination. When the man locks his heart away for fear of falling sway to the foolishness of love and family, his heart begins to grow black hair all over it. His heart has become a beast, and when he returns his heart to his chest, he can only act like a beast. He has dehumanized himself, and so become evil in the process.
Being the darkest of the 5 tales, it most poignantly taps into elements of evil and fear. For more on these themes in Harry Potter, see chapters 3 and 4 of my book (which manuscript I wish I still had in my hands).
OK, so that’s not really happening. But my book, Harry Potter & Imagination: The Way Between Two Worlds, opens with a chapter on the importance of mythological and fairy-tale thinking as opposed to what G.K. Chesterton called “scientific fatalism.” Richard Dawkins has decided to write the opposite book, positing the possibility that fairy tales are potentially dangerous, because they teach children anti-scientific, magical thinking.
The prominent atheist is stepping down from his post at Oxford University to write a book aimed at youngsters in which he will warn them against believing in “anti-scientific” fairytales.
Prof Hawkins said: “The book I write next year will be a children’s book on how to think about the world, science thinking contrasted with mythical thinking.
“I haven’t read Harry Potter, I have read Pullman who is the other leading children’s author that one might mention and I love his books. I don’t know what to think about magic and fairy tales.”
Prof Dawkins said he wanted to look at the effects of “bringing children up to believe in spells and wizards”.
“I think it is anti-scientific – whether that has a pernicious effect, I don’t know,” he told More4 News.
“I think looking back to my own childhood, the fact that so many of the stories I read allowed the possibility of frogs turning into princes, whether that has a sort of insidious affect on rationality, I’m not sure. Perhaps it’s something for research.”
Thoughts? I happen to think that stories about frogs turning into princes are good for children (and adults!), so if someone wants to arrange the debate, I’d be glad to oblige. Since that’s highly unlikely to happen, stay tuned for a couple months focusing on fairy tales and mythical thinking, what J.K. Rowling calls, learning to “imagine better,” and pay close attention to this site and Zossima.com for news on the release of Harry Potter & Imagination.
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