You've definitely caught something here that I felt, but wasn't sure how to phrase. I talk about this same thing with writers who are using fantasy to have their characters ponder the "big" issues: the nature of the soul, the limits of faith, and how far you can bend your ideals before you've betrayed them. I do separate that out a little bit, because issues of faith don't necessarily feel cosmological to me, and that feeling of the whole cosmology being there, and being important, is part of what I identify with the mythic.
Which again is why I'm skeptical about the Harry Potter books as great mythology, despite the fact that you could argue Harry as a Campbellian hero. (I won't, but it could be done.) (Aside: hmmm... maybe Campbell's idea of the hero should be part of my essay topic that I was talking to you about--if only I'd taken that Campbell course in college!) The way that Dumbledore argues with Harry in book six about the nature of destiny makes it much more about *choice* rather than about fate. I love how this works for the series, but the emphasis of personal choice humanizes the cosmic--which may a part of my assessment that I overlooked before.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2007-09-02 11:03 pm (UTC)Which again is why I'm skeptical about the Harry Potter books as great mythology, despite the fact that you could argue Harry as a Campbellian hero. (I won't, but it could be done.) (Aside: hmmm... maybe Campbell's idea of the hero should be part of my essay topic that I was talking to you about--if only I'd taken that Campbell course in college!) The way that Dumbledore argues with Harry in book six about the nature of destiny makes it much more about *choice* rather than about fate. I love how this works for the series, but the emphasis of personal choice humanizes the cosmic--which may a part of my assessment that I overlooked before.