Even allies lie to you, possibly to protect you, possibly for a greater good, or because are being themselves used, or possibly for darker reason. Harry enjoys his first kiss, but moments later the girl betrays him Mata Hari-like to the Gestapo-like headmistress. But the girl had been forced to betray him with truth potion. Was the truth potion given by a man trying to help or hurt Harry?
Harry Potter studies more spycraft that witchcraft. The film has the feel of John le Carré, with double and triple agents aching to come in from the cold, some after decades of apparent deep undercover work. True allegiances are deeply hidden. Where lays the ultimate allegiance of Severus Snape? Is Dumbledore a master strategist who could even outwit George Smiley? Harry-and we- do not know who is the puppet and who is the puppetmaster. The final installment of the series is one of the most anticipated in the history of the written word.
Characters who commit atrocities are not necessarily evil. Seemingly bad acts may be a ruse to infiltrate cells of much worst baddies bent on Hogwarts destruction..A good man go to the gulag (Azkaban) just to burrow his way into the graces of a terrorist cell. Something slouches toward Hogwarts waiting to be born, and the conflicted Harry rues that ever he was born to set things right.
Harry Potter meets the bad, the good, and the ugly, encountering philosophies of Hegel, Kant, John Stuart Mills, Nietsche, De Cartes, and Feminism, as he explores his Brave New World. Mortality, and the idea of fates worse than death, are explored in great depth. “I think, therefore I can do something to improve my world.” Harry at his best ask, so why should the change in the world not start with me?
This is a new delightfully complex Potter. Harry Potter helped children worldwide to love reading. Now, ever so quietly, and insidiously, Rowling weaves in advanced philosophy, human freedom, religion, and ethics. Young viewers sop up new lessons possibly without realizing. Even better, they are discussing and debating these ideas with their friends, in a whole new domino effect. In short, Rowling may kindle a rebirth in critical thinking, just as she kindled her original boom in reading.
Rowling's spell over young readers delivers her most valuable message: “Distrust authority- all authority.”
As Harry Potter himself says:
“Let the rebellion begin.”
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