sunnyskywalker (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
sunnyskywalker) wrote2008-08-01 08:01 pm
sunnyskywalker) wrote2008-08-01 08:01 pm
Entry tags:
Beware Magic Rings
Both Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings feature magic rings which are snares and delusions, temptations which lead characters astray. Both seem to extend life, but in wrong way - the One Ring makes Bilbo feel stretched thin, like butter over too much bread, and the people Harry's ring bring back aren't really alive again but shadows. Both rings can drive a person crazy.
But these similarities mask deep differences which reflect the differences in how each series treats falsehood, corruption, and the temptation of power.
The One Ring doesn't tell you the truth exactly, or give you real life, but its powers are real. You really can see into the wraith world. You really can extend life, even if it's not the right kind of life - you are not actually dead. You really do turn invisible to ordinary sight when you put it on. Sauron really could have used its other real powers to do terrible things. And the Elves' good rings have powers just as real - they really can preserve Lothlórien and other beautiful things, and not in the stretched-thin way.
In Harry's world, the Resurrection Stone Ring's only supposed power, bringing back the dead, is illusory. No matter how much it comforts Harry to see his parents and their friends, they are not real.
In LotR, deception and corruption are all about the perversion of something real fooling us. Sauron's created beings aren't as real as Eru's created beings, but not because they don't really exist - orcs will kill you plenty dead. It's because they're twisted and derivative and not quite good enough. Saruman's robes look white but are actually a rainbow, which is white broken up, not some other color that suddenly reveals itself - it's a twisting of what you see, not fake. Boromir gets led astray, but he's not evil and he's still partly a hero. Gollum really is Smeagol in part, just not enough - it's not totally an act. Galadriel's mirror shows possible things which may never happen, but they're not lies, just not certain. The power of the One Ring won't get you what you think it will, but it is real power. If Sauron gets the One Ring, the Elvish rings won't stop working - they'll be perverted. The scariest thing is the subtle twisting that fools you and leads you astray.
In HP, it's all about complete fakeness. The Mirror of Erised shows you only what you want to see, which may have no basis at all in reality, unlike Galadriel's mirror. Lockhart never did any of those things - someone did, but not him, so it's not a twisted version of his events. He's just a fraud. Scabbers was Peter all along. Sirius wasn't a murderer. Moody wasn't Moody. The prophecy has no real power, it just looks like it does, and it's people's reactions that make things happen. Voldemort was never a nice guy no matter what the teachers thought. The ring-ghosts aren't real ghosts. The problem isn't being subtly perverted, but chasing an illusion.
And then there's the difference in Frodo's and Harry's choices, which I think is connected. Frodo has a real choice to use some of the ring's power and become corrupted. Harry can cast whatever horrible curses he wants and is still somehow "good," and the "choice" Dumbledore says he made not to join Voldemort is no choice at all since he really couldn't have. No matter what Harry does or feels, he's still triumphantly good at the end, not conflicted at all. Did he ever really choose? Harry's quest leads him to death, but only fake death. Frodo's quest could have ended in quite real death, and did end in real damage and a real missing finger.
Real (but corrupted) power vs. fake power, real choices vs. fake choices, real death vs. "what a nice and exposition-heavy nap featuring my mentor"... While I think the HP theme of illusions and false power interest me as much as LotR's real but twisted power, the progression to fake danger and death just irritate me. It doesn't have to be that way, surely? Someone help me imagine an HP that still has the theme of illusory power that allows Harry to make real choices.
But these similarities mask deep differences which reflect the differences in how each series treats falsehood, corruption, and the temptation of power.
The One Ring doesn't tell you the truth exactly, or give you real life, but its powers are real. You really can see into the wraith world. You really can extend life, even if it's not the right kind of life - you are not actually dead. You really do turn invisible to ordinary sight when you put it on. Sauron really could have used its other real powers to do terrible things. And the Elves' good rings have powers just as real - they really can preserve Lothlórien and other beautiful things, and not in the stretched-thin way.
In Harry's world, the Resurrection Stone Ring's only supposed power, bringing back the dead, is illusory. No matter how much it comforts Harry to see his parents and their friends, they are not real.
In LotR, deception and corruption are all about the perversion of something real fooling us. Sauron's created beings aren't as real as Eru's created beings, but not because they don't really exist - orcs will kill you plenty dead. It's because they're twisted and derivative and not quite good enough. Saruman's robes look white but are actually a rainbow, which is white broken up, not some other color that suddenly reveals itself - it's a twisting of what you see, not fake. Boromir gets led astray, but he's not evil and he's still partly a hero. Gollum really is Smeagol in part, just not enough - it's not totally an act. Galadriel's mirror shows possible things which may never happen, but they're not lies, just not certain. The power of the One Ring won't get you what you think it will, but it is real power. If Sauron gets the One Ring, the Elvish rings won't stop working - they'll be perverted. The scariest thing is the subtle twisting that fools you and leads you astray.
In HP, it's all about complete fakeness. The Mirror of Erised shows you only what you want to see, which may have no basis at all in reality, unlike Galadriel's mirror. Lockhart never did any of those things - someone did, but not him, so it's not a twisted version of his events. He's just a fraud. Scabbers was Peter all along. Sirius wasn't a murderer. Moody wasn't Moody. The prophecy has no real power, it just looks like it does, and it's people's reactions that make things happen. Voldemort was never a nice guy no matter what the teachers thought. The ring-ghosts aren't real ghosts. The problem isn't being subtly perverted, but chasing an illusion.
And then there's the difference in Frodo's and Harry's choices, which I think is connected. Frodo has a real choice to use some of the ring's power and become corrupted. Harry can cast whatever horrible curses he wants and is still somehow "good," and the "choice" Dumbledore says he made not to join Voldemort is no choice at all since he really couldn't have. No matter what Harry does or feels, he's still triumphantly good at the end, not conflicted at all. Did he ever really choose? Harry's quest leads him to death, but only fake death. Frodo's quest could have ended in quite real death, and did end in real damage and a real missing finger.
Real (but corrupted) power vs. fake power, real choices vs. fake choices, real death vs. "what a nice and exposition-heavy nap featuring my mentor"... While I think the HP theme of illusions and false power interest me as much as LotR's real but twisted power, the progression to fake danger and death just irritate me. It doesn't have to be that way, surely? Someone help me imagine an HP that still has the theme of illusory power that allows Harry to make real choices.