The release of J.K. Rowling’s latest 700+ tome continues to stun. First, it has sold both hugely and quickly; second, it debunks the common wisdom that today’s youth are somehow organically wired to their cell phones and computers, neatly demonstrating that a ten-year-old will read a 700-page book if it’s got something interesting to say.
Much ink has been spent on analogies that liken Potter to heroes of old, Biblical and otherwise. However, in a recent edition of his weekly online newsletter, Sightings, one of Martin Marty’s co-writers opines that it’s not Potter but Severus Snape, the “greasy-haired” Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, who remains the real conundrum. In her column, Elizabeth Musselman notes that Snape remains the only character in the Pottter ensemble whose moral character remains in question. That is, we still don’t know whose side he’s on.
Ms. Musselman posits that Americans will instinctively hope Snape turns out to be a “narrative of redemption,” rather than the face of evil personified. She adds, “If Snape's story concludes as a narrative of pure evil, it may provide hope that in the end, with much struggle, evil can be defeated by good. But it will fail to reflect the struggle that each individual faces between sin and redemption in this post-Fall world.” You can read the entire article here, and the weekly postings of Sightings are available here.
Your editor’s copy of the latest Potter remains in the grip of an errant owl, so I can’t provide the answers. I’ll leave it to our readers to figure out for themselves where good, evil, and sin lie in the latest text, and in the larger world.
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