Here is why it is painful for anyone who has actually read Potter to view O’Brien as anything other than a crank. One can choose an O’Brien paragraph almost at random from a representative article and find that it is full of things that are UNTRUE, HALF-TRUE, NONSENSE, or JUST PLAIN DUMB. And, when O’Brien runs out of argument, he resorts to RANT.
For example, have a look at this sample:
catholicnewsagency.com/column.php?n=90
…The series is also about the usefulness of hatred and pride, malice toward your real or perceived enemies, seeking and using secret knowledge, lies, cunning, contempt, and sheer good luck in order to defeat whatever threatens you or stands in the path of your desires. It is a cornucopia of other false messages: The end justifies the means. Nothing is as it seems. No one can really be trusted, except those whom you feel comfortable with, who support your aims and make you feel good about yourself. Killing others is justified if you are good and they are bad. Conservative people are bad, anti-magic dogmatists are really bad and deserve whatever punishment they get (hence the delicious retributions against the Dursleys). The ultimate cause of evil is rejection of magic: the arch-villain Voldemort, for example, first went off track when he became a dysfunctional boy abandoned by his anti-magic father. Then there’s the adolescent romance in the atmosphere, a potent element when mixed with magic, usually latent but growing with each volume and culminating in domestic bliss for the central characters at the end of the final volume. Yes, Harry faces near-satanic evils, passes through an unceasing trial of conflict and woe, triumphs against insurmountable odds, saves the world, marries Ginny and brings forth with her a new generation of little witches and wizards. If it were a spoof or satire we might laugh. But it presents itself as very serious stuff…So deathly and hollow.
The series is also about…the usefulness of hatred and pride
UNTRUE. That’s why all the really hateful characters are so successful in the end?
The series is also about…malice toward your real or perceived enemies
UNTRUE. At the last moments, when Voldemort is truly beat but doesn’t know it yet, Harry urges him to stop, to quit, to turn away from the path he (Voldemort) has chosen. Voldemort kills himself when his own spell backfires against harry’s attempt to disarm Voldemort.
The series is also about…seeking and using secret knowledge
UNTRUE. Secret knowledge contained in books and libraries and taught by professors at a school.
**The series is also about…lies, cunning, contempt, and sheer good luck in order to defeat whatever threatens you or stands in the path of your desires. **
HALF TRUTH Yes, Harry, in the tradition of Huck Finn, is willing to break the small rules in the service of the larger ones. When caught by authorities (nearly always) he accepts his punishment.
NONSENSE As for winning by sheer good luck, well, it happens in real life too. Did you never read about the Battle of Midway? What did Wellington say about Waterloo? “A damn close-run thing?”
**It is a cornucopia of other false messages: The end justifies the means. **
UNTRUE Which worked so well for Grindelwald and Dumbledore?
**Nothing is as it seems. **
NONSENSE In fiction-writing if everything really IS as it seems, then you have a very boring book. (See: Murder on the Orient Express if you are unclear on this concept.)
**No one can really be trusted, except those whom you feel comfortable with, who support your aims and make you feel good about yourself. **
JUST PLAIN DUMB These people are also known as “your friends and family”.
**Killing others is justified if you are good and they are bad. **
HALF TRUTH Harry doesn’t kill anyone intentionally, as it turns out. Killing by “good” characters in HP is described in the context of “warfare”. I’m sure you have heard of just-war theory.
Conservative people are bad…
UNTRUE The Dursley’s are not bad because they are anti-magic, they are simply bad. They spoil their boy, they fail to take good care of Harry when he is a child. They are whiny and unpleasant characters. Harry saves Dudley from a serious threat at one point.
The ultimate cause of evil is rejection of magic…
SHALLOW ANALYSIS Voldemort was abandoned by his mother. His father was not anti-magic, but was never closely connected to his mother, having been tricked into marrying her. His father is not described in the book as being anti-magic– just disconnected. If anything it would be social class (poor mother- rich father) that best explains the rift. Ultimately, however, Voldemort is evil because he is evil. It was not a case of “denying who he is”. He has cruel tendencies from an early age. Social research is well aware of the relationship between broken homes and criminality in the real world. This is about all the “reason” given for evil in the books.
Then there’s the adolescent romance in the atmosphere…
DUMB Umm, okay, so to put that another way, Harry’s relationship, as described in the book leads to marriage and parenthood – what a shocking concept!
**Yes, Harry faces near-satanic evils… saves the world, marries Ginny and brings forth with her a new generation of little witches and wizards. **
RANT At this point, he has run out of evidence, so he switches to a mocking tone and pulls out the thing that really bugs him, the word “witch”.
**If it were a spoof or satire we might laugh. But it presents itself as very serious stuff… So deathly and hollow. **
MORE RANT Actually, Rowling does not present herself as “serious stuff”. The books are full of humor, irony, and jokes. But it is lost on O’Brien.
What a great quote! I would defend that statement forever. Why? The truth, simple as that.
