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Best. Essay. Evah!
I mean it. You've nailed Rowling-think down pat.
I really got nothing to add or remark... Except the memory I have of one Twilight Zone episode (I think) I saw, 25 years ago or so.
This episode showed a young couple who were struggling finacially. A salesman approaches them, and tries to 'sell' them a box with a button. If they press the button, he says, their lives will change dramatically. They will be succesful, and rich and whatever they want in life. The act of pressing the button has also another effect; it will kill another person. Somebody who they don't know and will never meet. The salesman says he will return in a week's time, leaves the box with the couple and they argue what to do. The woman says, "what do I care about people I don't know", and presses the button. Lo and behold, the couple gets succes after succes. They win the lottery, they get succesfull, etc, etc. The guilt is starting to eat at them a little though. They look at the box, and its just an empty box, so they almost convince themselves that their luck is just that, luck, and their action will have no consequenses.
Then the salesman returns and takes the box with him. They ask what he is going to do with it, and he says, "Oh, I will travel a bit and find another person, somebody who doesn't know you, and who will never meet you, and offer him the same choice. And eventually, somebody will press the button, just as you did, and just as the person before you did."
Doomdoomdoomdoom...
Why does your essay remind me of this episode of Twilight Zone? Because the message of that episode is the mirror image of Rowlings message. Rowlings message is 'if you are mindlessly cruel or harmful to somebody who never did anything to you, you will be rewarded by other people doing cruel and harmful things to people you dislike, and this way you keep your hands clean', the TZ ep's message was 'if you do deliberately harm to somebody who never hurt you, you set yourself up to be harmed by somebody you've never heard from before', or to keep it simple, 'don't do unto others you don't want others do to you', 'sow a wind, reap a hurricane' and 'we are all responsible for our own actions; no matter how clean we think our hands to be, wishing harm unto strangers isn't innocent'.
Rowlings viciousness and her have your cake and eat it to 'morals' are anathema to me.
You're the best, terri.
I mean it. You've nailed Rowling-think down pat.
I really got nothing to add or remark... Except the memory I have of one Twilight Zone episode (I think) I saw, 25 years ago or so.
This episode showed a young couple who were struggling finacially. A salesman approaches them, and tries to 'sell' them a box with a button. If they press the button, he says, their lives will change dramatically. They will be succesful, and rich and whatever they want in life. The act of pressing the button has also another effect; it will kill another person. Somebody who they don't know and will never meet. The salesman says he will return in a week's time, leaves the box with the couple and they argue what to do. The woman says, "what do I care about people I don't know", and presses the button. Lo and behold, the couple gets succes after succes. They win the lottery, they get succesfull, etc, etc. The guilt is starting to eat at them a little though. They look at the box, and its just an empty box, so they almost convince themselves that their luck is just that, luck, and their action will have no consequenses.
Then the salesman returns and takes the box with him. They ask what he is going to do with it, and he says, "Oh, I will travel a bit and find another person, somebody who doesn't know you, and who will never meet you, and offer him the same choice. And eventually, somebody will press the button, just as you did, and just as the person before you did."
Doomdoomdoomdoom...
Why does your essay remind me of this episode of Twilight Zone? Because the message of that episode is the mirror image of Rowlings message. Rowlings message is 'if you are mindlessly cruel or harmful to somebody who never did anything to you, you will be rewarded by other people doing cruel and harmful things to people you dislike, and this way you keep your hands clean', the TZ ep's message was 'if you do deliberately harm to somebody who never hurt you, you set yourself up to be harmed by somebody you've never heard from before', or to keep it simple, 'don't do unto others you don't want others do to you', 'sow a wind, reap a hurricane' and 'we are all responsible for our own actions; no matter how clean we think our hands to be, wishing harm unto strangers isn't innocent'.
Rowlings viciousness and her have your cake and eat it to 'morals' are anathema to me.
You're the best, terri.