Harry Potter

Unemployment is really getting old. Hopefully by the end of the week I will know for sure about Allison Hill. And driving down to Hearts and Minds makes sense to me a couple days a week but not every day. 40 minutes each way is a little absurd.
So anyone let me know if there are any jobs available in the Harrisburg area.

I have officially joined the wider world. I am now a devouted reader of the Harry Potter books. I found the books to be very stimulating. I am a long time lover of fantasy and sci-fi and I appreciate anyone who does the careful and creative work of creating an alternate universe. And Rowling is truly impressive because she is careful to make it wholly credible that this universe could actually be our own. But what I found most exhilirating in the books was the moral imagination of the protagoinists specifically Albus Dumbeldore.

By the end of the most recent book Dumbledore is a tragic figure undone by his desire to trust and give second chances. But what really fascinates me is Dumbledore's understanding of true poswer in the universe. It is his belief that what causes Harry to survive Voldemort's attacks was the love of his mother. To Dumbledore the root power that is holding everything togethor is love. Contrast this to Paulie's assertion in season three of the Sopranos that "Love don't make the world go round".

One of the reasons that I find Harry Potter so compelling is that the books celebrate a virtue that is hardly evident in our society: fidelity. In HP the heroes are those who remain faithful to their task and are not tempted by the dark arts. As the books go on we see that like our world the magical wrold is held togethor by simple people doing good things and in turn can be hurt by simple people doing bad things. Neville is not the greatest of wizards but by remaining faithful to his friends and what he thinks is right he has done great things and conversely Cornelius Fudge (the minister of magic) is not evil perse but his desire to maintain order at the cost of the truth allowed Voldemort to gain more strength then he should have. This higlites one of my favorite lines in the books when Dumbledore says "We must all choose between what is right...and what is easy" wow that pretty much says it

Connected to the cellebration of fidelity in the books is the relationship between wizards and humans (muggles), human like creatures, and the slave house elves. Many wizards consider "pure-blooded" wizards to be the best and then their is scale from mixed blood to human born through various part humans down to house elves. This is the commons perspective but the good wizards (like Dumbledore and the Weasleys) are those who see value in others and are fearful rather than celebrative of inbred wizards. For as my favorite character, Sirius Black, said "The measure of a man is not how he treats his equals but his inferiors"

My one main concerns is how, especially in the earlier books the kids ofetn save the day by disobeying school rules and strike out on their own. Maybe I am too much of a proponent of institutional structure but I guess that comes from having parents who woul not let me read Curius George because it taught bad lessons.