HARRY W. POTTER: Last week, Chris Suellentrop of Slate angered a lot of fans with a rather negative assessment of Harry Potter. Potter, wrote Suellentrop, is no hero, but a pampered jock who inherited his powers and enjoys unwarranted public acclaim while others — like sidekicks Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger, and Cedric Diggory — do the heavy lifting of fighting evil.
Of course, Suellentrop is wrong. It’s true that Potter inherited his powers (as with “The Force” in the Star Wars universe, magical potency is mostly inherited, for some reason). But Potter in fact brings a lot more to the table than Suellentrop gives him credit for. Sure, Hermione is smarter, Ron is better at chess, and Cedric is braver and better-looking (he’s “extremely handsome,” we’re told). But Harry Potter is the keystone, the essential element. Without him, the fight against Voldemort would be lost before it was begun. In fact, it wouldn’t be begun at all.
What he brings to the table are personal qualities rather than talents. He’s loyal, and more importantly he inspires loyalty. And he has a clear vision of what matters. Everyone else is able to forget, or to convince themselves to ignore, the threat posed by Voldemort. Harry, on the other hand, never forgets. Potter even has to deal with purblind Eurocrats, like Cornelius Fudge, Minister of Magic:
Look, I saw Voldemort come back!” Harry shouted. . . . “I saw the Death Eaters! I can give you their names. . .”
“You are merely repeating the names of those who were acquitted of being death eaters thirteen years ago!” said Fudge, angrily. . .
“You fool!” Professor McGonagall cried. “Cedric Diggory! Mr. Crouch!” These deaths were not the random work of a lunatic!”
“I see no evidence to the contrary!” shouted Fudge, now matching her anger, his face purpling. “It seems to me that you are all determined to start a panic that will destabilize everything we have worked for these last thirteen years!”
Harry couldn’t believe what he was hearing. He had always thought of Fudge as a kindly figure, a little blustering, a little pompous, but essentially good-natured. But now a short, angry wizard stood before him, refusing, point-blank, to accept the prospect of disruption in his comfortable and ordered world — to believe that Voldemort could have risen.
Hmm. This sounds kind of like someone else whose warnings of “evil” are sometimes mocked, and who is often underestimated by journalists. George W. Potter? Or Harry W. Bush?
UPDATE: A reader emails: “Not only is Suellentrop wrong, he’s unoriginal. I mean, isn’t this exactly Snape’s refrain, for the past four books?” Hmm. Severus Suellentrop? No, . . .