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Characters and Metadata
Oct. 30th, 2007 09:18 pmSo I don't actually care about what Dumbledore does in his spare time.
However, the reaction arising around me made me think: How very Bradleian. I mean, this is the sort of thing that saw Shakespearian Tragedy held up for gentle mockery from about G. Wilson Knight's day on -- the idea that the character has an existence apart from the work (or, occasionally, works) in question.
A work of fiction is an artifact. Certain character traits are part of that artifact, and are relevant to our reaction to it and understanding of it. But most of the possible questions we can ask about the characters -- "How many children had Lady Macbeth?" -- enlighten us not at all about the work. If Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows had been a character-driven tragedy of Albus Dumbledore, then the questions of the details of his motivations for an early alliance with Grindlewald might have been relevant; and they would have been part of the work (or ambiguity would have been an intrinsic part of the work, at which point complaint about the author trying to interfere after the fact with the balance of the work would have been justified).
However, the reaction arising around me made me think: How very Bradleian. I mean, this is the sort of thing that saw Shakespearian Tragedy held up for gentle mockery from about G. Wilson Knight's day on -- the idea that the character has an existence apart from the work (or, occasionally, works) in question.
A work of fiction is an artifact. Certain character traits are part of that artifact, and are relevant to our reaction to it and understanding of it. But most of the possible questions we can ask about the characters -- "How many children had Lady Macbeth?" -- enlighten us not at all about the work. If Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows had been a character-driven tragedy of Albus Dumbledore, then the questions of the details of his motivations for an early alliance with Grindlewald might have been relevant; and they would have been part of the work (or ambiguity would have been an intrinsic part of the work, at which point complaint about the author trying to interfere after the fact with the balance of the work would have been justified).
