That Notorious Notion Nostalgia
Jul 23, 2009
Bloggers - Aggi
size=”3″>Sticking it to GCSE’s ’ waiting for results and feeling like I’ve fallen into the first part of Half Blood Prince while contemplating exam results which haven’t come out yet, I was taking my mind off things by contemplating the notion of Nostalgia which I suppose is what my whole blog is about.
size=”3″>As you may know, I am a sixteen year old girl who has had a fascination with Harry Potter for over ten years but, like many fans, the people which I am truly fascinated with are the older generation of characters which lived through the first war and I was wondering why this was.
size=”3″>Personally, I believe that it is because they have more experience of the wizarding world and therefore are more intriguing to read about, however I am now questioning if it isn’t that they know so much about the historical side to the novel that makes them so interesting ’ I’ve been reading Order of the Phoenix lately (in between set school books) and I have just reached Careers Advice when we see a nostalgic Sirius and Remus talking of James as if he was still alive to Harry who, of course, has never actually spoken to his father.
size=”3″>Remus seems to be one of the most nostalgic characters from the older generation, as we learn a lot from him of James’ past and we can see in the way that he speaks of both his best-friend and his wife that his nostalgia is out of sheer affection. Although, having said this, I still believe that when Remus talks of old jokes they had ’ such as his furry little problem ’ it’s because he truly believes his life was better back them, and this same notion could be taken with Sirius.
size=”3″>One character, who gets a lot of time in the book to converse with Harry over the past, and yet doesn’t, is Arthur Weasley, and I am really stumped as to why this is. I have two possible questions to answer this (if that makes any sense) which I would love you guys to help me answer:
size=”3″>Do you think that he suffered a terrible loss in the first war which makes him not want to think about it, such as Severus with Lily?
size=”3″>OR
size=”3″>Do you think he is a genuinely positive person who just chooses not to dwell on a past which was extremely sad for people?
size=”3″>I see that the only times in which Arthur talks to Harry, Hermione and his children about the past is when he is desperately trying to show them that they are safe where they are and to express how different the times are; which, although not entirely correct, for him is a short way of trying to prevent his children from fearing for him or anything else. I have to admit that I am a major fan of Arthur Weasley; I think he is extremely selfless and kind, it really would have been a loss to the novels if JK would have killed him off in Order of the
size=”3″>Anyway! Enough of my propaganda for Arthur Weasley getting best dad award¦
size=”3″>I don’t believe that every older character is nostalgic at all, for example, Albus refuses to ever look to the past of his own life, choosing to contemplate others, e.g. Voldemort, to get the answers which he wants. I also think this is the one strongly cowardly trait inside Dumbledore; he has an utter fear of looking into his own past out of fear of what he will find. The concept of Albus’ lack of nostalgia would take a much longer blog and therefore I will be appealing for a thread to be placed under character analysis for a conversation on nostalgia if you guys so wish.
size=”3″>So my final question is a Dumbledorian (ooh did I just make a word) one;
size=”3″>Do you believe I am being to harsh by claiming that I think Albus was cowardly because he couldn’t look into his own past, or do you think that it was just his best way of dealing with it and helping people, which he does so well?
size=”3″>Cheers for reading this rather nostalgic blog ’ I swear I’ll try not to bring up GCSE’s again¦ I’m just freaking out!
*Peace Out!*
size=”3″>Aggi. x
