Young Wizards vs. Harry Potter, Part 4 (Universes)

Hi all, and welcome to another installment of the Young Wizard/Harry Potter face off! Last post there was a brief overview of common themes within the series. Now we're going to examine the universes within the series.

Young Wizards

The Young Wizards' universe is basically our own. They follow the laws of physics, there are basic limits on what magic can and can't do, and a plausible subculture. Let's look at these separately:

Magic/Wizardry is using the correct language to convince the universe to do something specific. For example, walking through walls requires a spell that convinces the atoms in the wall and the atoms in your body to slide by each other peacefully during the time it takes for you to walk through the wall. Wizardry is a specific science where you describe how things are right now and how you want them to be in order to make things happen. There's even an entire language that describes everything perfectly (called the Speech) that the universe responds to in order to do the spell casting.

The basic limits of the wizard can and can't do are set down in the Wizard's Oath. They're not allowed to hurt, change, or destroy anything without good reason (or the Powers That Be take away their wizardry for abusing it). Wizards are also limited by the amount of power they have, the powers only give them so much extra power from the universe's energy supply to perform wizardry. Because of these limits wizards rarely do something big, like lifting up all of the Mediterranean Sea to defeat the Lone Power (like hydromage Angelina Pellegrino did  during her Ordeal as mentioned in A Wizard of Mars). There's also a hierarchy of wizards set up to advise  younger wizards and handle certain continents/planets/galaxies. Wizards without proper authority aren't allowed to do certain interventions without permission to ensure that unnecessary change doesn't happen. For example, when Dairine goes with a group of other wizards to fix the Sun they have to get permission from a higher-up (in this case it ended up being the Senior for that arm of the galaxy that gave permission). Also, wizards generally get their information from a sort of manual (a book, computer, ipod, cell phone, etc.), but some must memorize as much information as possible or they have a special connection to wizardry and can access it by listening to the "Silence," "Whispering," or the sea.

The subculture is also fairly plausible. Wizards interact with the rest of the world because they have to stay up to date with what problems they need to fix and pay their bills. Wizards practice in secret on Earth because society hasn't yet accepted things like wizardry and aliens. However, wizards around the universe generally practice in the open because they're regarded as a sort of law enforcement. Wizards can meet up and get feedback on problems or just hang out, too. Pretty much all wizards have to get normal jobs (the head wizard over Earth is a IT specialist and computer programmer) and need to complete some sort of schooling. Learning wizardry something that wizards must do on the side, rather than going to special schools to learn wizardry.

Harry Potter

The Harry Potter universe is set up very differently. First of all is the rejection of technology because magic and electricity interfere with each other. Also, the rules of magic are set up in a kind of "your power is limited by your mental strength" kind of way. Most different is the magical subculture.

I find this first one annoying. Magic and modern technology can't coexist very well, if at all. This is obviously to continue the traditional fantasy/medieval relationship, but the books are set in the 1990's so it get's a little annoying. According to Hermione in the fourth book "All those substitutes for magic Muggles use--electricity, computers, and radar, and all those things--they all go haywire around Hogwarts, there's too much magic in the air." My thoughts on this are that magic is most likely some sort of power that wizards are able to control that is similar to magnetism or electricity enough that it messes with electronics (kind of like dropping a magnet on a computer's hard drive).

Next, the rules of the magic. Most of these rules and limits appear to be based on wizard law and the mental stamina of the wizard themself. For example, certain curses and hexes are considered illegal and will land any caster of that spell in wizard jail. Top on the list are the Imperius Curse, the Cruciatus Curse, and the Avada Kedavra Curse. You can see an explanation of those curses that's much better than I could give here. There are also some very basic laws that limit the kind of magic that wizards can produce. For example, Hermione explains in book seven that no one can produce food out of thin air because "Food is the first of five Principle Exceptions to Gamp's Law of Elemental Tranfigur[ation]...It's impossible to make good food out of nothing! You can Summon it if you know where it is, you can transform it, you can increase the quantity if you've already got some". It appears that wizards can produce magic without wands, but the most refined magic is produced through channeling that power through a wand with a specific intent and incantation.

Now onto the wizard subculture. There are very few wizards in the world, and they tend to keep to themselves. Even Muggle-born wizards and witches seem to readily give up the Muggle world in favor of the wizarding world (exceptions include Fred and George doing card tricks for a muggle girl in book six and Hermione making Ron get a driver's license in the epilogue of book seven). Wizards have their own governments, but there's no mention of taxes. The only purpose the wizard government seems to have is to provide jobs, make legislation, and enforce the law. Wizards also have special schools to send children to to learn magic. Wizard families have the option to homeschool as well. The only jobs wizards seem to have are in the government or being shop owners. I can't figure out how exactly they get their money except through the enslavement of elves and goblins, but since Rowling didn't discuss wizard economics we really don't know. Most of the wizard/muggle interactions seems to be based on the common theme of bigotry that JK Rowling presents through out the series.

Overall, the Young Wizard universe is much more plausible and better constructed than the Harry Potter universe. I love how wizards have to actually get jobs instead of being the jobless vigilantes of the universe. The Harry Potter universe is decent in the context of a children's series, but it doesn't really hold up as a plausible universe. Young Wizards wins this round.

Young Wizards vs. Harry Potter, Part 3 (Themes)

Last week I talked about the basic stories of both series. Now we get to look at the fun stuff: themes, writing style, character analysis, the universes, and cover art (yes, I do think that covers are important). This week we'll look at themes.

Young Wizard Themes:

This installment has strong themes of redemption.

Diane Duane's wizard series is famous for dealing with difficult themes. Each book has its own particular themes, but recurring ones include death, friendship, responsibility, family, and the need for knowledge. I admire that Duane incorporates themes into her books that most people don't really like to talk about.

I thought about discussing themes from every single book, but do you know how long that would take? That's right, a long time. I decided to write about a small selection of my favorite books instead (1, 5, and 6). The first book deals particularly with good and evil. Through out Kit and Nita's entire Ordeal, they keep coming face-to-face with examples of how evil takes something mundane or beautiful and twists it. For example, in the world ruled by the Lone Power there's a carnivorous fire hydrant with a tongue like a chameleon. Then Duane places special emphasis one the difference between the feeling of the Book of Night With The Moon (created by the Powers that Be to describe everything perfectly in its entirety) and the Dark Book (the other Book's polar opposite, created by the Lone Power to twist everything). The Light Book feels like a well of goodness, but the Dark Book stings and sucks up all the light in the area.

In book 5, you may remember that the conflict is that Nita's mother is dying from a malignant brain tumor. The main themes of the book are grief, death of loved ones, and accepting what you really can't change. Each of the Callahans deal with their pain in different ways. Mr. and Mrs. Callhan suffer quietly and try to savor every moment. Dairine tries to help, but gets grounded by the Senior wizards in the area so she must suffer in silence. Nita gets approval to make a desperate attempt to eradicate the cancerous cells from her mother's body. For the next few days Nita throws herself into her work in order to cope. In the end, Nita is able to get rid of most of the cancer so that the doctors can remove the tumor with the least amount of trouble. However, Nita's mother still dies, because not all of the cancer has been destroyed. Her mother explains that it's better to have enough time to live out the rest of her life in love instead of trying to live forever. Nita finally accepts that she can't change the inevitable and decides to enjoy the six months she has left with her mother.


In book 6, Nita is trying to deal with the death of her mother and Kit is becoming distant from everyone. The basic themes include the importance of friends, you can't shut out the world forever, grief, and anger. Both Nita and Kit are hurting after the death of Nita's mother (Kit's hurting because Nita's shutting him out) and they're trying to help wizard-in-training Darryl (an autistic magical prodigy who can't seem to finish his Ordeal). Darryl shuts out the world because of his autism and because he sees the effects of the Lone Power in everyone. Nita and Kit must both accept that they still have responsibilities and need help before they can truly help Darryl with his problem, which is to accept the concept of "other" before he can be a wizard. Nita must also learn to control her anger at the injustice of losing her mother in order to truly be helpful instead of helpless. I think that book 6 is my favorite of the entire series because Duane so readily deals with themes like this while also bringing up the hopeful ideas, like love and friendship.




Harry Potter Themes

This one also deals with revenge and betrayal.

JK Rowling seems to deal exclusively with the themes friendship, love, fate versus choice, sacrifice, and death. The series also includes classic fantasy themes like black and white hero/villain relationships (think Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker in A New Hope), quests, and magic. Each book in its own way has something to do do with every theme. Harry wouldn't be able to accomplish half the things that he does without friends and he wouldn't even be alive if it weren't for the power of love. Harry willingly sacrifices himself for his friends so that they don't have to suffer. He even goes to meet Voldemort in the end so that he himself would die and no more people would die. But I feel that one recurring theme is the difference between Harry and Voldemort. Voldemort lets fate make his decisions while Harry chooses his own path. Voldemort killed Harry's parents after hearing about a prophecy concerning him and an unnamed boy, that "neither can live while the other survives." Harry, on the other hand, is told by the Sorting Hat that he would do well in Slytherin but chooses not to go into Slytherin House.


I actually feel that there's not much to say about the themes in the Harry Potter books. Each book has the same themes, which isn't really surprising when you remember that it's a children's series. It invites jokes from just about everyone (like the part in A Very Potter Musical where Harry tells Ginny that his invisibility cloak "was left to me by my dad, my dad that's dead. My father is dead. I have a dead father."), but I think that it's good for a series like that to have the same themes in every book. However, it doesn't leave much room for talking about it.


Score:
Harry Potter: 2, Young Wizards: 3


Harry Potter is great for finding classic themes, but otherwise it kind of falls flat. Young Wizards has a huge scope of themes. I know that Harry Potter is a children's series and Young Wizards is young adult, but since Rowling turned the last two books in Harry Potter into young adult books I feel justified in my comparison.


Next week will be a character analysis.


Agree with my review? Disagree? Comment below!