According to Gupta, the Harry Potter books include three worlds: the Magic world, the Muggle world, and our world. While same physic laws apply to the Muggle world and our world, what is immediately distinguishable is that the Muggles suffer from disadvantages in their recognition and acknowledgement of the Magic world; their attitudes toward magic and the Magic world is preoccupied with fear and blame, which result in deliberate ignorance and distancing (85-87). Contrastingly, the Magic world strives to exist in the interstices of the Muggle world to ensure and maintain the illusion of the Muggles’ normal life. In fact, the norms, explanations, and lifestyles of Muggles are largely created by Magic people in order to keep the Magic world invisible from Muggles. The Muggle world is surrounded by the Magic world, and it becomes a focalizing device to serve the purpose of attracting readers’ attention to the Magic world (88-89). Gupta argues that the Magic world in the Harry Potter series is deliberately focused on in order to address social and political issues in our world. And that is why the books engage with many readers drastically (91). In the final chapter of his book, Gupta mentions the antithetical nature of the Magic world against the Muggle world and our world. The Magic world is essentially anti-rational with strong limits to answers without detailed reasons and explanations. Most times, it is just the way it is, and no one ponders on why it is that way. The Magic world is manifested, and wizards and witches instead of fulfilling the need of technology, performs magic (151-154). Taking a different stance, Lankshear and Knobel argue that magic is the alternative technology Rowling provides us in the Harry Potter series, in order to remind us that technologies are never neutral, self-evident, or “essentialized”. What they are depends on how they are used. In contrast, Gupta argues that technology is the extension of human ability by inventions that involve the use of systemic and scientific knowledge (154). On the other
hand, while taking the same stance of separating technology from magic, O’Har suggests that science-technology replaced magic by its effectiveness and persuasiveness and yet was insufficient for the explanation of how the world works.
There is the spiritual longing never fulfilled, and this is how magic returns to involve in. The Harry Potter series provides an alternative reality for magic to come in and indicates hints to the vast influence of the Harry Potter phenomenon (154-155).
I refer to the Muggles’ attitudes towards the Magic world as similar to our attitude towards advanced technologies. It is the unknown, powerful force or field that we do not understand triggers fear and deliberate ignorance, as we tend to neglect the potential danger of gene modification, bio-medicine, cyborg production, etc. On the other hand, these advanced technologies or “power” infiltrate into our lives and in return define who we are. Whether this will lead to full acceptance remains unknown, it seems currently we may only reach certain reconciliation, and at the same time hope for positive outcomes to come later in the future. As in Hallows, Dudley expresses his gratitude and acceptance towards Harry before the Dursleys’ departure with him. There seems to be little possibility that Harry will meet the Dursleys again, but Dudley sincerely expresses his concerns for Harry’s safety and wishes to see him again.
In the first book, Harry’s first actual encounter to the wand, and thus, magic world, starts from an island, where his aunt and uncle failed at attempting to shut him out from the magic world. Harry then is brought into the magic world, where the muggle world is largely left out until in the seventh book, when the disadvantage of isolation between magic and muggle world starts to emerge. This extension from an island to a world, and then another, as well as the nomadic feature of wizards/witches in both worlds demonstrate a posthuman subject’s relationship to the cosmos, and we are able to allude that to our connection with smart objects, online spaces, and extend that connection to the societies, environments, and the cosmos,.
To discuss the cybernetic network in the social level one must look at the magic world as a cybernetic circuit. On the statue in the Magic Ministry it is carved: “Magic is might.” This statue embodies Voldemort’s imagination of his ideal social structure:
witch and wizards over creatures and half-bloods over muggles. The witch and wizard figures are standing on top of a pillar which presses down on other parties, creating a pressurizing machine-like image. Jaap Van Till claims that the term cybernetic organism can also refer to larger networks of communication and control. For example, cities, networks of roads, networks of software, corporations, markets, governments, and the collection of these things together. A corporation can be considered as an artificial intelligence that makes use of replaceable human components to function.
People at all ranks can be considered replaceable agents of their functionally intelligent government institutions, whether such a view is desirable or not. This concept is embodied by the statue in the Magic Ministry, and transformed by Voldemort for his intention is to treat the whole society as his prosthesis and extend his will to the whole society. The ideal world he imagines is the society transformed into the state apparatus, which functions as the tool to guarantee the ruling class’ exploitation over others.
Furthermore, Voldemort intends to be the one manipulating the apparatus, and attempts to be the one on top of this social cyborg, and this creates layers of prostheses, one on top the other. A cyborg can also become a prosthesis of another subject. However, in Voldemort’s case it creates gaps between layers, for instance, there is no space to put in half-bloods and Mudbloods. First instance is Hagrid, who is half giant and half human.
From the beginning Hagrid is described as someone who obsessively holds on to an umbrella which is made by the debris of his wand. As a half giant he is framed and expelled by the magic school. According to regulations he can no longer possess a wand, but he holds on to the debris and continues using the umbrella made of it to perform magic. The second instance if of Remus Lupin, who is a werewolf but strives to
maintain his human subjectivity. According to Snape, he and many parents of students would not accept Lupin as a wizard, not to mention a teacher in the magic school.
Finally, if we look back to the hero himself, Harry Potter is the child of an old and powerful wizard family and a Mudblood. He is not of pure-blood, but somehow this fact is neglected and since his father’s side is one of the oldest wizard family while his ancestors are the creators of the Deathly Hallows, it justifies his background and erases his mother’s Mudblood in him in others’ eyes. However, Harry never intends to hide the Muggle root of him; secrets and conventions of the Magic world continue to baffle him, and being in between the Magic and Muggle worlds allows him to be open to both of them, comprehend the different values as well as cultures from both ends, and develop his care to others.
Returning to the problem of gaps, it leads to my next question: can creatures other than humans in the Harry Potter saga become cyborgs as well? In the case of centaurs, which are considered as wild creatures possessing intelligence greater than humans, they are also skilled in healing and astrology. However, the centaurs only spend much of their time scouring the stars for portents. The discussion on whether creatures can become cyborgs further relates to the issue of the passing of magic and other techniques.
In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, goblins are the ones who demonstrates hatred on witches and wizards for they are unwilling to share the rights of owning the wand to non-human creatures. This act indicates the reluctance of witches and wizards to allow other subjects become cyborgs, and they turn creatures into the single, general Other and thus deny them from the cybernetic circuit. In return, goblins refuse to share their alchemy skills of forging weapons and armors that will never rust off with witches and wizards, shutting down on both ends of the network.
On the other hand, the House-elves are able to demonstrate their own magic without the wand, but their magic is considered as unimportant or undesirable, only
helpful when it comes to house-keeping tasks. Gupta suggests that House-elves reveal
“a deep-seated contradiction” (119), presenting the notion of “a species-condition of servility” (123) in most House-elves, except Dobby, who fights for his rights. Emily Strand argues that House-elves’ domestic role represent “‘unliberated’ women, shackled by the chains of tradition to a circumscribed role in the domestic sphere” (6).
According to Strand, House-elves are similar to robots who appear in classic science-fiction, “conscious creatures created to serve” (6-7). For Voldemort, he does not care if House-elves have power or not; every creature including other wizards and witches are supposed to be ruled and exploited by him in his thinking. To him they are all expendable components. As the main character against Voldemort’s tyranny, Harry Potter becomes the one who cherishes every subject’s independency and characteristics;
however, we must keep in mind that J. K. Rowling does not provide an ultimate solution or answer through her young hero. As the protagonist Harry Potter is aware of the hierarchy of the society and the unjust bestowed upon creatures or Mudbloods, all these social injustice are falling back to Voldemort’s faults, causing one to assume that as long as Voldemort is defeated, all these social problems will be solved immediately.
This is also the presumption of restoring lost information and reopening all networks by simply destroys one blocking point, which is destined to fail, for the network still remains closed to other subjects, and some of them are still unable to recognize the fact that they can connect the internal network to the larger social network. In the series, the defeat of Voldemort indicates the torn open network waiting for changes. However, the ending does not show restored or improved connections within or between networks.
This opening in the ending chapter of the series echoes to my argument of death as a relay station, for it turns the whole series into one for readers. In the final part of the story, Harry and his friends, after 19 years, are back at the King’s Cross Station, sending their children on the train to Hogwarts. When his son Albus Severus Potter, expresses
his concerns of becoming a member of the Slytherin House in Hogwarts, Harry reveals to him that he is named after Dumbledore and Snape, who are bravest men who sacrificed their lives for Harry and mankind (Hallows, 758). This plot and space in the final scene extend memories of Dumbledore and Snape in Harry’s mind and is passed on to his next generation. As the train heads to the magic school, the dynamic of the story continues, as the Harry Potter phenomenon still influences us today.
Conclusion
My argument is based on the changing from the anthropocentric point of view and the cybernetic body on the physically modifying level to a nomadic, extensive posthuman subjectivity, open and fulfilled through connection with others, communities, and the cosmos.
. This thesis brings up issues as follows: first, the presumption of the proper form and access to prostheses. In the beginning of the Harry Potter series only witches and wizards are entitled and admired of the right to possess a wand and the power to perform magic. As a cybernetic body they are the only subjects that are “correctly” connected to the social network. As a cyborg only their bodies are extended and thus material-informational entities whose boundaries undergo continuous construction and reconstruction (Hayles 3). Furthermore, by denying impure witches and wizards Voldemort narrows down and therefore, dysfunctions the cybernetic network. On the other hand, Harry Potter as the one who removes Voldemort as the block of the network, attempts to tear it open for future possibilities. Second, the presumption of the integrity of body and soul lies within the open-ended connection with others, communities, and the cosmos—by turning human subjects into cyborgs the boundaries of human bodies against the outside world is loosen up; creating more flexibility and space for compassion for other subjects. On the other hand, the unknown image of the Other for creatures appear in the beginning, leaving them mysterious, unexplainable images and forcing them to remain excluded. They become the Included Other. However, through attempts to understand or respect others that are different from humans and among themselves, individual non-human characters start to become distinct and emotional bonds are built, in result, enlarging the social networks. There are concerns regarding to the grand ending of Harry Potter’s victory, with creatures as his allies, supporting
him for private emotional attachments or economic concerns rather than for a broader public issue of the social hierarchy. For example, the House-elve “Creature” Harry Potter owns turn his side from resenting him to support simply because he returns an object of his last master. And goblins support him simply for the reason that they will be deprived less than supporting Voldemort’s tyranny. However, according to Wolfe, we direct our attention to the study of nonhuman animals, doing so with the aim of exposing how they have been misunderstood and exploited (99). This explains why it is difficult for the author not to describe the creatures in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows in forms of the Other. Due to the awareness of past exclusiveness the author and the characters in the book attempts to incorporate subjects other than humans into the cybernetic network. Wolf suggests that we as human subjects should cross the boundaries and strip off the influence of politics in order to see the value of matters.
Literature’s functions are the training of our imagination, crossing of boundaries from body to body and culture to culture. We should travel through systems and symbols in order to broaden up our world (Wolfe, 99-126). Incorporating these points to my accounts of cyborgs, we must endeavor to be connected and included into the cybernetic network. And in this presumption becoming a cyborg is the most efficient way and therefore necessary. Due to this reason I find J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter saga full of potentials in terms of breaking boundaries and including various subjects into the cybernetic network. By incorporating magic power and the fantasy genre, she creates a cybernetic world in which subjects are connecting with each other through the invisible networks rather than physical contacts. Witches and wizards are further turned into cyborgs through holding their wands and performing magic.
Wolfe proposes the concept of “inclusive vagueness”, the so-called incorporative, and inclusive claims tend to be highly selective and exclusive, for presumptions of an unchangeable and permanently justified body or system (110). One must unravel the
frame works of what we tend to consider as normal, and permanent—in this case, the subject’s body and the body of social networks. For instance, humans’ body should not be regarded as an unshakable existence, and neither should mankind as a group. If we put this concept into the novels, the hierarchy embodied by the statue in the Magic Ministry should be broken; in goblins resentment against witches and wizards both sides should open up their social networks to let the other side in, and therefore, make the cybernetic network functions efficiently. It is only by exceeding these limits that we are able to cross boundaries that confine all the subjects in isolated compartments, and actually join the network. In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Voldemort’s crimes and the oppression he puts on the society are obvious; his defeat indicates the breaking of the unjust, boundaries, and limitations. There are concerns regarding to Harry’s great battle with Voldemort falling back into the traditional revenge play and self-consolation.
The focus has never been Harry’s personal catharsis, which does no help to the social problems and reconstruction of social networks. The ending of the story seems to fall into the “inclusive vagueness” I mentioned before: every misfortune goes back to the villain Voldemort, and everyone else sits together attending the wounds. The self-pitying does not unravel the state apparatus, and simply putting the others on the edge of the borders does not mean they are actually included. Crossing the boundaries are significant, but what happens next is surely not to neglect. In the story J. K. Rowling proposes the fusion of races as the breaking point from the enclosed social system, embodied by the blown open dining hall that once only accommodates wizards and witches. She presents to us the positive possibilities towards the future; however, it is an on-going process rather than a snap of fingers.
As I bring my research to transit from fantasy to science fiction, I noticed that despite the contemporary advanced status of technologies, humans are still trapped in the shadow of fear for death that has for long bothered us. This common inevitable
fear and anxiety shared by all of us is referred to as “the inexhaustible” by Braidotti.
Death is the painful event par experience, but it is also what marks us in our limited time in life. The opposite side of the inexhaustible is the endless power of becoming in life, embodied by our ability to affect others and be affected by them (Posthuman Knowledge, 174-175). This ever-lasting longing and force are the connection which lies in between fantasy and science fiction, cyborgs and posthuman others, life and death, us and the cosmos.
It is Braidotti’s theory on posthuman knowledge that inspired me to re-read and analyze the Harry Potter series as a posthuman fiction. Her expanded vision on transversal connection of all matters reflects the transition of the Harry Potter world from the field of hidden turbulence under the political structure and dominations of power to the torn-open space for regeneration and connections among all. I noticed that quite a few posthuman theories target on the feminist perspectives while the
It is Braidotti’s theory on posthuman knowledge that inspired me to re-read and analyze the Harry Potter series as a posthuman fiction. Her expanded vision on transversal connection of all matters reflects the transition of the Harry Potter world from the field of hidden turbulence under the political structure and dominations of power to the torn-open space for regeneration and connections among all. I noticed that quite a few posthuman theories target on the feminist perspectives while the