systemic change vs. the status quo
the last olympian // the lost hero // the titanās curse // the blood of olympus // the tower of nero // shaunās video essay on harry potter
insp.
[begin ID: a series of screenshots from various books written by Rick Riordan (books listed above), interspersed with transcripted quotes from a video essay about Harry Potter, by video essayist, Shaun, on Youtube. Certain passages are highlighted. The screenshots read as follows.
āNo more undetermined children,ā I said. āI want you to promise to claim your childrenāall your demigod childrenāby the time they turn thirteen. They wonāt be left out in the world on their own at the mercy of monsters. I want them claimed and brought to camp so they can be trained right, and survive.ā
Will scowled at his broken chariot. Then he sized up Piper, Leo, and Jason. āThese are the ones? Way older than thirteen. Why havenāt they been claimed already?ā
because obviously if your story is about a systemic injustice and you want your heroes to triumph and have a happy ending then that injustice needs a systemic correction. -shaun š.
He gripped my sleeve, and I could feel the heat of his skin like a fire. āEthan. Me. All the unclaimed. Donāt let it ā¦ Donāt let it happen again.ā
His eyes were angry, but pleading too.
āI wonāt,ā I said. āI promise.ā
Luke nodded, and his hand went slack.
Then the darkness above Luke began to crumble, like a cavern roof in an earthquake. Huge chunks of black rock began falling. Annabeth rushed in just as a crack appeared, and the whole ceiling dropped. She held it somehowātons of rock. She kept it from collapsing on her and Luke just with her own strength. It was impossible. She shouldnāt have been able to do that.
Luke rolled free, gasping. āThanks,ā he managed.
āHelp me hold it,ā Annabeth groaned.
[begin highlight] Luke caught his breath. His face was covered in grime and sweat. He rose unsteadily.
āI knew I could count on you.ā He began to walk away as the trembling blackness threatened to crush Annabeth.
āHELP ME!ā she pleaded.
āOh, donāt worry,ā Luke said. āYour help is on the way. Itās all part of the plan. In the meantime, try not to die.ā [end highlight]
The ceiling of darkness began to crumble again, pushing Annabeth against the ground.
harry potterās anti-change problem is, by no means, unique. [begin highlight] think of all the hollywood blockbustersĀ in which the good side are those seeking to preserve the status quo and the antagonists are people with legitimate grievances about the world, and the desire to change it, and then they pull a cheap trick and have the antagonists just murder a baby or something, so the audience knows theyāre the bad guys. [end highlight] this is art produced by the rich; people who have done very well under capitalism, thank you very much, and therefore see all systemic change as inherently evil, no matter how reasonable it might seem on the surface. -shaun š.
āHey,ā Percy said, āif we donāt make it out of thisāā
āShut up, man. Weāre going to make it.ā
āIf we donāt, I want you to knowāI feel bad about Calypso. I failed her.ā
Leo stared at him, dumbfounded. āYou know about me andāā
āThe Argo II is a small ship.ā Percy grimaced. āWord got around. I just ā¦ well, when I was in Tartarus, I was reminded that I hadnāt followed through on my promise to Calypso. [begin highlight] I asked the gods to free her and then ā¦ I just assumed they would. [end highlight] With me getting amnesia and getting sent to Camp Jupiter and all, I didnāt think about Calypso much after that. Iām not making excuses. I should have made sure the gods kept their promise. Anyway, Iām glad you found her. You promised to findĀ a way back to her, and I just wanted to say, if we do survive all this, Iāll do anything I can to help you. Thatās a promise I will keep.ā
I suppose I could have raged at him and called him bad names. We were alone. He probably expected it. Given his awkward self-consciousness at the moment, he might have even let me get away with it unpunished.
But it would not have changed him. I would not have made anything different between us.
You cannot change a tyrant by trying to out-ugly him. Meg could never have changed Nero, any more than I could change Zeus. [begin highlight] I could only try to be different than him. Better. More ā¦ human. [end highlight] And to limit the time I spent around him as little as possible.
I nodded. āI understand, Father.ā
Zeus seemed to understand that what I understood was not perhaps the same thing he understood, but he accepted the gesture, I suppose because he had little choice.
āVery well. So ā¦ welcome home.ā
I rose from my throne. āThank you. Now, if youāll excuse me ā¦ā
I dissolved into golden light. There were several other places Iād rather be, and I intended to visit them all.
now iām not saying stories with social problems necessarily have to fully resolve the social problems by the end because they donāt. but if youāre trying to tell a societal story then your society should be a living thing; it should be at least potentially flexible, contain at least the possibility for change. both good and bad. but rowlingās worlds are set in stone; theyāre dead. the good in rowlingās stories seeks only to cancel out evil; to undo evilās changes. [begin highlight] the solution to systemic problems is never to seek systemic change but to be individually nicer. [end highlight] to have nicer bank managers. to have nicer slave owners. -shaun š.
end ID]
