Books by Jack Phillips Lowe

Harry Potter and the wizard world.

I am a Harry Potter, a.k.a., JK's star, fan! Now that I have that out of the way, I need
to share some perspectives of the movies and the books and some puzzles of my own.

I have read books that query Rowling's ideas and characters and actions and consequences.
I will throw this mini tome into that ring.

HP fans know about Mr. Potter and his relatives, friends, and involuntary enemies.

We know that from day one, Mr. Potter has had to battle bullies and skeptics and
"The forces of evil?!" I say evil cause nowhere that I am reading do I find out,
other than verbal proclamations from Him himself and others that he is the best, what "He whose name must not be mentioned"..we have an ego thing about who is the best wizard. I have a feeling that if it were not in a book, that Mr. Potter would GLADLY say "Mr. V, I do not
give one whit about being a great anything! That response would not satisfy the
ego starved Mr. V.

Putting that hypothesis aside, my problem is one that rains on the parade REGARDLESS the fact that I have read all the books, seen the movies and I LIKE THEM ALL! [I like many things
I do not understand.]

I am by occupation, a real estate broker, business consultant, world traveler and hopefully,
also obvious, a free-lance writer. I like to pick some stuff apart that glows illogic.

Mr. Potter is not having these situations exclusively at local pubs, in the dark deep woods
or at home–though we Potter fans know that some of them in fact, do occur at these
venues.

Mr. Potter is a young man and appropriately, a STUDENT. He is not attending
a school exclusively for young men, or for imminent actors or for Brits. He is attending
a school for wizards. That in itself LEADS to a puzzlement.

While Mr. Potter has few innate skills, [the few he does, granted, are rather spectacular]
he is in a learning mode some of the time and in a "Do it now or lose your ass" situation-
one after the other.

OF course, we know that in battles of every type, the most educated do not always win.
[A real battle in the sands of the middle east is testament to that!] However, it seems very odd to me that, while it may take some of the suspense out of the books and movies, that the faculty seem a bit pre-occupied and thus, unable to assist Mr. Potter in his quests to both discover himself AND solve his sequential predicaments.

We have a school of highly skilled wizards who are teachers and some returning students
who have had a chance to explore their wizard abilities too.

I UNFAIRLY expect the school of Wizardy at Hogwarts, to have a faculty that can do their
own research and have done background checks on their own faculty. This seems to have been lacking since one held V in his head and the other began chirping on Potter from day one.

While Rowling has creatures deluxe in her literature and cinema, it seems they are simply
acknowledged by the faculty and not challenged. To have the headmaster say in
book [and movie] #1, something like "There exists in these halls, something horrible that if you came upon it, would provide you a horrible death." Is that supposed to stop curious
kids from exploring? It is going to do the opposite; just as the faculty cautions and verbal
limitations about the forest just beyond the school!

"V's" group make up the dark side; but, excuse me, To what end? Do the members of Rowling's Dark side hope to take over the school? The world? What? The North End of England
or Scotland?

Then, we have the head master's point program. Very cute up to a point. Those how have the most points in their genre, win. I agree. But while Potter's group hope to Win, and become the leading "House" for the next semester, what is the faculty and senior students doing to discover why "V" and his chums are doing nasty deeds? Does "V" want to take over the school?
The world? Seems in fact, that the world of non-wizards are known as Muggles and "V"
disdains them, so that "Rule the world" is out AS FAR AS THE READERS KNOW IT.
[I agree in many battles, a victor will claim no interest in his actual target to mislead the
other side and keep the target, thus, un-protected or only slightly protected. But to
keep from going too far afield, let's presume "V" does not want to take over the Muggle world.
Is this then, "Simply" a battle over who is the best wizard? Can't be that simple.

Good people will always back off if the "Dark side" mainly likes to randomly kill and
harass "Just to show they are they guys with the biggest sticks" if by backing off, the
bad guys will reduce their menace. As philosophers have said for eons, "Let's see what they do before we charge in." I think "V"s objectives are either non-existent beyond ego demands
or they are purposly hidden from all but "Non-V" fans

Rowling has done a masterful job of keeping kids and many adults, in suspense as she
weaves her own steps to her preferred conclusion. She has not done such a masterful
job, however, of using logic to get there. [Meaning, teachers unable to see what the
students must see to save their respective buns. Should there not have been more than one battle of good teacher vs bad teacher or good teacher vs "V" subscriber?]

Thus, the term, Science Fiction. Maybe Hogwarts has an extension class for Muggles named "Try to figure this out."