My working theory for Dumbledore’s emphasis on story logic is that it’s a pragmatic decision supporting several different lines of influence.
First, we know he’s pretending to be a lot crazier than he is: he acts like a character in a roleplaying game with “Insanity” marked down in the flaws section of his character sheet, not someone with an actual personality disorder, and going out of his way to act like Gandalf fits in fairly well with that.
Second, he spends a lot of his time working with kids, who’re probably a lot more familiar with stories than with their real-life cognates: how many times does Draco make an analogy to something he’s seen in a play?
Finally, people really are prone to generalize from fictional evidence, and maintaining a semi-fictionalized persona can aid in achieving instrumental goals when they’re aligned with the narrative patterns it corresponds to. The Self Actualization storyline provides a good example of this in action: I read Dumbledore’s part in that early on as using his persona to nudge Hermione into the high-fantasy hero role that Harry occupies in canon (and considerably more shakily in MoR). When she went off script, so did he. (I suspect that Riddle’s Lord Voldemort persona was adopted for similar reasons, incidentally. He might even have picked up that trick from Dumbledore.)
I like this. More support from the text: the narrator draws a distinction between wizards who have walked the paths of power and everyone else. According to the narrator, it’s the latter who apply story-reasoning to real life. Dumbledore is one of the former.
ETA: This too.
Dumbledore’s face was still cold. “I am beginning to doubt your suitability as the hero, Mr. Potter.”
Which is a downright strange thing to say if you think Mr. Potter is the one with the prophesied “POWER TO VANQUISH THE DARK LORD”. It’s exactly what you’d say if you understood that the power of stories was a power you wielded over other people, and your hero was just another of your pawns.
Perhaps its not such a strange thing to say if you don’t think Mr. Potter knows about the prophecy, and are trying to correct his insubordination. In the following chapters, Dumbledore doesn’t act as though he has decided Harry is unsuitable as a hero. Rather than trying to replace him, Dumbledore begins to confide in him.
Does Nornagest’s explanation of Dumbledore’s relationship with story-book reasoning affect your previous analysis? If you agree that Dumbledore feigns a story-book persona, rather than taking story-book logic seriously, then doesn’t it seem strange that he would hatch such a plot? Note that his manipulation of the last battle in December is consistent with having realistic view of the world. Yes, Dumbledore did manage to acheive a “story-book outcome,” but he clearly didn’t expect this to happen—he had a contingency plan.
My working theory for Dumbledore’s emphasis on story logic is that it’s a pragmatic decision supporting several different lines of influence.
First, we know he’s pretending to be a lot crazier than he is: he acts like a character in a roleplaying game with “Insanity” marked down in the flaws section of his character sheet, not someone with an actual personality disorder, and going out of his way to act like Gandalf fits in fairly well with that.
Second, he spends a lot of his time working with kids, who’re probably a lot more familiar with stories than with their real-life cognates: how many times does Draco make an analogy to something he’s seen in a play?
Finally, people really are prone to generalize from fictional evidence, and maintaining a semi-fictionalized persona can aid in achieving instrumental goals when they’re aligned with the narrative patterns it corresponds to. The Self Actualization storyline provides a good example of this in action: I read Dumbledore’s part in that early on as using his persona to nudge Hermione into the high-fantasy hero role that Harry occupies in canon (and considerably more shakily in MoR). When she went off script, so did he. (I suspect that Riddle’s Lord Voldemort persona was adopted for similar reasons, incidentally. He might even have picked up that trick from Dumbledore.)
I like this. More support from the text: the narrator draws a distinction between wizards who have walked the paths of power and everyone else. According to the narrator, it’s the latter who apply story-reasoning to real life. Dumbledore is one of the former.
ETA: This too.
Which is a downright strange thing to say if you think Mr. Potter is the one with the prophesied “POWER TO VANQUISH THE DARK LORD”. It’s exactly what you’d say if you understood that the power of stories was a power you wielded over other people, and your hero was just another of your pawns.
Perhaps its not such a strange thing to say if you don’t think Mr. Potter knows about the prophecy, and are trying to correct his insubordination. In the following chapters, Dumbledore doesn’t act as though he has decided Harry is unsuitable as a hero. Rather than trying to replace him, Dumbledore begins to confide in him.
Does Nornagest’s explanation of Dumbledore’s relationship with story-book reasoning affect your previous analysis? If you agree that Dumbledore feigns a story-book persona, rather than taking story-book logic seriously, then doesn’t it seem strange that he would hatch such a plot? Note that his manipulation of the last battle in December is consistent with having realistic view of the world. Yes, Dumbledore did manage to acheive a “story-book outcome,” but he clearly didn’t expect this to happen—he had a contingency plan.