"X" Marks the Spot: The Goblet of Fire and Chiasm

Introduction: the "X" This post will focus on the 7 book Harry Potter series as what is known as a "chiasm." This structure is named for the Greek letter "chi" which corresponds to the English letter "X" - which is, of course, a "cruxt," and what I will write in this post has mainly risen in my mind as a result of our recent considerations of the image of the "HorCRUX." At the center of that "X" is the book I have been listening to recently, The Goblet of Fire. "X" Marks the Spot. A Chiasm is a literary device used in Biblical and Classical literature (In the introductory year Hebrew Class I took I asked the professor about a particular sentence we had to translate, whether it could justifiably be called a "chiasm" and his reply was "yes, well, they pretty much had chiasm on the brain"). In this device there are usually at least 4 or 5 main elements that arranged in an "X" formation. The elements of the top leg correspond to the matching elements of the bottom leg, and the key element is at the cruxt. In a 5 part chiasm the 3rd element is the central one, but in a 4 part chiasms there is not a single central element, but rather the central element is the connection between the 2nd and 4th parts. In a chiasm the "movement" is both linear and quasi-cyclical because there is a literary progression along the line itself but that movement is also seen in a "deepening" or "development" between the first and second elements of the corresponding pairs of elements. As I will discuss below, a chiasm can be very extended and have more than 4 or 5 elements, like, say ... 7. In which case the 4th element would be the cruxt ... but more on that in a bit. Examples of Chiasm Perhaps the best way for me to tell you what a chiasm is would be to show you (my writing professor in college always said "don't tell us ... show us!"). When I took an introductory intensive course in Hebrew (which was the setting of the above quote on "chiasms on the brain") I wanted to give the professor a special gift because it was his last course he was teaching at that university. I had been working on an idea for a wedding present to give various people I knew who were getting married, something that was not only unique to my skills as a scholar in Biblical studies but also meaningful to myself and the people as a gift specifically tied to the Judeo-Christian heritage of the faith we shared together. The idea for such a wedding gift was, using the Hebrew and Greek Fonts I had on my computer to make a guide to use on a light table, a parchment colored sheet in a frame with the poetic benediction from the book of Numbers in Hebrew (BHS - Biblia Hebraica Stutgartensia), Greek (LXX - the Septuagint), Latin (BSV - the Vulgate) and English (RSV - Revised Standard Version). Each one then had an inscription including the Hebrew text from Genesis 12:3 spoken by Yahweh to Abraham, "By you shall all the families of the earth bless themselves." So I did a special one of these for Dr. Vall (and then we all signed it and had it put in a nice frame and blessed by a priest), but I came up with a different inscription for his, I made up a chiasm. In Hebrew it reads (transliterated): "Amein, Tsadiq Hu, We-Aman." And the English translation is: "Truly, Righteous is He, and a master craftsman" (it was after the words "to Dr. Vall" but all of it was backwards, right to left, as Hebrew is written). Now, the "We" attached to the end of the last word is really, in Hebrew, simply a conjunction that can be attached to the beginning of words (so it means "and") and thus the first and last words are both from the AMN root (which carries through all the way into English, by way of Greek and Latin, in the word "Amen") - and there is a progression in the connection: What is "truly"? It is Truly that he is a master-craftsman. But there is also a linear progression through the inner elements of "Righteous" (Tsadiq) and "He" (Hu) - which are a pair because it is he who is righteous - and it is through being righteous that he is truly a master-craftsman. If Blogger had the capability for indentation I could write it out for you in actual "X" format, but hopefully you can get the picture from this description: A = Amein B = Tsadiq B1 = Hu A1 = Aman If you wish to see further examples of my use of/thoughts on chiastic structure, go here and here to see how I find it used in common prayer, and here also is another example of where I see chiastic structure in the first "Ring" movie, that may be helpful by way of example on what I am talking about with chiasms. (I recommend at least taking a look at the first of these posts, since it contains a more graphical demonstration that may help one get a better grasp.) "X"s and "O"s The image of "X" or "cruxt" marks a work as particularly Christian. In Pauli's post on "Elendil's Sword" there is a great exposition of G. K. Chesterton's thought on the image of the Cross vs the Eastern (meaning Buddhist) symbol of the circle. I highly recommend reading that post, but for here I simply wish to note that this element of chiastic structure, I believe, marks Rowling's work as distinctly Judeo-Christian along these lines. Goblet of Fire: "X" Marks the Spot. So, as I have been saying in various posts promising this one (and will say again in a couple more I have on the draft-dash board), I think book 4 is central to the series. But first let's look at some of the ways in which the corresponding pairs match up to see if they really do correspond. Books 1 and 7 In book 1 we have the famous speech by Snape that has spawned the "stoppered death" theory, and (if this theory is right - or even if it becomes correct maybe that say, Snape actually did shoot Dumbledore up on the tower but he's still alive because Snape had him loaded with a death stopper to prevent his own AK curse from killing him) then that will be revealed in some central way in book 7 (the progression is obvious, first I only told you I could do it, but then I really did it.) I also think, with John Granger, that Quirrel's characterization of Snape as a "giant bat" in book 1 will be fulfilled in a book 7 revelation that Snape is indeed a Vamp ... but we have come under heavy fire from the "trans-pacific forces" of Pauli and JKR2 on that one, so were are simply biding our time until the release of book 7 when we will be able (I am more than confident) to pounce with our "I told you so!" artillery LOL. Books 2 and 6 In books 2 and 6 are the only places we actually meet Tom Riddle, in the former it is in the diary and in the latter it is in the pensieve. Here there is a progression from a shade such as the diary horcrux (that is really sort of a disconnected version of Voldemort and has to learn what Voldemort has actually been up to) to seeing Tom really in action, the real events of his life the went into his real rise as Lord Voldemort (in a wonderful irony, it is the former instance, the diary horcrux, that is a real existing thing and the latter that is less substantial as a memory - symbolizing, I think, the perverse backwardness of Voldemort's progression to being less of a person, rather than more of a person through becoming a better person). We also have a very interesting release of "authorial data" connecting books 2 and 6 - JKR has said that the first place she considered using a chapter like "The Other Minister" was in book 2, but where did it finally find a home? Book 6 - probably because of some core connections between the 2 books and book 6 being a deepening of the themes of book 2 such that an image with broader, and thus deeper, implications, such as the other minister, fit better in book 6. Books 3 and 5 In book 3 we have a very real threat of depression and despair in the form of the dementors, but it is still, for Harry, only a vague threat. In book 5 though, we have a dementor really about to suck out the soul of a family member (even if it is only porky Dudley) and Harry's more concrete turn to a dark mood that makes even Dumbledore's touch feel like it burns his skin. Book 4 So ... what lies at the center of this 7 part "X" that is J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series? Book 4: The Goblet of Fire. Charles Williams (friend of CS Lewis and JRR Tolkien) once said (in an unfinished essay called "The Figure of Arthur," which he reportedly read to Lewis and Tolkien in Lewis's chambers one afternoon, and which can be found in the book commonly called "The Arthurian Torso" - which I have recommended to Whitney over on her "Rialb's Blog" and am hoping she is able to find a copy of) "you can disagree with the medieval European mind as much you like and hate it as much as you like, but to say the Grail in the Medieval continental Romances was not meant to be the Cup of Christ is simply bad scholarship - the medieval European imagination was, top to bottom, Catholic, and thus, top to bottom, completely caught up in the Eucharist." (That's a rough paraphrase). Keep in mind this is the characterization from a scholar steeped beyond belief in medieval literature, his characterization of THE literary source for Rowling (medieval European imagination). So, look at the Goblet of Fire - A Cup in which champions are chosen for a battle that symbolizes the battle of human life, a cup full of fire - the continually burning "life" that discerns and weighs all humans as champions. For medieval scholars, fire was the symbol for the inner life of the Trinity. Along the lines of "sacramentality" and their validity in vows that I have discussed some here before, note that the Goblet constitutes a binding magical contract that cannot be broken, even though Harry was in no way involved in his name being in it, his will never even entered the matter (any more than does that of a baby being baptized). Even if Barty Jr is like Ciaphas the High Priest in that he is plotting murder, he is still a valid wizard, just as Ciaphas had a valid prophetic office as High Priest and fulfilled it when he uttered the true prophecy that it is more expedient that the one should die for the many. And this cup has a fulfillment in a later cup, the Tri-Wizard cup. Notice that it is through the actions of the evil one (Barty Jr port-keying the trophy cup) that it becomes a pathway to a Via Dolorosa in a graveyard, to a ritual of blood letting and blood receiving - just as through the temptation of the evil one, our first parents fell, and through this God became man and walked the Via Dolorosa to a bloody death on a literal "HorCrux," on a horrible tree of shame called the Cross. ("O Felix Culpa, Oh Happy Fault") When Harry's and Voldemort's wands connect through the Phoenix song, they are lifted high into the air - "And if I be lifted up, I will draw all men unto myself."