Álvaro Abellán, college professor: "Don't stop and don't be afraid to crash"
25-11-2019
Dialogical Creativity blog article, written by Álvaro Abellán:
Harry Potter has gone hand in hand with Hagrid since he received the admission letter at Hogwarts until he was fully equipped. He is alone, however, when he has to find the platform nine and three quarters, where a train, at 11 am, will depart for his destination. Harry arrives at the station and identify the platforms nine and ten. But, among them, there seems to be no platform nine and three quarters. Muggles obviously can't help you. It will be the mother of a large family of wizards who will immediately integrate Harry as one of more in the family.
Platform nine and three quarters is a magical portal, a threshold between the Muggle train station and that of the magical world. It remains hidden despite being in one of the places with the highest traffic in Muggles. How is that possible? Very easy: no Muggle will find it because, even if it has it in front of its noses, it totally escapes its logic. The platforms are identified by whole numbers, one for each train track. There are one, two, three ... nine and ten. But there cannot be a nine and three quarters, there is no possibility of a nine and three quarters, neither in the physical world, nor in the minds of Muggles.
So the portal is not discovered simply because no muggle fits in the head that may exist. A bit like the American continent for Europeans ... until 1492, of course, when a madman named Christopher Columbus imagined that there was no one who had ever seen, what everyone considered inconceivable. It would be necessary to review the documents of the time, because we might discover that Columbus was a magician. It is true that, technically, Columbus imagined something different from what he really found. And for quite some time he thought he had reached where he imagined, although he was actually somewhere else. But here the important thing is not your miscalculation or, precisely! The interesting thing is his miscalculation ... And, also, that he didn't stop, that he wasn't afraid of the unknown.
"Don't stop and don't be afraid to crash, that's very important." And that is the other reason why, even if some Muggle found the platform, he would not be able to cross it. A solid barrier between two platforms ... how are we going to throw ourselves against that wall? Only the confidence of knowing that others passed, along with the advice of a kind mother, will encourage Harry. It's not that our protagonist is crazy, it's not that he runs anywhere. Rather trust who is reliable. He trusts Hagrid, who told him about this platform; He trusts this woman, who seems to know what he is talking about and does not ask him for anything he does not ask for his own children.
Mathematics and physics do not add up, but witnesses are reliable. A little reasonable faith and Harry will soon be on a train on the way to Hogwarts. That is often the logic of the Kingdom of Fantasy.
Ah! Another important thing: although in Fantasy, mathematics and physics work differently, their laws are equally inexorable. In the Kingdom of Fantasy punctuality is a fundamental value. There is an opportune, decisive moment. If you let it happen ... this is what happens ... you crash against the pillar of platform nine and three quarters.
Harry Potter has gone hand in hand with Hagrid since he received the admission letter at Hogwarts until he was fully equipped. He is alone, however, when he has to find the platform nine and three quarters, where a train, at 11 am, will depart for his destination. Harry arrives at the station and identify the platforms nine and ten. But, among them, there seems to be no platform nine and three quarters. Muggles obviously can't help you. It will be the mother of a large family of wizards who will immediately integrate Harry as one of more in the family.
"Excuse me," Harry said to the plump woman."Hello, dear," he said. First year at Hogwarts, right? Ron is also new.He pointed to the last and youngest of his sons. He was tall, skinny and freckled, with big hands and feet and a long nose."Yes," said Harry. The thing is ... I don't know how ...- How to enter the platform? He asked kindly, and Harry nodded."Don't worry," he said. All you have to do is walk straight towards the barrier between the two platforms. Don't stop and don't be afraid to crash, that's very important. It is best to go quickly, if you are nervous. Go now, go before Ron»(Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, 82).Ron and Harry will now be inseparable friends.
Platform nine and three quarters is a magical portal, a threshold between the Muggle train station and that of the magical world. It remains hidden despite being in one of the places with the highest traffic in Muggles. How is that possible? Very easy: no Muggle will find it because, even if it has it in front of its noses, it totally escapes its logic. The platforms are identified by whole numbers, one for each train track. There are one, two, three ... nine and ten. But there cannot be a nine and three quarters, there is no possibility of a nine and three quarters, neither in the physical world, nor in the minds of Muggles.
So the portal is not discovered simply because no muggle fits in the head that may exist. A bit like the American continent for Europeans ... until 1492, of course, when a madman named Christopher Columbus imagined that there was no one who had ever seen, what everyone considered inconceivable. It would be necessary to review the documents of the time, because we might discover that Columbus was a magician. It is true that, technically, Columbus imagined something different from what he really found. And for quite some time he thought he had reached where he imagined, although he was actually somewhere else. But here the important thing is not your miscalculation or, precisely! The interesting thing is his miscalculation ... And, also, that he didn't stop, that he wasn't afraid of the unknown.
"Don't stop and don't be afraid to crash, that's very important." And that is the other reason why, even if some Muggle found the platform, he would not be able to cross it. A solid barrier between two platforms ... how are we going to throw ourselves against that wall? Only the confidence of knowing that others passed, along with the advice of a kind mother, will encourage Harry. It's not that our protagonist is crazy, it's not that he runs anywhere. Rather trust who is reliable. He trusts Hagrid, who told him about this platform; He trusts this woman, who seems to know what he is talking about and does not ask him for anything he does not ask for his own children.
Mathematics and physics do not add up, but witnesses are reliable. A little reasonable faith and Harry will soon be on a train on the way to Hogwarts. That is often the logic of the Kingdom of Fantasy.
Ah! Another important thing: although in Fantasy, mathematics and physics work differently, their laws are equally inexorable. In the Kingdom of Fantasy punctuality is a fundamental value. There is an opportune, decisive moment. If you let it happen ... this is what happens ... you crash against the pillar of platform nine and three quarters.
