The following is the second in a series of 7 articles focusing on a moment of rhetorical significance in each of the Harry Potter novels. This series evolved out of a paper presented at the 2018 Harry Potter Academic Conference.
The Harry Potter series is bursting with liars, bullshitters and con artists—some of them more dangerous than others. Harry is subjected to the shady politics of Dolores Umbridge, the yellow journalism of Rita Skeeter and the crooked dealings of Mundungus Fletcher. But craftiest among these liars can only be that toothsome trickster, Gilderoy Lockhart.
Of all the deceptions, duplicity and misrepresentations we encounter through the series, it is the rhetoric of Lockhart that leaves us wondering, was he all that bad?
Harry Frankfurt’s ‘On Bullshit’
Harry Frankfurt, professor emeritus of philosophy at Princeton, might have something to say about that. In his essay “On Bullshit” Frankfurt says, “One of the most salient features of our culture is that there is so much bullshit” 1. And the same is true of the wizarding world. Hermione herself observes that “a lot of great wizards haven’t got an ounce of logic” 2. The books consistently remind us that we cannot always trust the nonsense that falls out of a character’s mouth.
No wizard is this more true of than Gilderoy Lockhart. Over the course of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Lockhart positively spews nonsense. Our first introduction to him is an untruth—that Harry was interested in buying his autobiography—and from then on he speaks more falsehoods than facts.
Though Hermione proves an astute observer in the first book of the series, her bullshit detector falters when she encounter’s Gilderoy Lockhart. The normally logical and reasonable Hermione is smitten with the wizard throughout the book. And she only relents at the end of the story when his facade is literally obliterated.
She’s not alone though. As Frankfurt says, “Most people are rather confident of their ability to recognize bullshit and to avoid being taken in by it”, but “in consequence, we have no clear understanding of what bullshit is, why there is so much of it, or what functions it serves”. Confidence in our own reasoning skills leads us to underestimate bullshit’s ability to deceive.
Lies vs Bullshit
Frankfurt goes on to define bullshit by what it is definitely not: a lie. Bullshit is more similar to a factoid or, as Frankfurt says, humbug. Max Black defines humbug as, “deceptive misrepresentation, short of lying” 3. Frankfurt also states that an orator:
“would be lying only if it were his intention to bring about in his audience beliefs that he himself regards as false…what makes…oration humbug is not fundamentally that the speaker regards his statement as false. Rather…the orator intends these statements to convey a certain impression of himself. He is not trying to deceive anyone…What he cares about is what people think of him.”
Lies are precise misrepresentations from an obscured source. Bullshit is an ambiguous misrepresentation from a precise source. A liar, like a plastic surgeon, wants to carefully alter reality. A bullshitter disregards any reality other than themselves.
If I had just written an autobiography titled Magical Me, I might feel embarrassed by now.
The Dangers of Bullshit
Though the books clearly frame Lockhart as a fool—constantly putting himself in situations that uncover his misrepresentations—we should still ask, is he dangerous?
Well, as a amnesiac patient in St Mungo’s Hospital in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Lockhart is actually kind of cute and child-like. His nurse even assures Harry and his friends that Lockhart is not dangerous. He’s only a “bit of a danger to himself, bless him”4.
But as a professor and trusted defender against the Dark Arts, he is at best inept and at worst a clear danger to everyone around him. He releases Cornish pixies on a class of second years without knowing the counter-curse to subdue them. He bungles the healing of Harry’s arm after Harry breaks it. And he gives false hope to those who trust him to defeat Slytherin’s heir.
Lockhart knows his books are lies, but he doesn’t seem to realize just how incompetent his every action is! He has deluded himself into believing he is some sort of very stable genius.
Power and Bullshit
And this is the danger of Lockhart’s bullshit. He has unrealistic expectations of his own abilities, and so he seeks out and inserts himself in positions of power beyond his expertise. The more responsibility Lockhart is given, the greater danger he is. But removed from his position of power, he is harmless (to others).
Bullshit sounds like a more innocent version of a lie, but really, it destabilizes and undermines logic and reason. Its effects are indiscriminate. And though Gilderoy may have turned out to be a charming idiot, others of his ilk are not so harmless.
Tom Riddle, aka Lord Voldemort, uses a campaign of ‘blood purity’ to bring chaos to Britain, but he himself constantly makes exceptions based on self interest. Tom Riddle does not actually care about blood purity, he cares about immortality. The rhetoric of blood purity is a means to an end.
Tom Riddle intends his rhetoric to convey a certain impression of himself. He is not trying to deceive anyone. What he cares about is what people think of him.
Boy, that sounds familiar.
- Frankfurt, Harry | “On Bullshit” | Raritan Quarterly Review | 1986
- Rowling, JK | Chapter 16: “Through the Trapdoor” | Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone | 1997
- Black, Max | “The Prevalence of Humbug” | Philosophic Exchange | 1982
- Rowling, JK | Chapter 23: “Christmas on the Closed Ward” | Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix | 2003