The Goody Bandit

Thoughts on the Ollivander-Voldemort principle

So often I find myself referring to what I like to call the Ollivander-Voldemort principle; you know, that moment in Sorcerer’s/Philosopher’s Stone where Mr. Ollivander tells Harry that Voldemort did great things? Terrible, terrible things, yes! But great. Remember that?

I bring this up because once again, science fiction has done what, I believe, it ultimately sets out to do: strike both awe and terror into the hearts of its readers. Mind you, I haven’t even finished the book yet (The Games by Ted Kosmatka, in case you’re wondering, and it’s great) but I’m already in love with the way I know I’m going to (barring any further plot twists) feel about human life at the end of it.

Without spoilers, let me try and explain myself. There’s a moment in this novel where a new-age power company is attempting to get their power grids working again after a catastrophe. (Seriously, it’s sci-fi. There’s going. to. be. a. catastrophe. That’s in no way a spoiler.) And the wording of the scene ends with the idea that slowly, they were winning back the power from whatever it was that was sucking it away. And it occurred to me that humans are in fact, incredible. Not to take the “we’re the greatest species!” stance, because we have a vast amount of flaws, but in that moment I just really appreciated how far we’ve come as humanity, and observed our accomplishments. Honestly, the amount of control we have been able to take over simple things like light and electricity, while it may be scary, is incredible. This thought then led me to thinking “City planners are brilliant.” 

I remember when I used to be crazy for the TV show NUMB3RS (which was SO GOOD and I wish I still watched it/had time to do so/knew if it was even on anymore) and the main characters’ father was a city planner. And he was super helpful in stopping a bunch of people from being killed in a bombing in one episode. But think about that. He was a city planner. He PLANNED A CITY. He designed it so it could function. Where power lines went, where piping ran, how streets maneuvered so people could get places with ease. That takes some skill, I think. And we as a species have harnessed the ability to learn material and skills to the point where we can take knowledge and apply it and build, create, and run impossible things. Marvelously, brilliantly, stunning things. Like cities, and nations, and industries.

And now I know what the Doctor sees in us. (YES, this is a Doctor Who reference but I promise I’ll make it understandable, and if you’re annoyed about it, just skip this paragraph.) I think I understand a little better why RTD and Moffat give the Doctor the lines they do in the show; why he spends so much time on Earth; why he takes a human companion on his journeys. He’s fascinated by humans because he should be. He says in one episode how humans look like giants to him, and in another how we spend so much time thinking about how we’re going to be wiped out in small, insignificant ways that we don’t stop to consider what happens if we survive. That we might survive. We. are. amazing. Scary and amazing that we’ve got a hook on what the world is doing right up to the second, the hour, the day. We’ve created an age that people of the past couldn’t even dream of (which of course can be said for any point in history, but you get the point.) Humans have built such control over things, and each other, and life. We’ve done so much with life, so much with our minds, and I was always impressed that the Doctor could see that greatness in us, particularly since the show airs in a time where there’s an incredible amount of global conflict and unrest and I have a hard time seeing such myself. But Doctor really does believe in us humans; and I think after reading this book, I kinda do too.