Re-re-read in advance of The Golden Enclaves, September 2022
Knowing now what I know about how this book is actually a semi-subversive (and by which I mean not at all subversive, was I just under a rock this whole while?) pushback on JKR’s Wizarding World(TM), it’s doubly fascinating to re-re-enter the world of the Scholomance through the eyes of El, our crotchety crocheting evil enchantress in the making.
I had read once that Novik wrote Scholomance in a response to the logical inconsistencies of the Potterverse, like how if wizards are the biggest asset you can produce why isn’t everyone like the Weasley family, generating as many wizarding footsoldiers as humanly possible? And sure, it’s not like that question isn’t posed and answered in its own way by this book…it’s just that the real question, the real pushback is against the morality of not only the Potterworld but our world as well. If magic exists, then, well, why does extreme poverty? If one of the five principal exemptions to Gamp’s Laws is that food can be multiplied (but not created out of nothing) (nevermind that multiplying food is, by definition, the same thing as creating more food out of nothing…) then why not just…multiply food in areas with food scarcity? Are wizards that busy, dunno, enchanting teapots to squirt hot water at Muggles to fix some of the ills that plague humanity?
So at least in the world of the Scholomance some of that is settled by the default danger presented by the world at large–which is to say, the world is murderous, constantly, and the only thing that prevents you from being murdered is CONSTANT VIGILANCE. Or sequestering yourself behind magical walls made of secrets and privilege. If the former is so very, very exhausting, and a single lapse will most certainly lead to your death, is it so very bad to join a sequester?
It’s the question that basically will endlessly haunt El during her time at the Scholomance, and unlock a mystery that goes so, so much deeper than we’d ever know after this tidy novel (with an excellent ending surpassed only by…That Ending).
re-read September 2022 in advance of The Golden Enclaves: I think this book remains my favorite out of the three, now that I’ve finished all of them and done all my digesting with friends.
There’s something about the enforced claustrophobia of these boarding school of magic genre of books–even in a wide ranging adventure series like His Dark Materials, my favorite segments are always those that take place in a small setting (e.g., the cave with Lyra and her mother). Here, in El’s last year of survival school, the stage has been set for her to unravel the mystery at the core of the Scholomance. Why is it that the school is constantly murdering students it’s meant to protect? And was the sacrifice of last year worth it? Did they manage to turn on the fire and blast away all the mals?
Casting the Scholomance as its own character, who “speaks” to El via class schedules, maintenance issues, and general (what seems like) jerkiness, is probably Novik’s greatest stroke of genius. Hogwarts might have been a place we all wanted to go, but it was never more than a setting for which to have adventures. Here, the school itself has an agenda and (mild spoiler) is more than what it seems. After all, there’s nothing more interesting than a redeemed villain, is there?
