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ONE OF THE ALL-TOO-EASY SPELLS PERFORMED BY HARRY POTTER AND HIS pals consists of saying the word, "Riddikulus." Aside from the odd fact that misspelling seems to make ordinary language magical, this spell indicates something important about the fantastic nature of ridicule. The usefulness of the spell is to combat boggarts, which in J. K. Rowling's invented universe gain power by taking the form of whatever one fears the most. That has always been one of the functions of the non-magical version of "riddikulus": to puncture pretense and avert intimidation. Ridicule can be a weapon against tyranny, useful when it shrinks bullies down to manageable size. Yet like most spells, it can be turned to evil purposes, when people in power use it to bully and abuse those deemed weaker. What is the counterspell in those cases? Rowling does not tell us.
For some readers, all forms of the fantastic are ridiculous, meaning strange, baffling, and useless. For others, the ridiculous is one of the strategies by which fantastic narratives unveil hidden patterns and meanings in the ordinary world. There are many such strategies, including literalized metaphor, sciencefictional extrapolation, Utopian speculation, and glimpses of the numinous - and any of these can be combined with the ridiculous to compound the effect. (I personally think more Utopian novels could use a touch of silliness.) One version of the ridiculous is Bakhtin's carnivalesque: the festival of the body and the bawdy that uncorks society's repressions. Another is parody, which can take on a life beyond that of its ostensible target, as in Terry Pratchett's endlessly inventive, self-reflexive fantasies of...