Philosopher's Stone Chapter Seven
Aug. 23rd, 2010 09:14 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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The Sorting Hat
*McGonagall is in emerald green. Nothing to do with Slytherin. It is in memory of Lily Sue.
*The Entrance Hall is bigger than Number Four Privet Drive, but that may be worked out according to the rules of JKR arithmetic :o
*Hogwarts is all marble and gold until you get down to the Slytherin and Hufflepuff nether regions! Who could plumb those depths?
*Each house is like Hogwarts extended family! Ermm JKR’s ideas about family can be pretty twisted so best not to say more. But rest assured that from this day onwards, these eleven year olds will be exalted, condemned or dismissed as insignificant for the rest of their lives. To paraphrase the Dumblesnore from the Very Potter Musical: “basically I’ve been putting everyone who looks like a good guy in Gryffindor, everyone who looks like a bad guy in Slytherin and the rest can do whatever they want, I don’t care...”
*That McGonagall tries to seem impartial about the merits of each house shows why Dumblesnore would never have allowed her to introduce little Harry to the magical world.
*The points system is really strange and arbitrary as we will see. It’s appropriate that the House cup will no longer seem to matter to anyone after Prisoner of Azkaban.
*Ron doesn’t know about the Sorting Ceremony despite having five brothers who have been through it! What sort of a household are the Weasleys that they let him think it really involves wrestling a troll/something painful?
*Ugh! Can’t Hermione ever be silenced? You know in the sense I mean.
*A pretty neat piece of magic to turn a teacher’s wig blue. I wonder why the school blamed Harry for it.
*No one, including those from magical households, seems prepared for the arrival of ghosts.
*The Fat Friar recognises that the kids must be new pupils – Nick doesn’t it would seem – and wishes they all get sorted into Hufflepuff! So he wants them all to be consigned to the scrap heap of history? How would Ginny 2.0 have reacted to that aspersion? Can the bat bogey hex be cast on a ghost?
*The sandy haired boy currently has no name, but he will eventually rise to the status of local colour/ background noise and tired stereotype.
*Oh shut up Hermione, you’re ruining the moment of our marvelling at the ceiling.
*The sorting hat fits a stereotypical template. It is always dirty no matter what, just as Tom the Barman is always a gummy walnut who never changes, Filch is always in the same state of decrepitude unchanging as the years go by.
*The Sorting Hat Song: Certainly “nerve” and “chivalry” are what one should always expect from eleven year olds...! For crying out loud...
*Hufflepuff here is defined by being just and loyal and industrious and in Order of the Phoenix it will be clarified that JKR considers this to be the dump house ie that these qualities are completely worthless in her opinion.
*It may be most instructive if the Hat just made it clear that Gryffindor house is the elect and no one else matters. So it should just define Gryffindor and only Gryffindor with a rhyme of this kind:
“They’re the elect!
The select!
They rule while the rest all drool.”
Concise no? But maybe not great verse!
*Those kids who are now going into Hufflepuff or Ravenclaw are being dismissed as non-entities by all and sundry.
*Bulstrode however is damned forever. Here, Harry is still too polite to point out to the reader that she is monstrously ugly. In the Potterverse you can tell right away that if anyone’s physical appearance is described as unfavourably as hers is, then they are a designated villain.
*OK, how on Earth does Hermione get sorted into Gryffindor? It really does make the existence of Ravenclaw House completely pointless. I suppose she must be JKR’s self-insert at this point who gets to be one of the elect by authorial fiat.
*Poor Neville will be the resident comical buffoon for some years to come.
*Malfoy gets sorted into Slytherin instantaneously. It is the most telling sign that he is the *designated* local villain.
*Well Hagrid’s scare tactics about Slytherin House work as Dumblesnore expected. The Hat can see that although Harry’s head is largely empty it does at least complain a shard of Slytherin mystique so he could be best suited to the house. But it just does what the author wants it to in the end.
*Yes Fred and George you’ve got Potter... um, yay? Percy will come to regret shaking his hand eventually. He’ll become a designated villain through not being a Potter fanboy.
*Wow, Hagrid was still sober for Harry’s sorting! That deserves a double thumbs up of and in itself.
*Voldemort and Quirrell are as inconspicuous as they are in A Very Potter Musical. An idea typical of the Dark Lord we see in Deathly Hallows – dumping a sheet over himself and he is concealed, not realising the Machiavellian Dumblesnore knew all about his presence at Hogwarts all along.
*I wonder what the Weasleys would have done if Ron had not been sorted into Gryffindor? I’m betting none of them would have congratulated him then. In fact, Percy seems to be the only one who does congratulate him for successfully being on of the Elect. For the rest it was just something they expected and demanded of him. The anticipation made Ron “pale green.” Wonderful system, this Sorting isn’t it? Putting so much pressure on eleven year olds and passing final judgement on them for all their achievements to date as if they have already lived the prime of their lives...
* Dumblesnore’s not pleased to see all the kids, he’s only pleased to see that Harry is in his house and ready to be fattened up like a pig for the slaughter.
* Great speech Dumblesnore. It’s more informative than some of your monologues that last pages.
*Dumblesnore already knows all about Harry’s frugal childhood and delights in it. Truly Hogwarts is the closest thing Harry has to a home and it is both Voldemort AND Dumbledore between them who have contrived it.
*Ah this newer UK edition has also *belatedly* caught JKR’s special arithmetic where she wrote that Nick had been dead for nearly four hundred years when his Deathday was actually 499 years ago. The UK edition now reads, “I haven’t eaten for nearly five hundred years.”
*Sir Nicholas de Mimsy Porpington is a name that indicates another of JKR’s tired stereotypes, this time of the old aristocracy.
*Nick is a true Gryffindor! He enjoys showing off physical injury. He should have a story of recklessness to go with it.
*Slytherin have been on a winning streak in the pointless house cup for a while now. Since point scoring and deductions is so arbitrary it must be down to sheer luck!
*Harry only notices the ghost because Draco Malfoy is next to him. The Bloody Baron would be utterly forgettable otherwise, but Malfoy has conferred some kind of distinction on him. Malfoy certainly holds a fascination for Harry... How much has Harry stared at him since the Sorting?
*Just as well you didn’t ask the Baron why he is bloodied Nick, his backstory is pointless and really uninspired.
*Harry will always love treacle. Good to know there are some consistent points in the Potterverse :p
*I expect Mr Finnigan was shocked to learn that his wife was entitled to braindamage/mindwipe him with complete impunity as soon as she felt so inclined.
*Neville doesn’t mention he is pureblooded here, but perhaps JKR hadn’t thought out his background yet. Here she seems to be trying to make the magical world a larger than life place where it is acceptable to dangle kids out of windows in the manner of Michael Jackson, but she gives up on that approach after the first book. However, the series still gets progressively more bizarre as it goes on.
*Hermione is particularly interested in how to cause brain damage and permanent disfigurement using magic. Not about turning matches into needles!
*I wonder what Voldemort was thinking when Harry felt his scar twinge? He was probably thinking how uncomfortable the silly turban was.
*Dumblesnore acknowledges that there are a lot of death traps set up around Hogwarts. They each pose a high risk of some terrible mishap or other. And to think some have doubted that Dumbledore is a Gryffindor! What’s the fun in life without pointless risk?
*Oh oh, it’s the school song. Does JKR really want it acknowledged in fanfics that it was her creation?
*I wonder if any Slytherins would join in the school song?
*Fred and George fawning before Dumbledore is excruciating. As if the old coot deserves to be humoured...
*Dumbledore is probably tone deaf.
*Enter Peeves. JKR likens him to a chronic plumbing problem, but has also says he is an indestructible spirit of chaos that entered the castle and cannot be eradicated. Still at least he presents an extra risk for the Gryffindors, they ought to be happy.
*There is never any reason given as to why Peeves is so afraid of the Bloody Baron. I suppose when JKR was starting the series it seemed to make sense in that a poltergeist resembles a ghost and the Baron was the scariest ghost, but the Baron is completely deconstructed in Deathly Hallows by his lame backstory.
*Harry dreams about Malfoy and Snape until Voldemort intrudes on the dream and makes it a nightmare. Is Malfoy or Snape the dreamier one?
*It is of course impossible to transfer to another house. The decision of an old hat on that evening when you are eleven decides your destiny irrevocably.
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no subject
Date: 2010-08-23 08:58 pm (UTC)That's true; I was quite underwhelmed by that latest in deus ex machina factoids that just happened to be available when Harry needed it, where he asks the Gray Lady about the diadem.
And the reactions of the pureblood children to Hogwarts - Ron's ignorance of the sorting ceremony, the ghosts, etc - seems unauthentic too.
no subject
Date: 2010-08-23 09:00 pm (UTC)Well, she wouldn't want anyone to think that she disagrees with Draco.
no subject
Date: 2010-08-23 09:03 pm (UTC)Well, of reckless incompetence. There was originaly a song which an editor mercifully cut. Relating how he was executed for practicing dentistry without either training or any idea of what he was doing.
Editing
Date: 2010-08-23 09:06 pm (UTC)Re: Editing
Date: 2010-08-23 09:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-23 10:56 pm (UTC)Poor Percy. He doesn't 100% approve of Dumbledore when he praises his intellect but notes he's also a bit mad, which foreshadows his future as a toady who mindlessly obeys authority figures and betrays Team Dumbledore instead of deciding what's right for himself. Somehow. Honest. It does not at all show that maybe he was thinking all along and decided Team Dumbledore was way dodgier than the Ministry on average, or that he might have been right, or that at the very least Dumbledore gave no good reason to believe his outrageous version of events. (A dead Dark Lord and another dead guy used a third dead guy to infiltrate Hogwarts to rig a sporting contest to resurrect the Dark Lord and wtf seriously? They expect anyone to believe this without evidence?) Being helpful and answering the new Muggleborn kids' questions must be a sign of weakness.
no subject
Date: 2010-08-24 01:19 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-24 01:21 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-24 01:22 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-24 01:36 am (UTC)Ravenclaws learn things because they find them interesting (and may not bother with things they don't). Hermione studies to stand out, show off and keep Harry out of trouble. All Gryffindor reasons.
*Ah this newer UK edition has also *belatedly* caught JKR’s special arithmetic where she wrote that Nick had been dead for nearly four hundred years when his Deathday was actually 499 years ago. The UK edition now reads, “I haven’t eaten for nearly five hundred years.”
Do you have new editions for all books? I have heard that a newer edition of POA has Sirius state Voldemort was 'in hiding' for 12 years rather than 15 it says in my edition. What about the 16 years of information about Dumbledore that Severus claims to have provided in chapter 2 of HBP?
*I expect Mr Finnigan was shocked to learn that his wife was entitled to braindamage/mindwipe him with complete impunity as soon as she felt so inclined.
This is also the last mention of Seamus' father in the series. His mother takes him to the world cup, reads the Daily Prophet and comes to Dumbles' funeral. I wonder what became of Mr Finnigan. Does he still remember his name?
Neville doesn’t mention he is pureblooded here, but perhaps JKR hadn’t thought out his background yet.
She also has yet to invent the word 'Squib', which is why Neville says his family members thought he was all-Muggle. There were theories about his family being mixed based on his line here.
no subject
Date: 2010-08-24 02:24 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-24 03:46 am (UTC)I have a 2004 Raincoast (Canadian) ed. of POA and it's corrected there.
Voldie's 12 yrs in hiding and Snape's 16 yrs of spying aren't quite the same. Voldie 'hides' from Halloween 1981 until Harry's first year and Snape is referring to spying from the time he overheard the prophecy (1979 or 80) until Voldie's return in the spring of 1995.
no subject
Date: 2010-08-24 05:41 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-24 06:19 am (UTC)Really, I wish she would just leave well enough alone. Every time she tries to 'correct' something it jut makes the issue even muddier. *sigh*
House Values
Date: 2010-08-24 12:09 pm (UTC)Re: Editing
Date: 2010-08-24 02:17 pm (UTC)Wait, what? Surely not even JK Rowling could come up with such a silly idea as that...
no subject
Date: 2010-08-24 02:48 pm (UTC)Re: House Values
Date: 2010-08-24 02:50 pm (UTC)Re: House Values
Date: 2010-08-24 02:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-24 03:07 pm (UTC)I like it when an author lives up to her own values. You certainly couldn't blame her for justice or hard work where the last books are concerned...
Putting so much pressure on eleven year olds and passing final judgement on them for all their achievements to date as if they have already lived the prime of their lives...
Oh no, that is just the point. With JKR it never matters what you DO (or have done) but what you ARE. Naturally, that can be assessed when you are eleven years old. In fact, it could probably be assessed directly after birth. It's like a test for blood groups.
If one tries to keep a little less Aunt Margey ("blood will tell!") but a bit more realistic (i.e. not assuming a person is ready made by his/ her genes), one might argue the fact that most children end up in their parents' house was due to the fact that at eleven, they are still strongly influenced by them (especially if you think of them being homeschooled and practically cloistered as the oh so open-minded Weaselys brought up theirs).
Re: Editing
Date: 2010-08-24 04:31 pm (UTC)Re: House Values
Date: 2010-08-24 04:33 pm (UTC)Re: House Values
Date: 2010-08-24 05:09 pm (UTC)Re: House Values
Date: 2010-08-24 06:40 pm (UTC)Well, there's the top, and then there's the *very* top. Think of ambitious nobles wanting to be king, unsatisfied with their current position.
Except, of course, *that* isn't what we see, either. If Slytherin equaled ambitious nobles striving for the *very* top, you'd see conflict among Slytherins. Possibly more conflict among Slytherins than we'd see them conflicting with the other houses, since the other houses would have (fewer) aristocrats, and the non-aristocrats wouldn't be worth competing with. Instead, we see a pretty united front of Slytherins against the other houses, or at least against Gryffindor.
Well, maybe that's a sign that Gryffindor has the rest of the aristocrats, and that Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff are the common folk. (shrug!) But you'd still expect more conflict between Slytherins.
And you wouldn't expect a Dark Lord to turn to that house for loyal followers, either.
Re: House Values
Date: 2010-08-24 06:44 pm (UTC)