GOF Chapter 3: The Invitation

[oryx_leucoryx]

This is the obligatory Dursley chapter, in which we are treated to the home life of this family and learn how inferior they are to wizard families.

Dudley takes up a whole side of the square kitchen table. Ahem, I doubt a square kitchen table (as opposed to a dining room table) was designed to seat 8 people, 2 on a side. His parents excuse away his teachers' accusations of bullying. As opposed to the Weasleys who never receive reports making such heinous accusations against the twins (we'll see the school does occasionally owl their parents, but I don't see any awareness that some of what the twins do is bullying behavior). (This starts the theme of parents dealing with wayward sons in this book.) Dudley is forced into a diet of fruit and vegetables rather than his favorites. From the descriptions we get of the food Harry eats at Hogwarts I get the feeling Harry's favorites are closer to Dudley's than to the health foods, nor does he limit his intake. But somehow Harry remains thin, regardless of whether he gets starved by Petunia or stuffed by Molly or the House-elves.

Changing the food choices of the entire family is a good thing! However adjusting Harry's serving size to Dudley's (perceived?) emotional needs isn't. I don't begrudge Harry for working around a diet he doesn't need, but then I also sympathize with Dudley who does. Changing eating habits of years is hard.
This is also the place to say Dudley must have grown up as an emotional wreck. Knowing that his parents were capable of such physical and emotional deprivation of someone in their care - what if he ever failed to please them? I think a big part of his misbehavior is both making sure his parents know he *isn't* Harry as well as wanting the reassurance that they still love him, no matter what anyone else thinks.

Of Harry's 4 sources of help only one sends food he appreciates. Odd that even Hagrid managed to send an edible birthday cake. But how edible is it (or any of the others) 3 weeks later?

Harry is surprised that the Weasleys wrote directly to the Dursleys. Vernon is embarrassed that they didn't know how many stamps to use. But really, how hard is it to find out? Didn't they go to the post office to buy the stamps? What does it say about the exchange rate between Galleons and pounds that a family so poor finds it reasonable to spend on so many stamps for one letter? Molly's letter sounds as if she is trying too hard to make the Quidditch World Cup sound special and to make Arthur sound important. And of course she doesn't have enough imagination to realize that sending a letter by owl isn't normal for the Dursleys.

Harry is offended on Molly's behalf when Vernon calls her 'dumpy'. Since Molly likes Harry nobody is allowed to notice she is overweight.

I must say that the scene where Harry threatens Vernon with Sirius looks a lot less humorous now that I have seen Harry enjoy torturing a man for punishment, and Sirius engaging in Muggle-baiting.

If I am correct in my understanding that Ron is claiming that he and Molly wrote their respective letters at about the same time, then I am impressed with the UK post. Molly's letter arrived on Saturday morning. Pig arrived the same morning. Considering the speed of owls elsewhere, it looks as though Ron's letter was sent earlier that morning. So a letter got delivered the morning it was sent?

I am less impressed with the Weasleys. They plan on taking Harry regardless of the Dursleys' consent. One could argue that eventually Molly and Arthur realized their sons were not exaggerating when they said Harry had been imprisoned and starved, but seeing how Arthur views the treatment of Muggles, both in this book and in COS, I doubt this made a difference.

Harry is happy specifically because Dudley is suffering and he isn't. The seeds of the bully of HBP and war criminal of DH.

Comments

[condwiramurs.livejournal.com]

He was cheating. He took credit for the work of another. It's made clear in the text that his actual skills have not improved, he's merely following better recipes.

[mage-989.livejournal.com]

He was cheating. He took credit for the work of another. It's made clear in the text that his actual skills have not improved, he's merely following better recipes.

Hooray! *throws confetti* I'm not the only one who noticed this. I couldn't believe we as an audience were supposed to sympathize with a character who would do such things, along with every other loathsome act Harry was performing in HBP. And I was frankly amazed, of course with the hindsight of DH I don't why I should have been, that Harry was never called on this academic dishonesty.

[condwiramurs.livejournal.com]

It's fairly clear by now that Rowling's opinion of academia in general and everything to do with it is not particularly high. Either she doesn't realize that Harry is in fact a plagiarist here, or she doesn't really care because it's school, stupid rules for Harry to break in order to get ahead.

Plus it's Snape's work, so he probably deserves to have Harry steal it all and give no credit. He's the horrible no-good very bad man whose whole life has been about making Harry miserable and was a bad sort back even back then, Harry *deserves* to use his work! /sarcasm switch off

[madderbrad.livejournal.com]

Well, I've seen arguments both ways. But ultimately I guess you're right; using the 'recipes' in the Prince's book probably wasn't cheating - not really different from Hermione's library research - but accepting Slughorn's misplaced admiration for being the originator of those recipes was certainly *dishonest*, if not cheating. Hmmm ...

I don't think it was strictly cheating; Slughorn obviously wasn't forcing students to be constrained to the standard textbook recipes. So Hermione, say, could have found better books in the library. Just like Harry happened to have a book with superior instructions.

No, I don't think it was 'cheating'. But Harry was most certainly dishonest in accepting the misguided praise for being the one who had the talent to devise his superior recipes.

[oryx_leucoryx]

If at least he could have shown some kind of understanding. 'Hey, I realize why he did it that way, it's because of how ingredient X behaves under acidic conditions.' This of course should lead to experimentation of his own: 'Next week's potion also has some acidic components. Would adding X make the brewing more efficient/ the product more stable /whatever?' But he just tries the other instructions once when the regular ones aren't working well for him, the modification works, so he follows the modified instructions whenever he finds any. He just decided the Prince was a trusted source and followed him blindly.

[madderbrad.livejournal.com]

Yep, Harry's stupidity - or lack of any real intelligence - was a real downer for me in trying to feel empathy for the 'hero' of the series. It's no wonder I prefer Hermione.

He just decided the Prince was a trusted source and followed him blindly.

Harry seemed to follow everyone blindly; is that fair? I guess his losing faith in Dumbledore in the last novel would have been much more of a shock if the plot hadn't been so muddled and contrived.

Harry as a hero

[urbanman1984.livejournal.com]

In the early books Harry was in one respect, charming and modest as boys go, but at the same time, he was empty and superficial. That's why he sometimes seemed really self-centred and sullen. He did not turn nasty until HBP, but by then JKR had shown a total inability to write consistently and the lack of any editing to the series was really showing!

How on Earth did you prefer Hermione? Ever? She was always an abomination. Clearly even in Philosopher's Stone, the only justification for her being promoted by authorial fiat to being a main character was if she was going to suffer some really horrible fate somewhere down the line.

Re: Harry as a hero

[madderbrad.livejournal.com]

Harry wasn't that bad in the early books; because he was so young we could cut him some slack, maybe. And as a total newcomer to the wizarding world a certain measure of 'passivity' - viz your 'empty and superficial' - could be accepted.

But then when Rowling tried to have him grow up, become a serious 'Chosen One' and 'hero', those traits became more irksome.

How on Earth did you prefer Hermione? Ever? She was always an abomination.

*gak*

Hey, urbanman1984, I'm a friendly bloke, I see your birthday is in May and you live in London ... if you tell me your home address I'd like to send you a birthday card, would that be all right?

*starts looking for 'bomb, nuclear' on EBay ...*

Hermione is THE BEST CHARACTER IN THE SERIES! No, really. Anyway, I've answered your question already in my LJ blog, here (http://madderbrad.livejournal.com/3255.html#cutid1). And there's a followup here (http://madderbrad.livejournal.com/3643.html#cutid1) to complete your education into the magnificence that is Hermione Granger!

Re: Harry as a hero

[charlottehywd.livejournal.com]

You know, I originally loved Hermione, but eventually I grew up and began to see her as an obnoxious know-it-all rather than the clever, interesting girl I originally mistook her for. That and I think the fact that she pretty much mind-rapes her parents in DH is what killed any of the remaining love I had for her.

[oryx_leucoryx]

Not in class. But after class? He had the original instructions, the corrected version and 5+ years of writing essays about ingredients, their properties and uses. While I don't expect him to be able to *invent* the modifications from scratch he should be able to connect the dots at least some of the time.

[condwiramurs.livejournal.com]

I'm not saying that using recipes other than the basic textbook ones was cheating, I'm specifically saying that his *taking credit* for them was. Just like turning in answers on a test that you got from your friend or by looking at your neighbor's work or reading a copy of the answers from a previous student without the teacher knowing would be cheating. He is pretending to have done work he did not do and earning grades based upon that work rather than work that he himself is capable of accomplishing on his own. That is more than dishonest, it is plagiarism and any accredited school one can name would consider it a form of cheating.

It would be like research, and fine, had he shown the book to Slughorn and been clear that his results were at least in part due to the work of the previous owner. (And one key difference between the Prince's work and the books in the library is that the latter are known and publicly available for all to use and for the professor to check, whereas the Prince's work is known only to himself and Harry; it's not part of the accepted and known body of knowledge but is new creative work.) Then he would not be receiving *academic credit* for work that he himself *did not do* (the majority of the work, and the difference in his grade, being due to the Prince's experimentation, which Harry blindly takes over instead of even attempting to *understand* so that he could apply the underlying principles to potions.)

[madderbrad.livejournal.com]

If Harry's grades were higher because of Slughorn awarding credit for the Prince's recipes then I agree, that would be 'cheating'. I'm not sure that's the case; well, it never came across like that to me. Although what you're saying makes perfect sense.

As I think about it, though, there were clear cases of Harry *hiding* the Prince's book from Slughorn, weren't there? Which means that Harry knew it was 'wrong'.

While I don't think it's perfectly clear cut I can certainly see your point (and have drifted closer to it :-)). I just wish we saw an example of Harry's receiving that 'academic credit' for the *content* of the recipes he followed. He was Slughorn's favourite and presumably top of the class because he produced superior potions; I never saw anything concrete regarding the 'rules' of what the students could or could not do in brewing those potions.

[condwiramurs.livejournal.com]

He produces those superior potions because of and only because of the Prince's recipes! He has not learned anything new about potions in general that would enable him to create those same potions on his own; it's pointed out IIRC that he *can't* do the same level of work when he has to hide the book. Had he never had it he would never therefore have achieved the grades in Slughorn's class that he did.

So he *is* getting credit for the Prince's recipes (he is getting credit for better potions, which is made possible only through the Prince's work), just in the form of the brewed potion not the text. (And that is what I meant: I didn't mean credit specifically for the written form of the recipes, but for product as a whole, for producing a potion brewed according to a recipe whether textbook or one's own experimentation with it.)

The *content* of those recipes is precisely what he is getting graded on and what he takes credit for: the improved potion that the better recipe enables one to brew. And that is precisely what he did not create and what he cannot recreate on his own. The understanding of the subject matter and creative application of that knowledge was the Prince's; the learning and creative work was the Prince's; Harry was just the hands that brewed the potion, but he pretended to be *responsible* for making whatever alterations to the class's recipe that enabled him to produce a superior potion even though he did not materially contribute to the work that made the superior potion *possible* and did not even understand *why* it worked better.

I'm sorry, but that is cheating.

[mary-j-59.livejournal.com]

Well - we did. He won the Felis Felicis by composing Draught of Living Death from the Prince's book. Had he not used young Sev's recipe, he would not have won.

[madderbrad.livejournal.com]

Had he not used young Sev's recipe, he would not have won.

Right. But it's not clear to me that Harry's victory was against the rules.

Slughorn: Whoever brews the best potion wins!

Harry: [uses Snape's instructions]

Slughorn: Harry's potion is the best, Harry wins!

Nothing there about "you can only use the textbook", etc.

Sure, over time it's clear that Slughorn is assuming that Harry's a potions genius ... and it's also clear that Harry is sly and dishonest in allowing him to form that impression. Harry hides the book from Slughorn's sight (I'm pretty sure that's the case, right?), he never owns up to the source of his brilliance.

I just can't see that there's a hard and fast 'rule' in the Potions class that constrains the students from using any and all resources to brew their potions. If Hermione had found a superior textbook in the library and brought it in, wouldn't things have gone like this?

Slughorn: I'll be awarding marks on the quality of your potions!

Hermione: [uses library book's superior instructions]

Slughorn: Hermione, your potion is the best, you get top marks!!

Slughorn: Oh, by the way, how did you do it?

That's how it seemed to me when I read the book. I'm in full agreement that Harry is dishonest, disingenuous in allowing Slughorn to hold him to be a potions whiz, et cetera. I just don't think he's technically cheating.

[condwiramurs.livejournal.com]

Ah. I see where the source of disagreement here might lie. You're taking 'cheating' in terms of whether or not Harry is following a certain set of rules pertaining specifically to the contest that Slughorn stated, it seems to me. Whereas I and mary are considering it more broadly, in terms of the context of school in general and what is acceptable academic behavior.

You are correct that nowhere in the text does Slughorn say "you aren't allowed to use any recipe but the textbook" or some such thing. But that's not the ground on which we are critiquing Harry as having cheated. The contest is held as part of a lesson, in an academic context. It therefore seems to me obvious that all of the normal academic rules apply to it whether explicitly stated or not. Nothing in the books indicates that the need to be intellectually honest about where one gets information helping with the work one earns grades for (as well as special prizes like in the contest) is so very different in the WW as in ours that claiming that someone else's work is you own isn't considered cheating in that broad sense. It seems to me that their concept of schooling is close enough to ours that doing that would be considered cheating academically. (And going to the library would be cheating in this sense also *if* Hermione did not specify where she got the information she used, but claimed she came up with it herself. THAT is where the difference between this sort of cheating, formally known as plagiarism, as research lies.)

The other key issue that pertains more directly to the contest is the fact that none of the other students have access to the Prince's recipes (because he keeps the book secret instead of saying it's not his own work), whereas they all have access to the information in the library if they want it. That is an unfair advantage on Harry's part specifically in regard to the contest. Consider if your scenario above went all the way to Slughorn asking Harry how he did it: he can't answer honestly without revealing the fact that he had an unfair advantage over everyone else and kept it secret, tilting the playing field in his favor from the start.

He did not keep the playing field even going into the contest, and by the understood rules of every contest I've ever encountered that is certainly cheating even in the narrower sense you mean the term in.

[condwiramurs.livejournal.com]

I'm a little taken aback at the hostility I perceive in your first line, since I've no clue what I've done to you to provoke it. Just because we don't agree doesn't mean you aren't welcome to share your opinion; this is an open forum. We'll just have to agree to disagree on whether or not it is cheating.

And no-one has stated that his cheating is *equivalent* to war actions, so please don't set up that straw man. We (or I at least) simply don't see why the fact that a war was going on excuses what I and others see as an ethical violation that is completely unrelated to the war. The war does not change the nature of his action, it does not create a necessity for it, and it does not excuse it. Nor does it mean that we shouldn't interrogate the ethical status of actions taken during it no matter how small or unrelated; it's all part of Harry's character, which is among the subjects up for debate here. There's my opinion whatever you think of it.

[cured4life.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure how Harry's work in school relates to any war effort. however, I will say the "little" things give us clues as to the ethics of individuals.

[seductivedark.livejournal.com]

If Harry had cited his work, it would not have been cheating. Harry did not cite his work. He allowed Slughorn to believe that he came up with it on his own. The penalty for academic dishonesty is a re-do of the class and a wiping of the grades for that class at the least, expulsion and a permanent mark on one's academic record at a more extreme end. You said you teach. Would you allow your students to use someone else's academic work and pass it off as their own?

[mary-j-59.livejournal.com]

Yes. I agree with you completely, as you know - I have an essay on this on my livejournal.

[condwiramurs.livejournal.com]

Yes, I probably ought to link to it! I haven't commented nearly enough on your essays, but they've been very thought-provoking for me.

The essay:

here (http://mary-j-59.livejournal.com/4720.html)