(no subject)

[ladyhadhafang.livejournal.com]

Am I the only one a little bothered by Dumbledore? Not only with the fact he could end up in the Guinness Book Of World Records for "Most Incompetent Headmaster of All Time" (though I'm sure there's worse. :P), but also because...he just bugs me. I know JKR was trying to write him as the "flawed Yoda", so to speak (and to be fair, he's nowhere near Yoda. XD), but it's also how...preachy he gets. Towards Fudge, for example. You know, in Goblet of Fire, with, "You place too much importance on purity of blood, yadda yadda et cetera et cetera" -- which considering how he treated Tom Riddle and the Slytherins is...slightly hypocritical isn't it? Probably bad writing on JKR's part, though. :/

Anyways, sorry 'bout the rambling. Thoughts?

Comments

Re: Why Lily Was Not an Oppressed Minority, Part 2

[oneandthetruth.livejournal.com]

Yes, but the problem is that Lily and Severus literally can't go to another school. As far as we know, Hogwarts is the only wizarding school in Britain. If they wanted to go somewhere else to learn magic, they'd have to go abroad. So, Snape doesn't have a way out to escape the bullying at school and Lily can't go to another school where blood purity isn't an issue.

But you are right; Severus seems much more trapped than Lily does.

I'm not talking about Hogwarts specifically, but the wizarding world as a whole. I used the simile of a school and bullying because the total number of magicals in Britain is about the same as the number of students at a medium-sized college or university, and the small number of bad guys resembles a group of bullies or a particularly hateful fraternity rather than a real-life terrorist group. When I said, "Leave the school if you don't like the bullying," I meant "Leave wizarding society behind if you feel they're threatening you." Lily can do that after graduating Hogwarts.

And much as I like Snape, I didn't mention him or the Slytherins in either of my posts.

My overarching point about Lily is that she's a white Baby Boomer, and so am I. I'm really tired of people who aren't either of those things telling me they understand her character better than I do, or holding her up as some kind of heroine of the struggle for minority rights when the only thing she seems to have struggled for was to get herself the cushiest life possible ASAP. There's nothing wrong with that, but it doesn't make her a brave warrior for minority rights, either.

Re: Why Lily Was Not an Oppressed Minority, Part 2

[sunnyskywalker]

Hypothetically she could - if she could convince the Muggles that her education hadn't ended at age 11, and learn some skills so she can actually get a Muggle job. Would she even know how to use a typewriter? Readjusting to the Muggle world would probably be almost as much of a wrench as leaving it in the first place. Which isn't an insurmountable barrier, of course, but I can see why it might be more psychologically difficult than transferring to a different school in the district. It's more like transferring to a school in another country, where they might speak the same language but are culturally quite different.

But it doesn't seem like she faced a whole lot of prejudice from what we know, being popular and in Slughorn's special club and marrying into a rich old family and everything. So she is not a good representative of disadvantaged minorities as written. If JKR had said Lily was denied jobs at the Ministry and everywhere after graduation, and was horribly bullied in school rather than being popular, that would be another story, but she didn't.

Re: Why Lily Was Not an Oppressed Minority, Part 2

[lynn-waterfall.livejournal.com]

I don't know the UK, or the times Lily grew up in, but in the US today you could probably claim to have been homeschooled. You'd have some make-up work to do first, of course, but it could be done.

Going to college in another anglophone country might be best, because that cultural difference would help hide the WW-related differences. Then, once you have college behind you, you've got enough history in the Muggle world to proceed from there. This is something that Hermione the education-obsessed might have done... if she still valued anything Muggle after seven years in the WW.