Let's Read Tales Of Beedle The Bard: Part Three: The Warlock's Hairy Heart.

[ladyhadhafang.livejournal.com]

Because I'm having horrible writer's block regarding a Matthew Stover poem, I've decided to update my Tales of Beedle The Bard recaps! :D

Kyoshi Warrior gear, don't fail me now...



Summary Of The Story: Guy doesn't want to fall in love -- because he kind of thinks that falling in love is for pussies. :P -- so he seals his heart away in a distant room. Fair maiden arrives to help him out. Guy's hairy heart (?!) causes him to start falling in lust or something (?!?!?!?!), so he kills the maiden and then himself. Reader is left to mop up the chunks of brain that have shot out her nose. :P

Dumbledore's Commentary: Nothing too offensive so far...mostly seems that Dumbledore's commenting on how disturbing the tale is, and an anecdote of Beatrix Bloxam being traumatized by the story as a kid, which pretty much started off her...crusade, so to speak (and even though I know I'm not supposed to like her, that story just makes me smile, because it's one of those rare instances real life seems to seep in. *Pets her and gives her warm milk* :) Which sums up most of Rowling's so-called "unlikeable" characters, IMHO). Preaching on about "the power of love", blah blah blah...look, Dumbles, if it weren't for the way the Power of Love was presented in the books, I'd probably find your interpretation pretty credible.

Ironically, it's one of those moments when I welcome the commentary, if only because the story was really, really confusing. Which absolutely kills me.


Dumbles Rage-O-Meter: 5. In tolerable range. And if *that's* normal range...yeah, be very afraid. :P








So yeah...this is probably the point THE TALES OF BEEDLE THE BARD starts to go a little wacky. Be very afraid. :P

Comments

[oneandthetruth.livejournal.com]

1. Not being interested in marriage <==> TEH DARK MAGIX.
It's not like a person might have different social needs, or different wishes for how to spend their life.
It's not like shyness or trauma are possible reasons for which a person might wish to avoid "love".
No, no, only the most terrible, the most vile, the most non-heteronormative EVIL could make a person not want to get married.

2. As someone above said: the implication is that anyone who is asexual or anyone who chooses to be celibate is not simply acting on their nature or on a rational choice. They MUST be horribly repressed! And that means they're going to turn into rapists and paedophiles and all kinds of horrible sexual deviants! ZOMG!

Not to mention the implication that romantic love is the only kind of love that matters. Filial, sibling, and parental love aren't even mentioned. And forget about religious devotion, or a disinterested love for humanity in general, nonhuman animals, or nature. Nope, only heterosexual romantic love that ends in marriage, preferably with reproduction involved, is "real" love.

[sunnyskywalker]

Well, there's Lily's Magic Mother Love, but that only matters for a very limited purpose for a limited time and possibly only because a prophecy helped it along. And no one else's mothers' love really matters. And of course Snape couldn't have been motivated by a deep and abiding friendship for Lily, oh no, had to be a crush, and no one gets to fight because of principles.

[oryx_leucoryx]

I think Narcissa's maternal love matters a bit. And Regulus/Kreacher's familial love.

[sunnyskywalker]

Right, DH stuff :D I wonder why paternal love isn't a big deal? I mean, Harry gets that Patronus protection mojo and the cloak from James, except the Patronus thing turns out to be himself, but the closest thing we have to a dad's love mattering might be Crouch Sr., which is... not the best example of love. Or maybe Dumbledore's dad, though that's more of the Harry brand of revenge = love.

But this poor warlock gets none of those options. Couldn't he have made friends with any of his scholarly correspondents, assuming he had them (and it seemed to be the thing to do)? Did he not have any siblings or cousins or childhood friends? He can't even get a Trio-style or Marauders-style "friendship" (which don't seem much like real or healthy friendships to me in many ways, but they're close enough I guess).

[oryx_leucoryx]

Or maybe Dumbledore's dad, though that's more of the Harry brand of revenge = love.

Unless the fan-versions where one of the Dumbledore kids actually cast the spell that killed the Muggle kids and Percival went to prison in his child's stead are correct, making him the equivalent of Mrs Crouch.

[lynn-waterfall.livejournal.com]

Actually, there are a couple of references to the love between parents and children in this story, too. The warlock feels smugly superior to his peers with children, confident that they can't really be happier for having children. Slightly later, we hear that the warlock's own parents die, and he just feels glad to have their castle and money for himself.

What's sad is that romantic love is given so much more importance that the warlock's utter lack of feeling for his parents gets one line, and the plot of the story centers on fact that he ends up killing a woman he never cared about and who never cared about him, but was encouraged to accept him by her family. A woman who, in fact, he only courted because his pride stung after he heard his servants gossiping that he *couldn't* attract a wife, and well, she seemed like the candidate most "worthy" of him.