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deathtocapslock* “Harry didn’t want to tell the others that he and Luna were having the same hallucination” – erm, Harry, two people don’t independently have the same hallucinations. If two of you can see it, it’s a safe bet that there’s something there.
* Also, note the arbitrary scepticism here. Harry knows that there exist sounds which can be heard by some people and not by others (the basilisk’s voice); why, then, is the idea of an object which only some people can see so ridiculous?
* Nice to see Luna sticking up for herself like that. Unlike Hermione, who seems to be intimidated into silence.
* Of course, the Trio will tacitly accept Luna’s assessment of Hagrid’s competence when they decide not to carry on with COMC next year.
* Luna’s role is quite interesting, IMHO. She seems here to be set up as the teller of uncomfortable truths, and it’s a shame JKR didn’t make more of this function. Maybe Harry could have accepted things he didn’t like hearing from someone he had no reason to be antagonistic towards (i.e., Luna), as a stepping-stone to listening to uncomfortable truths told even by people he didn’t like, such as Draco.
* I like how the Mirror of Erised scene has become an example of Harry seeing “something that Ron could not”, as if the Mirror really had Harry’s parents in it, and anyone else just isn’t seeing it properly. It might be more accurate to say that he and Ron had both seen different but equally valid things.
* Actually wait, scratch that – the idea of Harry seeing someone else’s viewpoint as “equally valid” just isn’t going to happen, is it?
* Ginny is “hailed by some fellow fourth-years” the moment they reach the Gryffindor table. See how popular she is! She’s totally worthy to be the Chosen One’s woman!
* Note how the Sorting Hat pairs Slytherin and Gryffindor as two really good friends. Either Salazar wasn’t as evil as everyone now believes, or Godric wasn’t such an opponent of Dark Magic as the Gryffindors would like to think.
* Slytherin supported teaching “those / Whose ancestry is purest”, even though the House’s other main value of “ambition” would make it a natural home for those on the fringes of wizarding society – such as muggle-borns – who want to make something of themselves, and most hereditary aristocracies (as the pureblood families seem to be in the WW) would feel more at home in brave and loyal Gryffindor than cunning and ambitious Slytherin. So either the Hat is mistaken to suggest that Slytherin was much of a pureblood supremacist (perhaps it’s getting a bit senile after a thousand years); or ambition only became associated with Slytherin House at a later date; or Slytherin wasn’t initially a pureblood fanatic, but became so at a later date (perhaps one of the muggle-borns tried to betray the school?); or wizarding aristocracy is more like that of ancient Rome, with every individual competing to be better than his peers.
* Actually, that last suggestion might be quite close to the truth: Hermione mentions that wizards don’t have any princes, and there never seem to have been any wizard kings (or if there were, they were too remote in time to be mentioned), so the idea of a group of competing noblemen trying for the top job is quite plausible.
* Although the WW does seem to be fairly corporatist, so perhaps it’s not so much individuals competing for glory as families manoeuvring to increase their influence, a bit like in Renaissance Italy.
* Getting back to the actual book, it’s interesting to see how Hufflepuff’s described as taking “the rest”, which is about as close as we get to a canonical admission that Hufflepuff’s just a rag-bag House for people who wouldn’t fit into the other Houses.
* The school apparently worked well for “several happy years”, which would seem odd if Slytherin and Gryffindor had been at loggerheads over such a basic principle as whom to admit. Perhaps as mentioned above Slytherin was initially OK with the idea of letting in Muggleborns, but later changed his mind (for whatever reason), leading to all the conflict?
* The Hat outright says that the Houses are supposed to be united, which doesn’t seem to chime with the portrayal of Slytherin in later books. Is JKR just extraordinarily un-self-reflective, putting in all that stuff about Houses uniting because it sounded like a good principle, but not realising that her actual portrayal of the Houses undercut this theme? Or did she intend to address it, but suffered burnout between Books 5 and 6, and ended the series as quickly as possible without bothering about thematic closure?
* So, is the Hat’s advice for the student body in general, or is it also directed more specifically at Dumbles? Certainly, I can’t imagine his rigging the House Cup to make Gryffindor win every year for the last four years would endear him to many students from other Houses, especially not Slytherin, given their traditional rivalry.
* Ron’s not being very restrained with his eating, is he? Remember, though, it’s only bad people like Dudley, Crabbe and Goyle who actually get fat. Ron, being a good guy, can eat as much as he likes and remain lean and lanky.
* Harry’s refusing to even consider being more friendly with the Slytherins. Truly that boy is a fount of love and compassion!
* Ron’s being such an insensitive jerk that NHN leaves and sits by somebody else. He’ll display this sort of behaviour again in HBP, when he alienates Moaning Myrtle, who’s just about to tell Harry that Draco’s the one behind the murder attempts.
* Looking back on this book, I remembered Ron and Hermione’s arguments as basically being good-natured banter, but they really do seem to be getting on each other’s nerves here. JKR must have some pretty odd ideas about love if she thinks that these two are right for each other. (Although actually, looking at her relationship with her first husband…)
* Professor Umbridge’s speech all sounds like fairly run-of-the-mill and uncontroversial stuff to me. I’m not entirely sure how Hermione got from it to “The Ministry is interfering at Hogwarts”.
* Also, trust AuthorAvatar!Hermione to guess what’s wrong with Umbridge from the beginning. In reality, I think Hermione would agree with much of what Umbridge is doing (hey, maybe Hogwarts would benefit from not leaving staff hiring entirely in the hands of the Twinkly One…), and the two seem to have quite similar personalities, so she’d probably connect on a personal level.
* Ron really isn’t a very good prefect, is he? “Hey, you lot, midgets”?
* You’d have thought that after four years the Fat Lady would be able to recognise Gryffindor students and let them in. Apparently, though, such thinking is too original for the WW.
* Seamus sounds sort of embarrassed about his mother’s behaviour, IMHO, at least at the start of his conversation. It’s not until Harry starts insulting his family that he begins to get all defensive and start disbelieving Harry.
* Also, memo to Harry: if you’re trying to convince people that you’re telling the truth, it’s probably not a good idea to insult their relatives when they ask you what’s going on.
* “‘I’ll have a go at anyone who calls me a liar,’ said Harry.” Given that Seamus’ mum – and, indeed, most of the WW – probably only heard the official Ministry line, isn’t it only to be expected that they’d be a bit sceptical about Harry’s claims? When you only give people one side of the story, it’s no wonder they end up supporting that side (which, come to think of it, might explain a lot about why many fans seem to follow the Harry-Dumbledore party line…).
* Now Harry’s shouting abuse at Seamus and brandishing his wand. How on earth could anybody believe the Ministry propaganda about him being mad? Clearly he is a model of sanity and emotional stability.
* Note how Ron’s first reaction is to side with Harry. I’m sure he’ll prove to be an excellent choice as prefect. *facepalm*
* Seriously, though, I wish Seamus had been made prefect instead. It would be so satisfying for this scene to end with Harry being given detention.
* So Ron lets Harry’s comments about Seamus’ mother pass, but threatens Seamus with detention. So not only does Harry look nasty and defensive, but his best friend looks like he’s using his new-found prefect powers to play favourites. Seriously, it’s like they’re purposefully trying to alienate every boy in that room.
* Unfortunately, though, it doesn’t alienate anyone else, and the other boys line up to agree with Harry, which would just make Seamus feel even more put upon, and less likely to accept what Harry says.
* I’m especially disappointed with Neville. He seems like the sort of character who ought to tell Harry that’s he’s being a dick. Instead he chips in to say how great he and Dumbledore are. Mr. Longbottom, as of this moment you are officially dead to me.
* Harry wonders how many more attacks like Seamus’ he will have to endure before it is all over. Well if your first response to people asking you what happened is to insult them and their family and threaten them with your wand, probably quite a few.
* BTW, does anyone know how prefects are chosen at Hogwarts? Ron and Hermione seem to be the only Gryffindor prefects, but surely there ought to be pairs of sixth- and seventh-year prefects as well? Or is it just that people get appointed in their fifth year, then once they leave school a new pair of fifth-years are appointed, so that there are always two in each house? But then, wouldn’t that mean that students in some years have no chance whatsoever of being made prefects? And isn’t that a little unfair?
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no subject
Date: 2011-04-15 06:07 pm (UTC)Exactly. We readers know Harry's telling the truth, and we don't need him to explain what happened because we were there to see it, so what the hell is Seamus's problem? If he wants to know what happened, he can just pick up GoF and read it like the rest of us.
no subject
Date: 2011-04-15 08:05 pm (UTC)But that's introducing the color grey and we cannot have that. It's either good or evil.
Either Salazar wasn’t as evil as everyone now believes, or Godric wasn’t such an opponent of Dark Magic as the Gryffindors would like to think.
Or back then it was just different styles of magic and history just blew everything out of proportion.
1- I can't imagine what Dark Magic looks like, aside from the three unforgivable curses.
2- Salazar didn't want muggleborns dead; he just didn't think them going to the same school was a good idea.
3- I doubt he went around cackling and talking about how he wanted to be the king of all wizards
Maybe I'm missing a fundamental point about dark magic, but if they were friends, then maybe it really was just a falling out that turned into two different schools of thought by the followers, (eventually evolving into something more sinister) not just a case of "Godrick was born good, Salazar was born Evil". Oh but... I forgot. Gray. Gray is not allowed.
And eeeew, as I was typing out "Godrick was born good" I thought "God is great, God is Good" and... too heavy handed, urgh! ... Ee-heww, and now Harry, a true Gryffindor, Christ figure, the only son of Godrick is coming to mind and... now I'm sad.
But still, I'm voting for the two friends falling out, their followers eventually lead down different paths with word twisting and manipulation for their own agenda.
Hufflepuff’s described as taking “the rest”
This point has always irked me. Especially since if people don't know where to put you when they meet you, they say "Hufflepuff". Come on, JK- develop the idea a little more, would ya?
Or did she intend to address it, but suffered burnout between Books 5 and 6, and ended the series as quickly as possible without bothering about thematic closure?
I'm gonna give her the benefit of the doubt and say that this happened. But then when she recovered and saw all the lose ends, she desperately tried to regain control with those interviews. So it's like JK got drunk on fame and woke up from her hangover to find that shytt went down and now she's doing damage control.
Although actually, looking at her relationship with her first husband… Oooh shytt... *googles* I did not know this...!
I think Hermione would agree with much of what Umbridge is doing and the two seem to have quite similar personalities, so she’d probably connect on a personal level.
That's why I was pissed off that JK tried to change Hermione's middle name to "Jean" when she realized the two shared the same middle name. It was a really nice comparison. I don't care what she says, It'll always be Hermione Jane Granger to me.
And yeah, the way they choose prefects is they take the names of all of the students, rank them by number of times they've interacted with Harry, then divide by plot point. It's Deus Ex Machina's Theorum.
More Ron Psychology
Date: 2011-04-15 08:05 pm (UTC)I don't know if it's accidental or not, but this is one of those moments that I love, one of the tellings of Ron's home life via his behavior. In this scenario, he's totally a kitten who just got adopted to a house where he's the only cat. He's at a table with food, so his instinct is to eat as fast as he can or his siblings will yoink it. It doesn't help that there are many other people around, encouraging the "get the good stuff fast or you'll have to sate yourself on bread or whatever nobody wants".
Ron is so much more human than Harry! How can Harry not be showing any signs of his "horrendous abuse" for eleven years? Well... I guess he sort of does when he buys all that stuff in his first year. And I guess Ron has to go back home every summer where it gets reinforced. But Harry goes back every summer, too... what the hell?
Note how Ron’s first reaction is to side with Harry.
Not surprising because of the best friends thing (some might argue) but I say it's not surprising considering how Hermione and Ron were treating Harry like a ticking time bomb. Survival!
no subject
Date: 2011-04-15 09:15 pm (UTC)Considering that in a post-DH interview JKR says the Slytherin students came back and fought against Voldemort but failed to write it, it's possible she thinks she did show house unity . . .
no subject
Date: 2011-04-15 10:26 pm (UTC)How would the Hat even be able to tell how pure a person's blood is? Does it perform a DNA test on its subjects?
I like your Roman aristocracy idea. I'm now imagining Dumbledore as a sort of Cicero figure: self-important, long-winded (have you ever tried to translate one of his sentences?), and using dubiously-legal methods against his enemies (presumably this would make Voldemort Catiline, though I have no idea who Julius Caesar, Antony, and Octavian would be in this comparison).
no subject
Date: 2011-04-15 10:48 pm (UTC)Yes. The longest weighed in at 122 words.
"I'm now imagining Dumbledore as a sort of Cicero figure: self-important, long-winded... and using dubiously-legal methods against his enemies"
He is a bit like Cicero, isn't he? :) Augustus would be a good comparison as well, IMHO: taking power behind the scenes whilst taking care to disguise it behind a veneer of normality. And of course, he's not ambitious, oh my no: he doesn't want all this power, he had to take it, you see, and he'd love to give it up, it's just that the right time to do so never quite arrives...
no subject
Date: 2011-04-15 10:52 pm (UTC)pure and cunning
Date: 2011-04-16 01:25 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-04-16 01:33 am (UTC)It sounds like Seamus was willing to hear Harry's side. Silly boy wanting to hear both sides before making a decision.
Obviously Seamus is wrong. Why would he need to hear Harry's side - all good people know that Harry is always right! How can anyone ever doubt Harry?
Harry doesn't need to tell his side - you should just know that Harry's side it the right side!
Re: pure and cunning
Date: 2011-04-16 03:27 pm (UTC)*It's possible they were epithets based on Helga's asthma and Salazar's habit of writhing around on the floor, but unless Rowena had a pet raven that she trained to attack people like some kind of Batman villain I have no idea where her name came from, and Gryffindor sounds to me like a description of an heraldic device of a golden griffon, which isn't the case (and I'm not sure heraldry even existed back then in our world).
no subject
Date: 2011-04-16 04:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-04-16 04:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-04-16 04:03 pm (UTC)Re: pure and cunning
Date: 2011-04-16 06:32 pm (UTC)Most real-life history is quite subjective, with the winners writing the history. And there is often an agenda behind the history we are taught, especially in high school. The sheer absurdity of some of the "history" transmitted in the wizarding world makes me wonder if, to some extent, Rowling is doing a parody of governments who rewrite history for their own agenda.
Re: pure and cunning
Date: 2011-04-16 06:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-04-16 10:34 pm (UTC)*Drusus was competent and brutal, killing the ringleaders and their accomplices and cowing the mutineers. Germanicus was histrionic, weepy, and only prevailed when his decision to send his wife and son away from the camp shamed his soldiers into repentance. As Tacitus describes it, the soldiers wished to expiate their crimes in the blood of enemies, so Germanicus launched an unprovoked assault on nearby tribes who were sleeping off the effects of a religious festival. Tacitus shows a certain amount of favouritism to Germanicus. He also points out Tiberius' strategy (inherited from Augustus) of sending his sons to deal with things, rather than arriving in person, to preserve the imperial mystique.
no subject
Date: 2011-04-16 10:37 pm (UTC)Re: pure and cunning
Date: 2011-04-16 10:45 pm (UTC)But if we assume that Muggle hostility in the tenth century was exaggerated by later historians for whatever agenda, we're left with far less reason for Hogwarts to be a remotely situated heavily-defended castle and for Slytherin's paranoia about Muggle-born students. Reducing Slytherin's motivation for installing the basilisk to "he was just evil" is disappointing but ultimately has the same effect, but without some perceived external threat, Hogwarts remains unexplained. Unless you're suggesting that there was some other threat back then (possibly goblin-related), and as Muggles became the wizarding world's bogeyman present-day attitudes were projected onto the past?
no subject
Date: 2011-04-16 11:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-04-16 11:22 pm (UTC)Re: pure and cunning
Date: 2011-04-16 11:25 pm (UTC)Re: pure and cunning
Date: 2011-04-17 01:15 am (UTC)Having a heavily fortified castle might have been important for other reasons besides protecting against muggles. Hogwarts was established during a period when there were several waves of Viking invasions, and then there was the Norman conquest in 1066. Perhaps they weren't originally protecting themselves against muggles, but against other wizards from invading countries.
Actually, I've been speculating that fighting amongst the founders due to external pressures may have been disagreements over whether or not to admit the magical children of the Norman invaders into the school.
Re: pure and cunning
Date: 2011-04-17 09:03 am (UTC)There certainly were fewer persecutions in the Dark Ages than there were later on, but IIRC at least some of this was because the authorities believed that magic was just an ignorant country superstition, not really worth paying attention to. So it might have made sense for wizards to hide their existence any way, just to be on the safe side.
Re: pure and cunning
Date: 2011-04-17 10:16 am (UTC)IIRC, formal Heraldry which organized things and kept records of what device belonged to what family on a more permanent basis than the current battle was established at different times in different countries. In Britain I think it came in during the reign of the Lancastrians, and grandfathered in the devices which were known to have been in use in the battle of Argincourt.
Re: pure and cunning
Date: 2011-04-17 10:17 am (UTC)