![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
for-diddled.livejournal.com posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
deathtocapslock* I can see how the idea of Harry duelling the Dark Lord and living to tell the tale might seem far-fetched to some, given that they’re used to thinking of Voldemort as an exceptionally powerful wizard, one of the most powerful in centuries. To us, on the other hand, looking back on the series after DH…
* The narrative voice pauses to draw attention to how Ron is reluctant to finish his apple pie. Knowing what the series thinks about fat people, this probably foreshadows WhinyBrat!Ron of the later novels.
* Hermione’s “snapping” at Ron now, and is getting so bitchy that even Harry, the epitome of bitchiness, feels the need to pull her up on it. True love, clearly.
* Ron isn’t even trying to do his homework, instead expecting Hermione to give him the answers. It makes me wonder how he and Harry managed to get any OWLs at all; did they somehow cheat and get Hermione to tell them the answers in their exams, too?
* I’m sorry, but every time Ron is called upon to fulfil his prefect duties, he just shows himself totally unfit for the role. He shouldn’t just be abdicating his responsibility like this and leaving everything to Hermione.
* Kudos to Hermione for handling the Fred and George situation without getting hexed. Pity she has to ruin it by trying to trick the house-elves into freeing themselves like that. In real life she’d probably be one of these left-wing activists who purport to be on the side of the people whilst simultaneously looking down on the people as too stupid to make their own decisions, needing their lives to be controlled by someone in the know… just like her! (Which would fit rather well with the “Hermione as JKR’s author avatar” theory.)
* Also, note how Ron’s attitude towards them is actually more respectful than Hermione’s. I might speculate that this sort of attitude is a result of Arthur’s Muggle enthusiasm, were it not for the fact that Arthur thinks of Muggles as inferior in much the same way as Hermione thinks of house-elves.
* So how does skill at magic work, then? Mostly it just seems to be a matter of pointing and saying the words (and waving your wand in the right way, at least in Philosopher’s Stone). I can’t really see any reason why Hermione should be better at it than everyone else (well, I suppose “because she’s JKR’s Mary Sue author avatar” is technically a reason, but you know what I mean).
* Hagrid-less COMC now. Note that the Slytherins, being evil, can never just “laugh”; they always “snigger”, “shriek” or “guffaw” instead.
* I forget: does Malfoy know where Hagrid is, or is he just bluffing to try and annoy Harry? Or don’t we ever find out?
* Draco’s really being horrible about Hagrid here. What’s Hagrid ever done to him? Apart from nearly getting him killed in his first COMC lesson, of course.
* Now that Hermione brings up the subject, I don’t think we ever see Draco going out of his way to make things difficult for Harry, do we? Maybe he’s not as bad a prefect as the trio seem to assume…
* Ginny says “Hi” to Harry as they pass. ZOMG foreshadowing!!1! Clearly they are destined for one another!
* Hermione dismisses the possibility of Crumple-Horned Snorkacks and Blibbering Humdingers. This from the girl who found out aged eleven that magic, wizards, witches, broomsticks, dragons, centaurs, zombies, the Philosopher’s Stone and a myriad other things are real. *facepalm*
* Ernie believes Harry, although once again it’s because his family are Dumbledore supporters. Does nobody think for themselves in this universe?
* Note the girly-ness of Umbridge’s room. As ever, femininity in this universe is equated with moral degeneracy.
* As a cat-lover, I instantly find myself warming to Dolores.
* Actually, Umbridge is right about Harry missing Quidditch. Still, she’s very much swimming against the tide, given that every other teacher seems to be on his side (well, apart from Snape), and I fear it’s too little, too late.
* Umbridge is watching Harry “as though she knew exactly what he was thinking”. Is she perhaps a legilimens?
* I know we’re supposed to think of Umbridge as true evil for using her quill to punish pupils, but to be honest it never really seemed that way to me. We already know that mainstream wizarding society has a very lax attitude towards physical harm – eleven-year-olds are made to do detentions in forests full of dangerous creatures without any adults to protect them, people play games which involve knocking people off broomsticks using small cannon balls, the Headmaster lets children fight monsters and dark lords alone, people not showing enough signs of magic are purposefully placed in life-threatening situations, soul-eating monsters are used to guard prisoners, children are given badly-supervised lessons with wild animals after cursory instructions, teachers turn pupils into animals and bounce them against the walls, and Arthur Weasley claims to still have scars from a flogging he received several decades ago – Umbridge doesn’t actually seem that extreme by wizarding standards.
* “Harry had the distinct impression that he was not alone in concealing things at the moment.” Really, Harry, are you sure? Because Ron’s doing such a good job of concealing it, I never noticed anything.
* “Harry had never before considered the possibility that there might be another teacher in the world he hated more than Snape” – wait, what’s Snape done to earn this hatred? Yes, he’s sarcastic to Harry in his lessons, but I’d have thought that that would be cancelled out by the fact that he saved Harry’s life in his first year. Not that he’s ever got much in the way of gratitude for that from anybody.
* This also echoes Harry’s surprise in PS that he hated Malfoy more than Dudley. It’s like he’s constantly surprised at his ability to hate. It’s the power of love, I tell you.
* Note how defensive Ron’s being about Quidditch try-outs, as if he expects everyone to mock him for it. Not surprising, really, given how everyone seems to go out of their way to make him feel insecure.
* So if Ron’s brothers made him Keep during the holidays, how come Harry didn’t notice this when he stayed round Ron’s house in COS and GOF?
* I know that Harry can’t just tell McGonagall or Dumbledore about his detentions for plot reasons, but I think it’s a shame that none of the adults every say “You should have told me, I could have stopped her.” It’s often hard enough to get children to seek help in cases of abuse and bullying without famous literary characters seeming to reinforce the view that doing so is somehow am admission of weakness.
* Ron even gets second-hand Quidditch robes. How’s that inferiority complex going, Weasley?
* Ron “comes from a family of good Quidditch players”, and must therefore be good at Quidditch himself. Not that blood’s important or anything, you understand.
* Why would picking up Hermione’s hat make the elves free? She isn’t their owner; surely the only people who could set them free would be Dumbledore, and possibly the school governors?
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2011-04-30 06:33 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-04-30 11:20 am (UTC)So much this.
Sometimes I wonder how I ever made it through some of those books...
no subject
Date: 2011-04-30 02:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-04-30 02:23 pm (UTC)Plus, Umbridge is a sign of the overall callousness of the WW, in the fact that she can conduct such activity in the first place. She is legally in the office of Headmaster and there is no legal recourse against her.
no subject
Date: 2011-04-30 08:29 pm (UTC)Hmmm, while I agree this is true, I believe there's something of a difference in meaning between "abusive" and what Lynn meant by "sadistic." A sadist is someone who actually derives pleasure from causing or witnessing others' pain.... as in neurological studies show that the reward and pleasure centers of the brain activate when somebody sadistic witnesses someone else in pain.
Not all abusers are sadistic; in fact, many probably aren't. Much abuse is due to poor anger management or poor impulse control or inadequate parenting skills or misconceptions about appropriate discipline, etc.
Very very few adults truly find it pleasurable to see a child in pain, the way Umbridge does.
no subject
Date: 2011-04-30 08:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-04-30 09:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-04-30 10:10 pm (UTC)What stands out to me is that Harry stood up to Umbridge's horrible treatment with a lot of spirit, that he did have that one small bit of empowerment for whatever it's worth. But the same Harry who lived in the cupboard and was purposefully underfed didn't have that empowerment because he had no say as a child. If that makes any sense.
no subject
Date: 2011-05-01 12:00 am (UTC)Harry's attitude towards Snape really irks me. I wanted Snape to really get the best of the brat and I rooted for Snape each time even as I knew it would be a lost cause.
The Truchbull
Date: 2011-05-01 05:55 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-04-30 09:00 pm (UTC)I agree in that Umbridge is worse than mainstream wizarding society in that she seems to enjoy inflicting pain, but I also think that Umbridge's sadism and the callousness of the WW at large are just two sides of the same coin. If Umbridge had lived in a less callous society, would she have been able to get away with her quill? Almost certainly not. The idea of making people inflict pain on themselves as a punishment might not even have occured to her. So yes, Umbridge clearly has sadistic tendencies, but these tendencies can only hurt people because the WW is so generally callous.
no subject
Date: 2011-04-30 09:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-05-01 10:31 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-05-02 05:26 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-05-04 05:52 pm (UTC)And think that he's a wimp for daring to cry and break down about his parents' lives depending on him. -_-
/Snape's endless unrequited devotion to a girl who is (according to the author) waaay to good for him/
Except that I didn't think that Snape's endless unrequited devotion to a girl who laughed at his humiliation and ditched him for his bully was amusing, I thought that it was sad. Sad that Snape went through so much for the sake of a shallow and hypocritical nitwit who didn't care about him.
/As for Hermione permanently scarring Marietta, the author has gone on record saying "I loathe a traitor", so she approves of these measures./
Even though Voldemort could have easily done such a thing. As a matter of fact, he actually has done something similar. What do people think that Peter's silver hand was for? Voldemort deliberately hexed it to harm Peter if he showed signs of being a traitor, which is what Hermione's hex did to Marietta. True, Peter wound up dead while Marietta didn't, but the intention was the same: punishment of a traitor.
Umbridge as villain-
Date: 2011-05-01 03:53 am (UTC)My two cents.
Re: Umbridge as villain-
Date: 2011-05-01 07:11 am (UTC)Re: Umbridge as villain-
Date: 2011-05-01 12:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-05-01 11:32 am (UTC)I have to wonder how I missed this while reading the series. Maybe I just told myself that Hermione wasn't really giving them the answers; she was just giving them tips? But no, it turns out that she really was just telling them the answers and doing their homework for them. *sighs*
You know, say what you want about Tom Riddle, but at least he never had to have anybody do his homework for him.
/* I’m sorry, but every time Ron is called upon to fulfil his prefect duties, he just shows himself totally unfit for the role./
It's really sad because every time Ron gets a chance to get out of Harry's shadow, we're always reminded of why he doesn't deserve it. When he becomes prefect, he slacks off. When he joins the Quidditch team, he's a nervous and shaky player. Yes, he does improve with time and confidence, but he's not on the same level as Harry. He's destined to be mediocre no matter what he does. The only time that I can think of him being genuinely better than Harry or Hermione at anything is during chess, but that never comes up again.
/* Draco’s really being horrible about Hagrid here. What’s Hagrid ever done to him? Apart from nearly getting him killed in his first COMC lesson, of course./
Or threatening to "take a leaf out of Professor's Moody's book" by turning him into a ferret. Or failing to learn any lesson from the Buckbeak fiasco and continuing to be negligent in his classes. Or failing to *apologize* to Draco for the Buckbeak incident. Yes, Hagrid was upset that Buckbeak was sentenced to die, but that wasn't Draco's fault. Yes, Draco hadn't been listening, but Hagrid hadn't been *looking.* Hagrid just does not acknowledge his role in that incident at all. If he did, then maybe Draco wouldn't hate him so much.
Harry doesn't seem to understand that just because someone is nice to him doesn't mean that they come off as nice to everyone else.
/* Hermione dismisses the possibility of Crumple-Horned Snorkacks and Blibbering Humdingers. This from the girl who found out aged eleven that magic, wizards, witches, broomsticks, dragons, centaurs, zombies, the Philosopher’s Stone and a myriad other things are real./
You know whose role this should have been? *Ron.* Ron is the guy who's grown up in the wizarding world, who's been raised to know what's real and what's not. *He* should have been the one to be skeptical of Luna. As somebody who's been raised in the Muggle world, Hermione should have been curious about Luna's theories. She should have been the one to say to Ron, "Well, if unicorns and dragons are real, then why not Crumple-Horned Snorkacks?"
/* So if Ron’s brothers made him Keep during the holidays, how come Harry didn’t notice this when he stayed round Ron’s house in COS and GOF?/
The same way that nobody noticed Ginny's amazing Quidditch skills, I guess. *sighs*
/* I know that Harry can’t just tell McGonagall or Dumbledore about his detentions for plot reasons, but I think it’s a shame that none of the adults every say “You should have told me, I could have stopped her.” It’s often hard enough to get children to seek help in cases of abuse and bullying without famous literary characters seeming to reinforce the view that doing so is somehow am admission of weakness./
Not only is it shameful and alarming, it's *ridiculous.* You're telling me that none of the other students who suffered this punishment ever tried to tell a teacher about it? This is *obscene.* Harry should have marched right up to Dumbledore's office and told him that Umbridge was a psycho. Heck, he should have gone to Minerva and told her. Maybe Dumbledore was too busy being a passive-aggressive twit, but not Minerva.
What's even worse is that Dumbledore eventually leaves the school, so Harry definitely can't talk to him about it. But then you figure in the amount of time *before* Dumbledore's departure. Why the heck didn't Harry tell him when he could have? Deliberately choosing to suffer in silence instead of asking for help is *not* being strong, it's being pigheaded. Maybe it's good for your "pride," but it doesn't stop Umbridge from doing it again to you or to *other people.*
no subject
Date: 2011-05-01 12:13 pm (UTC)Because that's cowardice, of course! Real men fight their own battles, not go crawling to someone who can actually win! Unless that someone is the Chosen One, in which case trying to do something without their help or approval is Wrong, and probably means you've got too much ambition in your heart.
no subject
Date: 2011-05-06 01:42 am (UTC)Oh, but as we all know, actually wanting to do good academically is EEEEEVIIIIIL! A true hero will learn everything he really needs to know as he goes along- and all that other stuff is just to limit his fun and has nothing to do with his success later in life anyway!
A mighty Evil List
Date: 2011-05-06 03:01 am (UTC)1. Hermione - most times even though shes in the best friend club she also falls into the annoying class. She qualifies as being 'Evil Reject(ed)' - she's so close she could flip out at any time and give you a perminate facial scar.
2. Harry - the hero, but how can he be eble? Wel, heres how, He qualifes as; RoidRageEvil - that means he has those outburst of teenage drama that never made a damn bit of sense and get people killed when he should have kept his stupid ass inside the walls of Hogwarts...making me believe the whole reason he was good at sports was because he took steriods.
3. Snape - oh noes! That git believes that you're supposed to do your own work and gives you a hard time and snarks at you if someone else helps you. Oh yea, he's evil. Not to mention he makes evil magic, HIS OWN evil spells and doesn't put up with a lot of dumbass teenage crap - oh yea, he's bad, bad, bad for not understanding the wooes of the underaged. He qualifies as: EvilLover or Evil things we LOVE. (Okay so I'm biased!)
4. Voldie - dude did his homework...damn he's evil. However I don't really know if he can find his way out of a drained bathtub. He qalifies as: Evil Overloard wannabe.
5. Ginny Weasley: She dated other dudes besides the hero and the only reasons he gets to be good is because she was willing to pop out 3 offspring and let Harry name them after dead people. She qualifes as EvilHoMama.
6. Dumbledore - OMG, greatest wizard ever. He qualifies as: Bastard evil - bastard evil means you've got the same mother but the father is a differnet guy. And if you want to be like JKR you can throw gay in to the mix, then he'd be Evil Gay Bastard.
7. James Potter - He was like the best at everything, super cool BUT he abuses fellow classmates. Yes, the author says he's good, but I say he counts as being among the evil hord. He qualifies as: Jock-itch Evil.
8. Sirius - yet another super cool best at everything person, likes to watch people abused by his brother in crime James, He qualifies as: Jock-itch Evil Substitute.
9. Wormtail: He's Igor, see him serve. He qualifies as; Enabler of Evil.
10. Draco: He's evil, we make fun of him because he's spoiled and gets abused by all the good characters. He qualifes as; Evil StuntDouble. He does all the work of being in the heros company a lot but gets none of the credit for actually being 'really' evil.
11. Lucius: OMG, its a really rich snobby guy, he qualifes as; EvilMoney because apparenlty when you're rich, you're evil (wait what does that say about JKR?)
Bellatrix: Oh you all know what she is, she qualifies as; Evil Bitch.
no subject
Date: 2011-05-01 06:51 pm (UTC)What do you mean, without any adults? They had Hagrid. Oh, okay, I see what you did there.
I think going into a forest full of dangerous creatures at that point in the series was just good clean plucky adventure. No one seriously thought any of the kids would be hurt, and it was all spooky and mysterious and they got to see real unicorns and centaurs! Cutting open your own hand for seven hours doesn't have that mystique.
no subject
Date: 2011-05-02 05:30 am (UTC)Except for the fact that it was known to the staff that someone was killing unicorns in the forest.
no subject
Date: 2011-05-02 02:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-05-02 10:25 pm (UTC)They did, until he split the group up in the face of an unknown but highly dangerous monster, leaving one half without any defence other than their first-year spells and a dog which Hagrid himself had said wouldn't be any help in a dangerous situation.
"I think going into a forest full of dangerous creatures at that point in the series was just good clean plucky adventure."
I think this is one example of the series' maturing with Harry causing problems for Rowling. In a children's novel, it would indeed be good clean fun; but by changing the maturity, JK invites us to look back over the whole series with a more mature outlook. Yes, the first few books should have plenty of fun and whimsy, as befits a story about a young boy discovering a new world for the first time, but the essential plot should make sense as a YA plot, rather than a children's book plot.