GOF Chapter 24: Rita Skeeter's Scoop
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deathtocapslockHermione is too sensible to bother with straightening her hair on a regular basis. Ron and Hermione are willing to keep the peace for the sake of Harry (and the plot) - oddly mature of them.
Hermione thinks views of giants are 'just' prejudice, and with that she proves how naive she is, just like about the elf issue. Though perhaps a giant that rejected giant culture (whether willingly or under duress) might be considered worthy to save her life.
Finally Harry starts doing something about the egg, but completely ignores Cedric's hint. Anybody trying to help Harry with something has to be very direct. This problem will be repeated with worse outcome next year, with Sirius' mirror.
Oh, Hagrid isn't there to teach. Professor Grubbly-Plank replaces him. The Slytherins are gleeful and not surprised. Draco lets Harry snatch the paper with Rita's revelations about Hagrid.
Let's see:
Hagrid was expelled in 3rd year - true.
Hagrid admits to said expulsion - true.
Hagrid has been gamekeeper since then - well it seems he was gamekeeper's assistant for about half of that time, so mostly true.
The position of gamekeeper was the result of Dumbles' intervention - probably true. At least that's what Hagrid says himself.
Hagrid was appointed COMC teacher over better qualified candidates - we see at least one such better-qualified person in Grubbly-Plank, so true.
This appointment was the result of 'mysterious influence' Hagrid has over Dumbles - speculation. (I'd say Dumbles just wanted to give his staunchest and blindest admirer more time with Harry.) Not true.
Hagrid is alarmingly large and ferocious-looking - true.
Hagrid has been terrifying his students and maiming them with horrific creatures - mostly true.
Draco was attacked by hippogriff - true.
Crabbe was bitten by flobberworm - not true (note that this is presented as a direct quote from Draco, so if he actually said it Rita isn't lying in reporting his words)
Draco says 'we all' hate Hagrid and are afraid to say so - the hatred is true, depending on whom is included in 'we all'. Though he isn't really afraid of saying so.
Hagrid admitted to breeding the skrewts illegally - he may indeed have. He tells Harry Rita was very interested in them during her interview with him.
Hagrid pretended to be a pureblood wizard - we don't know, though he never mentioned his giant heritage before and neither Ron nor Draco seem to have suspected it.
Hagrid's mother is the giantess Fridwulfa - true.
Internal warfare killed most of British giants - possible.
A handful of them joined Voldie's ranks - what does this mean? Did any of them have Dark marks or were they external supporters like Fenrir and perhaps other werewolves?
Giants were responsible for some of the worst Muggle killings - I though Muggles were mostly killed by DEs, for fun? I no longer know whether to believe Rita or Bill Weasley.
Many giants were killed by Aurors, but not Fridwulfa. She may have escaped to a giant community. Well, we know she had Grawp at some point. (How can a giant community last if they keep offing one another? I doubt we know all there is to know about them.)
Hagrid developed a friendship with Harry - true.
Dumbles should be warned about Hagrid - believe me, he knows. And doesn't care Hagrid may occasionally endanger students, as long as Harry keeps hearing Hagrid's praise of Dumbles.
In summary: The article is almost entirely true. The few untrue things are presented either as speculation or as a direct quote by someone else.
Parvati is disloyal by preferring a COMC teacher who does a decent job (and she is correct that losing his teaching position doesn't leave him jobless). But even Hermione prefers Grubbly-Plank. How dare she? At least Hermione does the decent thing of bending under Harry's pressure - yes, she wants Hagrid back as a terrible teacher, of course she does!
But the big question is how did Rita discover Hagrid's secret without being seen? (And yes, she is close to the truth, Rita did overhear Hagrid at the ball.)
Alas, Hagrid ignores the kids when they come to see him.
A nice example for Terri's thesis about Hogwarts discipline that I linked in chapter 18 (as well as her vision of Slytherin student culture from her fic): Draco taunts Harry only when there are teachers around, because that's allowed, but responding with violence or magic is punishable. I think in OOTP after the Quidditch match he managed to overdo the taunting to the point neither Harry nor George cared about punishment anymore.)
Harry lies to Hermione about his progress with the egg because he hopes to meet Hagrid in Hogsmeade. Er, if Hagrid is avoiding everyone why would he go to Hogsmaeade when students are there?
On the way there they see Viktor jumping into the lake. I remember when I first read this it reminded me of the places where this is done as a New Years tradition. But of course this means Viktor (like Cedric) figured out the egg's message and was working on his Transfiguration. (And Ron hopes the giant squid will take care of Viktor. Nice of him. And completely different from Draco wishing Slytherin's monster would kill Hermione.) Well, Viktor proved his worthiness to Hermione by saying he liked Hogwarts better than Durmstrang. And Ron broke his Viktor figurine. Oh, what a love triangle. But really, Viktor treats Hermione nicely, Hermione thinks well of him, they have enough to talk about to have a correspondence that lasts into the following year at least - why does she drop him for Ron of all people? (Because she smells Ron in the Amortentia. Hermione/Ron is all about hormones, no substance.)
Bagman (the mastermind!) is at the Three Broomsticks. With angry goblins. Why is he here? Well, the only way Harry can get a clue about his agenda is if he conducts his shady meetings where Harry (and half of the Hogwarts school body) is bound to show up. Oh, he wants a word with Harry. He reveals that Crouch Sr has been absent for weeks and Percy says he is ill. (Note that Percy is just saying what he knows - and that people outside Crouch's department are well aware of the latter's absence. Percy isn't pretending Crouch is in his office but too busy to see anyone. Also, note that Ludo doesn't think there is anything odd about Crouch's absence - so either the illness story really looks convincing or Ludo doesn't care or he really is the one who set these events in motion in the first place so obviously he isn't surprised, nor does he want anyone else to be.) If Rita found out about the absence she'd say Crouch went missing, like Bertha Jorkins. Well, that's not far from the truth. Was that a slip from the mastermind of the plot?
Ludo is finally conducting a search for the lost employee from his own department. Turns out Bertha visited one relative but disappeared on her way to another's home. And she's not the type to elope (why else would a woman disappear? the sexism).
OK, what Ludo really wanted was to give Harry a clue. Because he likes him. And supports a champion from Hogwarts. But not the official one. Harry doesn't want an unfair advantage, does he? He's selective about only receiving help from people he likes (even if they are teachers, like Hagrid and 'Moody', from whom he is explicitly not allowed to receive help). Now Ludo is refusing a drink from the twins. Is that because like Harry he realized to be suspicious with their offerings? (Or just avoiding their demands to be paid in real money for that bet.)
Hermione thinks Albus wouldn't have liked Ludo persuading Harry to cheat? Since when is Dumbles opposed to cheating by Harry?
Ron thinks Percy is trying to slowly poison Crouch so he could take over the department. Like fan theories about Severus and Sirius in OOTP.
Rita is there. And seems like she is considering investigating Bagman at the moment. But Harry confronts her about the Hagrid story, while Hermione calls her on her general method. Rita hints she already knows something about Ludo (indeed, she reported from his trial). Though it seems her plan was to get Ludo to lose his job rather quickly. I wonder how that was supposed to work. But now Rita found her next target. Indeed, Harry already sees her quill at work. But even before we see anything else from her, Hermione decides to get Rita, somehow. I believe this is where Hermione's other transformation begins. That's where she develops her vengeful streak, which we will see more of next year (and from which she doesn't recover in canon.) Naively Hermione thinks the only people whose opinion of her matters are her parents. Little does she know.
She decides its her duty to force Hagrid out of his sulk. Well, Albus is there too. Finally, almost 2 weeks after Rita's article, he is there to show some support to a member of his staff. Oh, and he brought with him countless of supportive letters from parents. Who remember Hagrid as groundskeeper (or the assistant to one), not as a teacher. Also, Albus receives complaints about the running of the school weekly. But ignores them all, of course. How would anyone else know better than him? So now people bring up their horrible relatives. Harry has the Dursleys. ('Look what I've got for relatives' - because Muggles aren't human, so they qualify as 'what' rather than 'who'.) And Dumbles has Aberforth, with some never-quite-explained history with goats. (Why would wizards care about bestiality, if that really is the case? They do every other horrible thing to animals.)
How long did Hagrid's father think his son wasn't a wizard? Was Hagrid a later bloomer than Neville?
We get Hagrid's take on Albus - he gives second chances, will take in anyone, regardless of family background, as long as s/he has magical talent. (What Hagrid doesn't say is that said family members get treated like dirt if they aren't human magicals.)
And finally Harry decides to tackle the egg. Because he can't let Hagrid down. (Harry/Hagrid OTP?)
Hermione thinks views of giants are 'just' prejudice, and with that she proves how naive she is, just like about the elf issue. Though perhaps a giant that rejected giant culture (whether willingly or under duress) might be considered worthy to save her life.
Finally Harry starts doing something about the egg, but completely ignores Cedric's hint. Anybody trying to help Harry with something has to be very direct. This problem will be repeated with worse outcome next year, with Sirius' mirror.
Oh, Hagrid isn't there to teach. Professor Grubbly-Plank replaces him. The Slytherins are gleeful and not surprised. Draco lets Harry snatch the paper with Rita's revelations about Hagrid.
Let's see:
Hagrid was expelled in 3rd year - true.
Hagrid admits to said expulsion - true.
Hagrid has been gamekeeper since then - well it seems he was gamekeeper's assistant for about half of that time, so mostly true.
The position of gamekeeper was the result of Dumbles' intervention - probably true. At least that's what Hagrid says himself.
Hagrid was appointed COMC teacher over better qualified candidates - we see at least one such better-qualified person in Grubbly-Plank, so true.
This appointment was the result of 'mysterious influence' Hagrid has over Dumbles - speculation. (I'd say Dumbles just wanted to give his staunchest and blindest admirer more time with Harry.) Not true.
Hagrid is alarmingly large and ferocious-looking - true.
Hagrid has been terrifying his students and maiming them with horrific creatures - mostly true.
Draco was attacked by hippogriff - true.
Crabbe was bitten by flobberworm - not true (note that this is presented as a direct quote from Draco, so if he actually said it Rita isn't lying in reporting his words)
Draco says 'we all' hate Hagrid and are afraid to say so - the hatred is true, depending on whom is included in 'we all'. Though he isn't really afraid of saying so.
Hagrid admitted to breeding the skrewts illegally - he may indeed have. He tells Harry Rita was very interested in them during her interview with him.
Hagrid pretended to be a pureblood wizard - we don't know, though he never mentioned his giant heritage before and neither Ron nor Draco seem to have suspected it.
Hagrid's mother is the giantess Fridwulfa - true.
Internal warfare killed most of British giants - possible.
A handful of them joined Voldie's ranks - what does this mean? Did any of them have Dark marks or were they external supporters like Fenrir and perhaps other werewolves?
Giants were responsible for some of the worst Muggle killings - I though Muggles were mostly killed by DEs, for fun? I no longer know whether to believe Rita or Bill Weasley.
Many giants were killed by Aurors, but not Fridwulfa. She may have escaped to a giant community. Well, we know she had Grawp at some point. (How can a giant community last if they keep offing one another? I doubt we know all there is to know about them.)
Hagrid developed a friendship with Harry - true.
Dumbles should be warned about Hagrid - believe me, he knows. And doesn't care Hagrid may occasionally endanger students, as long as Harry keeps hearing Hagrid's praise of Dumbles.
In summary: The article is almost entirely true. The few untrue things are presented either as speculation or as a direct quote by someone else.
Parvati is disloyal by preferring a COMC teacher who does a decent job (and she is correct that losing his teaching position doesn't leave him jobless). But even Hermione prefers Grubbly-Plank. How dare she? At least Hermione does the decent thing of bending under Harry's pressure - yes, she wants Hagrid back as a terrible teacher, of course she does!
But the big question is how did Rita discover Hagrid's secret without being seen? (And yes, she is close to the truth, Rita did overhear Hagrid at the ball.)
Alas, Hagrid ignores the kids when they come to see him.
A nice example for Terri's thesis about Hogwarts discipline that I linked in chapter 18 (as well as her vision of Slytherin student culture from her fic): Draco taunts Harry only when there are teachers around, because that's allowed, but responding with violence or magic is punishable. I think in OOTP after the Quidditch match he managed to overdo the taunting to the point neither Harry nor George cared about punishment anymore.)
Harry lies to Hermione about his progress with the egg because he hopes to meet Hagrid in Hogsmeade. Er, if Hagrid is avoiding everyone why would he go to Hogsmaeade when students are there?
On the way there they see Viktor jumping into the lake. I remember when I first read this it reminded me of the places where this is done as a New Years tradition. But of course this means Viktor (like Cedric) figured out the egg's message and was working on his Transfiguration. (And Ron hopes the giant squid will take care of Viktor. Nice of him. And completely different from Draco wishing Slytherin's monster would kill Hermione.) Well, Viktor proved his worthiness to Hermione by saying he liked Hogwarts better than Durmstrang. And Ron broke his Viktor figurine. Oh, what a love triangle. But really, Viktor treats Hermione nicely, Hermione thinks well of him, they have enough to talk about to have a correspondence that lasts into the following year at least - why does she drop him for Ron of all people? (Because she smells Ron in the Amortentia. Hermione/Ron is all about hormones, no substance.)
Bagman (the mastermind!) is at the Three Broomsticks. With angry goblins. Why is he here? Well, the only way Harry can get a clue about his agenda is if he conducts his shady meetings where Harry (and half of the Hogwarts school body) is bound to show up. Oh, he wants a word with Harry. He reveals that Crouch Sr has been absent for weeks and Percy says he is ill. (Note that Percy is just saying what he knows - and that people outside Crouch's department are well aware of the latter's absence. Percy isn't pretending Crouch is in his office but too busy to see anyone. Also, note that Ludo doesn't think there is anything odd about Crouch's absence - so either the illness story really looks convincing or Ludo doesn't care or he really is the one who set these events in motion in the first place so obviously he isn't surprised, nor does he want anyone else to be.) If Rita found out about the absence she'd say Crouch went missing, like Bertha Jorkins. Well, that's not far from the truth. Was that a slip from the mastermind of the plot?
Ludo is finally conducting a search for the lost employee from his own department. Turns out Bertha visited one relative but disappeared on her way to another's home. And she's not the type to elope (why else would a woman disappear? the sexism).
OK, what Ludo really wanted was to give Harry a clue. Because he likes him. And supports a champion from Hogwarts. But not the official one. Harry doesn't want an unfair advantage, does he? He's selective about only receiving help from people he likes (even if they are teachers, like Hagrid and 'Moody', from whom he is explicitly not allowed to receive help). Now Ludo is refusing a drink from the twins. Is that because like Harry he realized to be suspicious with their offerings? (Or just avoiding their demands to be paid in real money for that bet.)
Hermione thinks Albus wouldn't have liked Ludo persuading Harry to cheat? Since when is Dumbles opposed to cheating by Harry?
Ron thinks Percy is trying to slowly poison Crouch so he could take over the department. Like fan theories about Severus and Sirius in OOTP.
Rita is there. And seems like she is considering investigating Bagman at the moment. But Harry confronts her about the Hagrid story, while Hermione calls her on her general method. Rita hints she already knows something about Ludo (indeed, she reported from his trial). Though it seems her plan was to get Ludo to lose his job rather quickly. I wonder how that was supposed to work. But now Rita found her next target. Indeed, Harry already sees her quill at work. But even before we see anything else from her, Hermione decides to get Rita, somehow. I believe this is where Hermione's other transformation begins. That's where she develops her vengeful streak, which we will see more of next year (and from which she doesn't recover in canon.) Naively Hermione thinks the only people whose opinion of her matters are her parents. Little does she know.
She decides its her duty to force Hagrid out of his sulk. Well, Albus is there too. Finally, almost 2 weeks after Rita's article, he is there to show some support to a member of his staff. Oh, and he brought with him countless of supportive letters from parents. Who remember Hagrid as groundskeeper (or the assistant to one), not as a teacher. Also, Albus receives complaints about the running of the school weekly. But ignores them all, of course. How would anyone else know better than him? So now people bring up their horrible relatives. Harry has the Dursleys. ('Look what I've got for relatives' - because Muggles aren't human, so they qualify as 'what' rather than 'who'.) And Dumbles has Aberforth, with some never-quite-explained history with goats. (Why would wizards care about bestiality, if that really is the case? They do every other horrible thing to animals.)
How long did Hagrid's father think his son wasn't a wizard? Was Hagrid a later bloomer than Neville?
We get Hagrid's take on Albus - he gives second chances, will take in anyone, regardless of family background, as long as s/he has magical talent. (What Hagrid doesn't say is that said family members get treated like dirt if they aren't human magicals.)
And finally Harry decides to tackle the egg. Because he can't let Hagrid down. (Harry/Hagrid OTP?)
Re: The Truth about Aberforth, Part 2
Date: 2011-06-16 06:06 pm (UTC)Hufflepuff? I have seen good arguments for both Ravenclaw (detachment, pride in his cleverness, analyzing emotions he doesn't actually experience) and Slytherin (how different is he from Tom?) but I can't see Hufflepuff. Who is he loyal to other than himself? Where is the work ethic? While I can see both Umbridge and Fudge as Hufflepuffs gone bad (though Umbridge has connections with Slytherins and Fudge can posture like the best of Gryffindor) I can't see the Twinkly One as such.
I've said it before, and I'll say it again: If you assume Dumbledore is a psychopath and everything he says is a lie, the books make sense. If you don't, you're forced to torture out these endless, convoluted explanations for his remarks, like like terri_testing is so good at doing.
We tried listing all his canonically demonstrated and suspected lies once here. We may have missed a few, but yes, the list got rather longish.
Re: The Truth about Aberforth, Part 2
Date: 2011-06-19 04:54 am (UTC)I was also thinking of terri's suggestion Aberforth was dyslexic, among other speculations she's made about the family.
Regarding Dumbledore the Hufflepuff, I wrote a reply, but it got so long I'm going to post it as a separate essay in the next few days. I also examine why he favored and disfavored the houses he did.
Re: The Truth about Aberforth, Part 2
Date: 2011-06-19 05:14 am (UTC)The possibility of Dyslexia occurred to Terri because of her dyslexic grandfather (just like marionros reads Albus as a Narcissist because of her narcissistic sister and you read him similarly from your experience in your family). Before there was awareness of this disability dyslexics were often treated by emotionally normal people the way Albus treats his brother. But of course Albus would be nasty that way to Aberforth even without that kind of 'justification'. Based on my experience all I can say is that swythyv is completely wrong with the Autism Spectrum Disorders (though I like her description of Albus as the man who failed at many of life's tests).
Looking forward to your essay on Albus' true House.
Re: The Truth about Aberforth, Part 2
Date: 2011-06-19 06:07 am (UTC)...Oh, I have most of DH done, too! Just from Severus' memories, but those are the only ones I feel we can use to judge Dumbledore with, anyway. (The stuff Harry hears after being AK'd could be a hallucination.)
Dumbledore's true statements in DH, part one
Date: 2011-06-19 06:21 am (UTC)Dumbledore makes very few statements in this book. He doesn't say much (being dead), and many of the things he says are questions or orders, which have no truth value.
(Of course, questions and orders can deceive, but I'll leave that to Oryx.)
So:
“The prophecy did not refer to a woman,” said Dumbledore. “It spoke of a boy born at the end of July – ”
This is not something that they could be entirely sure of. We've talked about the seventh month thing.
“You disgust me,” said Dumbledore
May or may not be true. He'd probably say it anyway, because he's trying to browbeat Severus. (And succeedding.)
“[Lily's] boy survives,” said Dumbledore.
True.
“Her son lives. He has her eyes, precisely her eyes.
Precisely? Oh, whatever.
“If you loved Lily Evans, if you truly loved her, then your way forward is clear.”
Hmm... no. I don't think that it's clear. Severus could have done all kinds of other things. He could have gone after Vapor!mort, he could have openly worked for greater acceptance of Muggleborns. He could have done a lot of things.
He could have taken Harry away from the Dursleys and seen to it that Harry grew up in a happier home.
I'm not blaming Severus for not doing these other things, mind you. I'm just saying that Dumbledore's statement isn't true.
“You know how and why she died.
True. (The rest of this line consists of orders/suggestions, which have no truth value.)
“The Dark Lord will return, and Harry Potter will be in terrible danger when he does.”
True. And one of the people that Harry will be in danger from is *Dumbledore*, since Dumbledore is going to set him up to die.
“You see what you expect to see, Severus,” said Dumbledore, without raising his eyes from a copy of Transfiguration Today.
We don't know whether this is true, and it's a matter of much debate in Snapedom even as we speak.
“Other teachers report that the boy is modest, likable, and reasonably talented.
...Probably? We don't know, but probably.
Personally, I find him an engaging child.”
This is in the middle of Harry's first year, so Dumbledore has interacted with Harry for... how many seconds? Probably zero. I suppose Legilimency at a distance is a possibility, or something, I certainly can't categorize this one as known to be true.
“You are a braver man by far than Igor Karkaroff.
True.
“I…was a fool. Sorely tempted…”
Probably true on both accounts.
“You have done very well, Severus. [...] I am fortunate, extremely fortunate, that I have you, Severus.”
True. :P
“I refer to the plan Lord Voldemort is revolving around me. His plan to have the poor Malfoy boy murder me.”
I am sure that that is what he was referring to.
“Oh, not quite yet,” said Dumbledore, smiling. “I daresay the moment will present itself in due course. Given what has happened tonight,” he indicated his withered hand, “we can be sure that it will happen within a year.”
True, true, and true.
I confess I should prefer a quick, painless exit to the protracted and messy affair it will be if, for instance, Greyback is involved – I hear Voldemort has recruited him? Or dear Bellatrix, who likes to play with her food before she eats it.”
I'm sure this is true -- the preference, and what he'd heard.
[“He is his father over again – ”]
“In looks, perhaps, but his deepest nature is much more like his mother’s.
Maybe.
[“Information,” repeated Snape. “You trust him…you do not trust me.”]
“It is not a question of trust.
I believe that.
I have, as we both know, limited time.
Don't we all? But Dumbledore's is particularly limited.
“I prefer not to put all of my secrets in one basket
Total, utter lie. Dumbledore is the one basket he keeps all his secrets in.
“And you do it extremely well.
This refers to Snape's spending time around Voldemort. It's probably true.
Dumbledore's true statements in DH, part two
Date: 2011-06-19 06:22 am (UTC)There's room for doubt here, but it could be true. Dumbledore probably does know, whether or not he cares.
“You gave me your word, Severus. And while we are talking about services you owe me, I thought you agreed to keep a close eye on our young Slytherin friend?”
True, and presumably true.
[“But what must he do?”]
“That is between Harry and me. Now listen closely, Severus. There will come a time – after my death – do not argue, do not interrupt! There will come a time when Lord Voldemort will seem to fear for the life of his snake.”
True because he makes it be true, and true even though he must be guessing.
Everything else is Dumbledore's portrait, or a possible hallucination, so I'm going to leave DH with just this.
Re: Dumbledore's true statements in DH, part two
Date: 2011-06-21 03:05 am (UTC)Re: The Truth about Aberforth, Part 2
Date: 2011-06-21 12:58 am (UTC)Re: The Truth about Aberforth, Part 2
Date: 2011-06-21 02:34 am (UTC)Agreed. Aspies/Auties who try to be manipulative tend to be amazingly naive about it. Nor would they be capable of the intense eye contact required for Legilimency.
It's an unfair characterization, for, unlike psychopaths, most people with Asperger's genuinely do care about others' feelings. I think part of the problem is that psychologists have failed to see the distinction between being empathetic and having social skills.
Yes. There's a deficiency in understanding how other minds work, understanding a different perspective, and how to express feelings appropriately.
Re: The Truth about Aberforth, Part 2
Date: 2011-06-21 03:27 am (UTC)My problem with her article, and with the other explanations I've described as tortured, is that they all seem to start with this premise: Albus Dumbledore is a good man, but he does and says a lot of terrible things. How can I reconcile that contradiction?
You can't. Not without coming up with outlandish theories, that, while certainly ingenious, require one to do a lot of guessing and inferring that isn't supported by the text. As Sherlock Holmes put it, you end up twisting the facts to suit your theories, instead of twisting your theories to suit the facts. That's bad reasoning. Good reasoning requires you to keep an open mind, look at the evidence and nothing else, and see where the evidence takes you. Period. In this case, the evidence leads to only one place: Dumbledore is a narcissistic psychopath.
Re: The Truth about Aberforth, Part 2
Date: 2011-06-21 02:56 pm (UTC)Re: The Truth about Aberforth, Part 2
Date: 2011-06-21 06:21 pm (UTC)As to Dumbledore, I did wonder what on earth was wrong with him after reading DH. The loss of my imagined kind and fatherly Dumbledore was one of the two or three things I liked least about that book. (The others were Snape's mistreatment, the lack of reconciliation between him and Harry, Harry's total failure to grow up, and the shoddy, video-game-style plotting.) But it is a consistent picture throughout the books, when you look closely. The question is: what is it a picture of? The Bitter Word was the first, to my knowledge, to argue that Dumbledore as written is a malign narcissist. She convinced me completely. But I still wonder why? If Dumbledore is supposed to be Rowling's image of God the Father - well. Enough said, perhaps.
Re: The Truth about Aberforth, Part 2
Date: 2011-06-21 07:38 pm (UTC)Actually, say what you will about video games, but they do tend at the least to have a lot of action. There would be a lot less wandering in the woods in the last book if it were a video game- or at least there would be more random encounters to spice it up.
Re: The Truth about Aberforth, Part 2
Date: 2011-06-21 08:55 pm (UTC)As to Dumbledore, I did wonder what on earth was wrong with him after reading DH...The Bitter Word was the first, to my knowledge, to argue that Dumbledore as written is a malign narcissist. She convinced me completely. But I still wonder why? If Dumbledore is supposed to be Rowling's image of God the Father - well. Enough said, perhaps.
I don't think Snape has Asperger's, either. Somebody else brought that up at some point, and a person who has children with the disorder protested that no one with autism could be a spy at all, let alone a double agent. I think Snape is just an introvert with poor social skills. That's not surprising since he probably never had the chance to learn them.
I concur that Dumbledore is a malignant narcissist. I just think he's a psychopath as well. The two conditions are very similar.
As for Rowling's image of God: When I was in college, I took a course in which my teacher said a person's image of God is usually an extrapolation of their image of their own father. I've found that to be generally true, and we know JKR's relationship with her father is problematic. Since these books are Rowling's personal psychodrama, it makes sense that she would use the characters to get her emotional problems out of her system. Thus her hostility towards her father could be coming out subliminally in her portrayal of a fatherly figure she consciously believes is good and loving, but who is really cold, dishonest, and manipulative.
That could also explain why Rowling has written nothing since finishing the HP books: She got her hangups out of her system by writing this series, so she has no reason to write any other fiction. Bill O'Reilly is a similar case. He's written several books, but only one novel, Those Who Trespass. That book is also clearly a psychodrama in which he divides his personality into three parts, two ordinary and one intelligent and charismatic. Then the two ordinary parts gang up on the third, exceptional part and pursue it until it dies in a fiery accident (because they're not smart enough to outwit it). He also used that book to get revenge on people who had wronged him in his career by having his intelligent part murder fictional versions of them in various horrible ways. O'Reilly and Rowling OTP! ;-)
Re: The Truth about Aberforth, Part 2
Date: 2011-06-21 09:25 pm (UTC)Re: The Truth about Aberforth, Part 2
Date: 2011-06-22 01:06 am (UTC)There is a world of difference between a really good author bringing a bit of themselves, and what they've experienced thruout life to a story, and a neurotic hack writing an autobiography disguised as fiction.
Every character I've ever created in my own writings reflects people I have met thruout my life, but I have never, ever, written a character who was solely a reflection of one real person.
In fact in my current fan fiction I have a character who, as I first developed and described her, did in fact end up sounding very much like one person I knew from my past. I didn't consciously do this, I only discovered it on rereading what I had written, and I was actually dismayed, because I didn't want this character to be anything like this real person! So I made a concerted effort to make changes to the character so she'd be a different person.
Rowling, OTOH, has admitted that many of the characters she's written about are direct representations of people from her past, especially the "bad" characters who are based on people she didn't like.
As has been noted, Rowling has father issues, and that is blatantly obvious thruout the series; there is really no positive male authority figure to be found, and that includes Arthur Weasley, who is really a weak and ineffectual character.
A better writer would have maybe one or two troublesome male authority characters in a story, but then balance it out with characters who had positive traits. But Rowling can't see beyond her own personal neurosis.
Re: The Truth about Aberforth, Part 2
Date: 2011-06-22 02:49 am (UTC)JKR has said that at least three characters in the books were deliberately written to be people she knew: Snape, Lockhart, and Pansy. There may be others, for all I know. That's certainly in a different category.
Re: The Truth about Aberforth, Part 2
Date: 2011-06-22 03:15 am (UTC)Re: The Truth about Aberforth, Part 2
Date: 2011-06-22 03:38 pm (UTC)Well really, all characters reflect an author's personality.
My "good" characters reflect aspects that I personally admire; my "bad" characters reflect aspects that I don't admire.
But none of them are avatars for me.
THAT is what I see as the problem with Rowling's writing...her characters whom she perceives as "good" are little more than avatars of herself. The characters whom she perceives as "bad" either are mirror images of people from her past who she didn't like, or a compilation of people with whom she has issues (her father being the most blatant, but I see Mother Issues too).
So while any author brings their life experiences to their writing, authors who are at least better than adequate can bring some objectivity to their characters, while hacks like Rowling and O'Reilly can not.
will continue in next post
Re: The Truth about Aberforth, Part 2
Date: 2011-06-22 03:42 pm (UTC)I actually had two instances in my fan fic; the first one was when Severus meets the captain of the ship that he had accidentally stowed away on...after I wrote the scene between them, when I went back and reread it, I realized that my physical description of the captain sounded very much like Dumbledore! :-P
I hadn't even had the slightest fragment of a thought regarding Dumbledore when I wrote about the captain, but when I reread my description I was flabbergasted that that was what I'd done. I then made a conscious decision to change certain things about the captain so he wouldn't seem to be Dumbledore's avatar.
With the other character, she's actually a very nice, positive person. But I realized that after I'd started writing her, that both physically and at least in her speech patterns, she was almost exactly like someone I'd gone to high school with (which was during the same time period as the story), and the real person was, to put it diplomatically, at the very least a troubled person, who later on we found out had been two-faced, back-biting, and after graduation hit the skids big time.
That was NOT the path I saw my fictional character taking; for various reasons I couldn't make major changes to her as I'd done with my captain character, but one change I introduces was to have her not use the contempory slang in her speech as much as she had been when first introduced (that was something the real person had done, forcibly introduced slang into her speech to seem "hip", when she was the farthest from hip you could get!)
So even if I hadn't made a change in my character in the current story, her life in later years is going to be 180 degrees opposite from the real person. As I said, the only thing that makes her so like this person I knew is her looks, and her tendency to speak almost completely in slang. But the characters basic personality is totally different from the real person I knew, and always was going to be. I was just surprised that I'd written someone who especially when you first meet her in the story, sounds like a mirror image of this girl I knew from school.
The key thing is, I never created the character to BE a representation of this real person, and as I said, the character's personality and subsequent life was always going to be the polar opposite of the real person's -- which is why I didn't feel compelled to make changes to the character at this point, I realize that it's just a coincidence that she resembles the real person I had known.
If I was Rowling, I'd be creating characters to be direct representations of people I've known, or characters who are at least direct compilations of people I've known. I must admit that at one time I did write stories and characters that way -- it was my way to bolster me and my friends, and get back at people I didn't like. Obviously the "good" characters were me and my friends, the "bad" characters were people I didn't like.
But that was back when I first started creative writing, both plays and short stories -- WHEN I WAS 12 YEARS OLD!!!!!
By the time I was in high school my writing had matured to the point where I no longer needed or desired to do that.
In fact, all of my "good" characters -- and notice I've been putting the terms "good" and "bad" in quotes -- are always extremely flawed in some manner; and my "bad" characters are never the epitome of complete evil. I've never had a character who is someone you could label "villian" in the classical sense, rather they are people who are damaged in some manner, and that damage effects their behavior to the detriment of others. They are people for whom the reader can actually have some understanding, if not outright sympathy.
Hacks who write stories that are really personal psychodramas rarely have characters of any compexity, the hats the wear are either white or black, never grey.
Re: The Truth about Aberforth, Part 2
Date: 2011-06-30 02:06 pm (UTC)My two cents!