Redemption in Harry Potter: Revisited

[sweettalkeress.livejournal.com]

This is something that occurred to me based on a couple things said by me and others about Draco's "redemption" in the comments on the latest Pottermore entry. Much has been made of how in the Harry Potter books it seems as though you are either good or evil and no matter what you do this never changes. But that in and of itself isn't entirely fair--it's slightly more nuanced than that. Near as I can tell, Dan H on Ferretbrain was one of the people who first commented on this in detail, but upon revisiting the article he wrote on the subject, I realized that this was his exact wording:

"You can't change, you can't be redeemed (unless you've already had the good fortune to fall in love with a Gryffindor)..."

Emphasis mine.

So redemption is possible in the Harry Potter books, but it always comes from external forces and never from the redeemed characters themselves. Draco might become a better person because his mother loved him and vice versa. Dudley might become a better person because Harry magnanimously saved his life once. Snape became a better person because he fell in love with Harry's mother (yes, that's likely not ALL there was to it, but that's the picture Rowling seems to have intended to paint in the books). According to the abovementioned article, Voldemort himself briefly had the opportunity to "try for some remorse" simply because Harry decided to take pity on him. It's not that any of these characters made the conscious choice to become better people--it's simply that they were redeemed by the grace of the "good guys," or "love" in general (or not, in Voldy's case). So their redemption was ultimately still fated to be, even if they technically did change a little bit. Either way, whether they were good or bad was ultimately outside their own control.

JK Rowling about the latest tragedy

[elanor-x.livejournal.com]

JK Rowling responded to Rupert Murdoch's tweet (""Maybe most Moslems peaceful, but until they recognize and destroy their growing jihadist cancer they must be held responsible.") with:

"The Spanish Inquisition was my fault, as is all Christian fundamentalist violence. Oh, and Jim Bakker."

"I was born Christian. If that makes Rupert Murdoch my responsibility, I'll auto-excommunicate."

In follow-up tweets, Rowling went on to share a recent study that suggested eight times as many Muslims as non-Muslims have died in terrorist attacks, and also lauded “the courage and compassionate actions” of the the Muslim employee of the kosher supermarket that was targeted during the second siege in Paris, who hid Jewish customers from the attacker, saying his deeds “remind us of what ‘humanity’ ought to mean.”

(Via)