think Elkins made an interesting point once, about most other characters backgrounds have very clearly affected them - Neville, Ron and Draco act and are very much what you'd expect from their various families; whereas Harry has apparently innate social skills and lack of damage.
That's true. I never noticed that before. I don't know- that's one of the things that really bugs me about Harry Potter. It's like his background is just there are justification for when Harry acts like a jackass (OMG dun criticize him for shredding Draco into ribbons and then not feeling even a jot of regret! He's ABUSED!), but then it's like JKR was too much of a chicken to actually put in interesting things about how his resulting psychological make-up. Argh, overanalyzing- children's book, I know. But she could have at least done something about making him painfully shy and hesitant to reach out to anyone... Eh. She's not going to change, anyway. She's already like a multigazillionaire from writing crappy books, so maybe we're the ones who should be emulating her.
(Of course, all this analysation is pretty pointless when you're dealing with characters that are charicatures, but still.) Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. [/Bad quoting of Freud] :D I find it really amusing that everyone in this community treats the Harry Potter franchise with utmost scorn (I mean, it really is a terribly-written series for the most part, so that's justified), but then heavily overanalyzes everything that the characters do as if JKR were... I don't know, Gustave Flaubert. It's highly unlikely that JK Rowling is a master of subtlety of characterization- if anything, her books have shown exactly the opposite. The Dursleys = BAD (think the Aunts from James and the Giant Peach). The Trio = Obnoxious GOOD. Ginny/Lily/Molly = OMG SO PERFECT JKR self-inserts AND MATERNAL. AND SASSY. Anyone that Harry dislikes = PATHETIC. Or possibly EVIL. Insert some painfully obvious character turns (Snape, Draco, etc.) and awkward 'sort of, but not quite' misogyny and you've got a book.
I don't know, maybe it's amusing to play the What-If game- I know that you have fun doing that- but other people seem to take it so seriously.
Maybe we are all self-hating. ;)
(Sorry for reposting- I had completely forgotten to elaborate on the first point. Whoops.)
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2006-10-28 12:30 pm (UTC)That's true. I never noticed that before. I don't know- that's one of the things that really bugs me about Harry Potter. It's like his background is just there are justification for when Harry acts like a jackass (OMG dun criticize him for shredding Draco into ribbons and then not feeling even a jot of regret! He's ABUSED!), but then it's like JKR was too much of a chicken to actually put in interesting things about how his resulting psychological make-up. Argh, overanalyzing- children's book, I know. But she could have at least done something about making him painfully shy and hesitant to reach out to anyone... Eh. She's not going to change, anyway. She's already like a multigazillionaire from writing crappy books, so maybe we're the ones who should be emulating her.
(Of course, all this analysation is pretty pointless when you're dealing with characters that are charicatures, but still.)
Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. [/Bad quoting of Freud] :D I find it really amusing that everyone in this community treats the Harry Potter franchise with utmost scorn (I mean, it really is a terribly-written series for the most part, so that's justified), but then heavily overanalyzes everything that the characters do as if JKR were... I don't know, Gustave Flaubert. It's highly unlikely that JK Rowling is a master of subtlety of characterization- if anything, her books have shown exactly the opposite. The Dursleys = BAD (think the Aunts from James and the Giant Peach). The Trio = Obnoxious GOOD. Ginny/Lily/Molly = OMG SO PERFECT JKR self-inserts AND MATERNAL. AND SASSY. Anyone that Harry dislikes = PATHETIC. Or possibly EVIL. Insert some painfully obvious character turns (Snape, Draco, etc.) and awkward 'sort of, but not quite' misogyny and you've got a book.
I don't know, maybe it's amusing to play the What-If game- I know that you have fun doing that- but other people seem to take it so seriously.
Maybe we are all self-hating. ;)
(Sorry for reposting- I had completely forgotten to elaborate on the first point. Whoops.)