HBP Chapter Ten: "The House of Gaunt"

[for-diddled.livejournal.com]

* Hermione refuses to follow the HBP’s instructions, instead sticking to the “official” version. This seems a bit odd, really – Hermione’s supposed to be this questioning, inquisitive girl, and I don’t see why such a person would rigidly stick to a set of instructions which are quite obviously not very good. Plus of course Hermione’s always had an obsession with being the best in her class, and the idea of just plodding on whilst Harry overtakes her seems rather OOC. It would be one thing if she were worried the Prince’s instructions might be unsafe, but as Rowling writes it, it just looks like pig-headedness and rules-worship.

* Nice to see Dumbledore making light of Harry’s bad behaviour. I wonder what the teachers all feel about their Headmaster undermining attempts to discipline children.

* Dumbledore admits that “I make mistakes like the next man. In fact, being – forgive me – rather cleverer than most men, my mistakes tend to be correspondingly huger.” Although better not take him at his word and start questioning Dumbledore’s decisions, else the authorial voice will mark you down as irredeemably evil.

* Maybe I’m just being paranoid here, but Dumbledore’s talk of “persuading” people to give him their memories has a faintly sinister ring about it.

* I know I’ve commented on this before, but wizards’ total inability to blend in with muggles is ridiculous. It’s even more stupid when they’re Ministry employees: surely the wizarding government at least ought to ensure that its workers know how to look inconspicuous when doing their jobs.

* Naturally Rowling has to make Slytherin’s descendants completely degenerate and inbred. Can’t have anything good coming from evil old Salazar, after all. No doubt if Gryffindor’s heirs were still kicking around they’d be wealthy noblemen or the like.

* Whatever else Morfin may be, he’s a rubbish poet.

* So Merope gets Tom using a love potion – naturally, because it’s not like one of those slimy Slytherin types could ever attract anybody using normal methods. Apparently this means that  Voldemort was doomed to evilness from the start due to being conceived without love, which seems like a rather weird thing for JKR to say, because she doesn’t suggest elsewhere that love potions are anything other than a big joke. IOIAGDI, perhaps?

* Although the Gaunts are meant to be the last scions of one of wizarding Britain’s most noble houses, their actual portrayal seems to owe more to American redneck stereotypes than to impoverished nobleman ones. I keep half expecting Morfin to randomly whip out a banjo in the middle of the conversation.

* Whilst watching selected highlights of Voldemort’s family history might help defeat him, I doubt it would be as useful as, say, learning about how to recognise and destroy Horcruxes. Maybe this is meant to be one of Dumbledore’s huge mistakes that were mentioned earlier. (Gasp, criticising Dumbledore?! Blasphemy!!!)

* Wow, Rowling’s really leading up to this whole hand thing, isn’t he? A pity we never really get a decent pay-off.

Comments

[aikaterini.livejournal.com]

/It would be one thing if she were worried the Prince’s instructions might be unsafe, but as Rowling writes it, it just looks like pig-headedness and rules-worship/

Or maybe Hermione is just so angry at Harry upstaging her that she’s willing to cut off her nose to spite her face. Either way, it doesn’t portray her in a very positive light.

/In fact, being – forgive me – rather cleverer than most men, my mistakes tend to be correspondingly huger.”/

So, why do you never learn from them? *cough* Ariana *cough* Tom *cough* Harry.

/wizards’ total inability to blend in with muggles is ridiculous./

I think that this goes back to the uneven tonal shifts between drama and humor in the last few books. HBP is supposed to be one of the darker books and yet we still have things like this happening. Besides, why is Crouch Sr. the only Ministry employee who knows how to dress like a Muggle?

/No doubt if Gryffindor’s heirs were still kicking around they’d be wealthy noblemen or the like./

But...the Slytherins are supposed to be the wealthy, blue-blood aristocrats, aren’t they? Aren’t Draco and Pansy and Blaise supposed to represent the snobby, rich bullies at school whose families sneer at everyone who doesn’t belong to their country club?

I mean, maybe the Gaunts’ fate is supposed to be ironic, that these dirt-poor members of gentry still think that they’re superior to everyone else, even as they live in a run-down shack. But I can’t imagine the Malfoys meeting them and reacting any differently than Tom Riddle Sr. and Cecilia, regardless of how “pure” their blood is. Maybe they’d make an effort to befriend the Gaunts, as Lucius made an effort to befriend the working-class Severus, but not without some hidden disgust on their part.

As a matter of fact, if the majority of Slytherins were indeed more like the Gaunts (poor, bigoted, and uneducated), it would make more sense that so many of them gravitated to Voldemort. Because if most of them are wealthy aristocrats, then...what is it that he’s offering that they want or need? What is it that they lack that he’s offering to provide?

/So Merope gets Tom using a love potion – naturally, because it’s not like one of those slimy Slytherin types could ever attract anybody using normal methods./

You know, JKR never said how Eileen Prince met Tobias Snape...

/Apparently this means that Voldemort was doomed to evilness from the start due to being conceived without love, which seems like a rather weird thing for JKR to say/

And horribly offensive to children born of rape.

/I keep half expecting Morfin to randomly whip out a banjo in the middle of the conversation./

Ha! XD Wonder what would have happened if he had whacked Tom Jr. in the head with one.

[oryx_leucoryx]

Besides, why is Crouch Sr. the only Ministry employee who knows how to dress like a Muggle?

Because he was evil, of course. I bet the Malfoys know what to wear when they go to watch ballet.

[mary-j-59.livejournal.com]

Or maybe Hermione is just so angry at Harry upstaging her that she’s willing to cut off her nose to spite her face. Either way, it doesn’t portray her in a very positive light.

Alas, I agree with this. Hermione had been one of my favorite characters in the earlier books. HBP is when I began to dislike her, and this is part of the reason why. There are others - evil magic canaries, for example.

[condwiramurs.livejournal.com]

I liked - and still kind of like - Hermione, but I'd argue that her more problematic sides start coming out earlier than HBP, frankly. There's the (not very well thought-out) kidnapping and blackmail of Skeeter in GOF and the Marietta/parchment thing and the laughing at Umbridge's trauma in OOTP, for instance.

I think Hermione could be played, successfully, as a well-intentioned but somewhat ruthless girl, someone with moral complexity. I'd love that. But canon works its usual effect on her, as with the other Gryffindors, and these things get shoved to the side in ways that serve only to undermine, rather than enhance, the character.

[mary-j-59.livejournal.com]

Yes, I agree with you, both that Hermione's ruthless side came out quite early, and that she is apparently not supposed to be criticized for it in canon. That is a pity. The character had a lot of potential - as did Severus; as did Ron - and there was no attention paid to reasonable character development.

I guess I just find the last two books so egregiously bad that they wreck almost everything that went before them. But I, personally, still have a sneaking fondness for OOTP. That's when I began shipping Harry and Luna, and thinking Severus the hero of the entire piece.

Oh, well.

[oryx_leucoryx]

Hermione's problematic morals came out since the late part of GOF, I agree. I think the transition starts when she promises to get back at Rita for calling her a 'silly little girl' (ch 24). But while in GOF and OOTP she was doing horrible things supposedly for 'the cause' and 'to protect Harry' (not that she chose actions that should have been expected to achieved these results), in HBP she Confounds Cormac to get Ron on the Quidditch team, and when he fails to dutifully reward her for her efforts she attacks him with canaries (in the face, no less). She does immoral things for selfish goals. That's a whole new low.

[charlottehywd.livejournal.com]

Well, I think all of these things could make for an interesting character, except the author apparently thinks that her ruthlessness and cruelty are a-OK. Alas. There are a lot of things about this series that could be really cool if JKR really thought out the consequences of them and didn't play favorites.

[charlottehywd.livejournal.com]

* I know I’ve commented on this before, but wizards’ total inability to blend in with muggles is ridiculous. It’s even more stupid when they’re Ministry employees: surely the wizarding government at least ought to ensure that its workers know how to look inconspicuous when doing their jobs.

Well, obviously it's because non-magic users are complete idiots and could never figure out that the poorly dressed people who talk about magic in public might just be wizards and not terrible cosplayers. Seriously, why aren't the wizards terrified of muggles? There are tons more of them, they have advanced weaponry and if they find it out, they will probably be really ticked that so many people have had their memories stolen from them for expediency's sake. Super-cool magic is surprisingly unhelpful against a carefully coordinated air strike from thousands of feet above any sort of technology-canceling auras.