HBP Chapter Fourteen: "Felix Felicis"

[for-diddled.livejournal.com]

* First up, I’m not sure what the name “felix felicis” is about. It’s Latin for “happy of happy”, but that makes no sense whatsoever. If I were in a particularly cynical mood, I might suggest she looked up happy in a Latin dictionary, found felix felicis, and didn’t realise that the second word was just the genitive singular of the first.

* Ron correctly points out that Harry’s lessons with Dumbledore aren’t actually teaching him anything useful, although once again we’re probably expected to judge him for his lack of blind faith in whatever his superiors say ought to be done.

* Hermione’s defence, that the lessons help to find out Voldemort’s weaknesses, might be more convincing if Harry ever actually uses something from Voldemort’s childhood against him.

* I’m not sure why Harry’s so averse to attending Slug Club meetings. Yeah, Slughorn’s a bit obsequious, but not so bad as to justify Potter’s constant attempts to avoid him.

* This scene perfectly captures Ron and Hermione’s dynamic: Ron sneers at Hermione for being better than him, and Hermione puts Ron down and makes him feel jealous. If this is JKR’s idea of romance, I’d hate to be her husband.

* Still, at least Harry’s got his priorities right: how will he be affected if they start going out?

* “Under the influence of Butterbeer” makes it sound like an alcoholic drink, but I’m pretty sure we’ve seen no-one (or at least no-one human) get drunk off it before, and there’s never been any indication of an age limit for drinking it. Oh dear, continuity.

* Seamus slams his books and looks sour when Dean gets a place on the team instead of him. For all that fandom has Slytherins down as the Hogwarts drama queens, I think that Gryffindors are definitely the most stroppy.

* I can’t imagine where the rest of Gryffindor house gets the idea that Harry plays favourites from. Except perhaps from the fact that he chose his best friend Ron two years in a row, despite the fact that Ron always goes to pieces whenever there’s a game on. Perhaps that has something to do with it.

* Still, it’s a pity JKR had to resurrect nervouskeeper!Ron. Not only was it tedious enough in the last book, its inclusion here just makes the Quidditch scenes in Phoenix seem even more pointless, and Ron even more needlessly pathetic.

* Ginny, of course, looks even better than usual in this scene: not only does she score most of the goals against Ron (which is probably meant to increase his emasculation – even his little sister is better than him), but she also makes Harry laugh with her sassy put-downs. When she and Harry get married they can both bond over their mutual enjoyment of other people’s discomfort.

* And… here comes the chest monster! Honestly, Harry and his chest monster must be the second-worst romance I’ve ever read (the first, of course, is Ron and Hermione).

* We know Ginny’s going to be awesome in this scene when she begins by “tossing her long red hair and glaring at Ron”. Somebody kill me now.

* What’s with all this “let’s get this straight once and for all” business? Ginny’s choice of words seems to imply that Ron keeps prying into her love life, but we’ve never been given any indication that this is the case.

* I presume the thing Ron doesn’t want people calling Ginny is “slut”? I wish they would. Not because I think it’s true, but because Ginny’s just so irritating that anything which would annoy her is OK by me.

* Ginny has a go at Ron for not having enough experience. Because obviously, modern society isn’t nearly sexualised enough, we need a series of popular books telling children that anybody who hasn’t had enough sexual experience is pathetic.

* Man, Ginny’s just a total bitch in this scene. Yes, Ron was rude to her, but her response is really disproportionate and uncalled-for.

* It’s odd, but Ginny seems to get most worked up about the way Ron tries to get Fleur’s attention. She sounds rather like a spurned lover here. Hmm, maybe all that Weasleycest fic isn’t quite so out there as I’d assumed.

* No, Harry, don’t stop Ron from cursing her! Let Ginny get zapped for once!

* So Ginny flounces off, leaving Ron behind. I suppose he should count himself lucky she didn’t whip out her wand and perform a super-sassy Bat-Bogey Hex on him.

* “She’s Ron’s sister, Harry told himself firmly. Ron’s sister. She’s out of bounds.” Even though Ron practically threw her at him at the end of the last book. Plot-induced amnesia strikes again.

* Harry feels “dazed and confused” the next morning. So do I, after trying to make sense of this book.

* Hermione’s feeling “hurt and bewildered” by Ron’s “icy, sneering indifference”. If this was a semi-believable book, I’d say that Ron had finally had enough of Hermione’s constant passive aggressiveness and undermining, but as it is I think we’re supposed to assume he’s just upset at finding out Hermione had snogged Krum two years ago.

* Incidentally, why is this supposed to be such a big and shocking revelation? Surely when two teenagers go out, the natural assumption is that they’ll end up snogging?

* Luckily for Ron, he’s got no need to worry: Hermione’s just getting her necessary practice in to hone her technique for her true man.

* FOR GOD’S SAKE ROWLING SHUT UP ABOUT THAT SODDING BAT-BOGEY HEX GINNY IS COOL AND SASSY WE GET IT ALREADY STOP RAMMING IT DOWN OUR THROATS AAARGH… *takes deep breaths*

* Lavender’s trying to make Ron feel better. Keep away from him, you hussy! Ron doesn’t need a nice, friendly girlfriend, he needs a scornful and contemptuous one to keep him down in his rightful place.

* Well, at least the Slytherins are sensible enough to have substitute players.

* Harry gets his hand crushed by the Slytherin captain, and I seem to recall Flint used to do the same thing to Oliver Wood. Is hand-crushing a typical Slytherin trait then? Maybe all their parents told them about the importance of a good firm handshake, and they just take it a bit too far.

* Harry dislikes Zacharias heartily… presumably because he can just sense the latent evil in the boy, even though he hasn’t done anything yet which would merit such dislike. If anything, surely Harry ought to feel friendly towards a fellow DA member?

* Ginny scores four of Gryffindor’s six goals. Colour me shocked.

* The game goes pretty much unremarkably: Gryffindor score a few goals, and then Harry’s broom wins the game, rendering everything which came before totally pointless.

* “Oi, Harper! How much did Malfoy pay you to make you come on instead of him?” I’d say that distracting an opposing seeker like this was a very Slytherin thing to do, were it not for the fact that we hardly ever see Slytherins actually doing cunning and sneaky things like this.

* Not that playing on superior brooms and deliberately psyching out opponents makes the Gryffindors any less chivalrous, you understand.

* Ginny flies into Zach for his insufficiently fawning commentary, placing the crowning turd on the mountain of raw sewage that is this Quidditch game.

* “I never said you couldn’t [save goals]!” No, Hermione, you just implied it really, really strongly, such that nobody could miss that that was what you were thinking.

* Ron “looks like he’s eating [Lavender’s face],” unlike Ginny, who daintily glues herself to her boyfriend’s mouth.

* Unfortunately Ginny’s probably right: most first romances in these books seem to be for people to “refine their technique” before moving on to their true love.

* Hermione seems rather surprised that Ron got tired of her hectoring and decided to hook up with somebody who actually respects him instead. Maybe she’s been getting all her dating advice from The Game or whatever the wizarding equivalent is.

Comments

[annoni-no.livejournal.com]

Hermione did not advise Ginny to 'be herself' by dating. Hermione advised Ginny try dating among other things.

"I never really gave up on you," she said. "Not really. I always hoped ... Hermione told me to get on with life, maybe go out with some other people, relax a bit around you, because I never used to be able to talk if you were in the room, remember? And she thought you might take a bit more notice if I was a bit more - myself."

Let's break this down.

Hermione said to:

1) get on with life (don't obsess over Harry all the time)

2) try dating people who aren't Harry (Ginny might actually like them sorry, this is Rowling-world, all girls need to practice being the perfect girlfriend for their OTL)

3) if she really, truly can't get over Harry, then she needs to relax around him and and be herself if she wants him to notice her

This is a list of things Ginny can try; the 'be herself' clause modifies logically only modifies the last item on the list - relaxing enough to be able to interact with Harry in the first place

OR 'be herself' can be read as a fourth, separate piece of advice, meaning it doesn't directly modify any of Hermione's earlier suggestions.

Next point: Ginny herself never said that she actually took Hermione's advice to heart, only that this was the advice that she was given. If anything, she ignored Hermione's advice to be herself in the way she dated. She wasn't being herself by dating boys she didn't actually care for, she was using the experience of dating to develop a skill set, which, by definition, is something you possess, not something you are. This makes her mercenary, and somewhat callous, but not someone who defines herself by the need to be in some sort of dating relationship at all times (ie 'The Girl Who Dates' (her obsessive focus one particular relationship is different problem).

So, no, it's not accurate to say that Ginny defines herself as someone who goes on dates. The dates are the means to an end for her. A tool. Her culpability here begins and ends at the fact that she was using people emotionally, not that she was dating in the first place.


And yes, Madderbrad, harping on a woman's dating patterns alone, without any concerns about the relationships themselves being abusive or otherwise problematic, is a sexist argument in and of itself, as multiple people have explained. Its entire foundation rests on the double standards between women and men. The simple fact is, no one else can know what you truly believe in your heart of hearts, we can only see what you write. So, if you don't want to be mistaken for sexist, then you need to avoid sexist arguments.

[madderbrad.livejournal.com]

I replied to some of this to Malic's comment, above.

Next point: Ginny herself never said that she actually took Hermione's advice to heart, only that this was the advice that she was given.

Ha ha ha!!

Oh, I'm sorry, but that's pretty funny. Why would Ginny lie? Authors don't write clues and twists when the clues and twists are never revealed!

it's not accurate to say that Ginny defines herself as someone who goes on dates. The dates are the means to an end for her. A tool.

That, plus also 'being herself'. It is tacked on to the other statements. Which must surely read as a set of conjunctions. Get on with life AND go out with some other people AND relax a bit around you AND be a bit more myself.

(Where 'relaxing around you' encompassed "date around you" and "a bit more myself" contained "being the Girl Who Dates".)

That's the easiest and most direct interpretation of Ginny's utterance. Trying to twist it out of shape is just desperate. It's not like Ginny said "I got on with life AND learnt to ride a bicycle but didn't AND dated boys AND discovered the thirteenth use of dragon blood but didn't AND dated while you were in the room AND brokered world peace but didn't AND was myself AND was Donald Trump but wasn't". That doesn't make sense. Neither does your trying to twist what Ginny *did* say into that form.

And yes, Madderbrad, harping on a woman's dating patterns alone, without any concerns about the relationships themselves being abusive or otherwise problematic, is a sexist argument in and of itself, as multiple people have explained. Its entire foundation rests on the double standards between women and men. The simple fact is, no one else can know what you truly believe in your heart of hearts, we can only see what you write. So, if you don't want to be mistaken for sexist, then you need to avoid sexist arguments.

Sigh. It's not a sexist argument. It's an observation about a girl who was, presumably, written to be ... what, sexist? Fitting a stereotype? Fitting a slot that is too close to real life double standards for comfort to some here.

I didn't harp on Ginny's dating patterns alone; not deliberately. If she'd done anything else of consequence I would have addressed that as well. But dating was a large part of Ginny's character, her behaviour in her later years at Hogwarts.

It's not I who is sexist. It's my observations of Ginny. Which could be sexist because I'm an evil sexist who paints things in evil sexist tones. Or ... because the subject of my observations is simply behaving in a stereotypical manner which makes one's objective observations appear sexist.

Guess which one it is? Actually, don't guess, look at the text of the books. :-)

[annoni-no.livejournal.com]

That, plus also 'being herself'. It is tacked on to the other statements. Which must surely read as a set of conjunctions. Get on with life AND go out with some other people AND relax a bit around you AND be a bit more myself.

How is this a set of conjunctions? The original quote is a list. It is a list of things Hermione suggested to Ginny. It is prefaced by the words "Hermione told me" and what follows is an indirect quote listing that advice.

Here, from Purdue Online Writing Lab:

Indirect Quotations

Indirect quotations are not exact wordings but rather rephrasings or summaries of another person's words. In this case, it is not necessary to use quotation marks.

Emphasis added.

How the heck do you get from that ("Hermione told me...") to Ginny making a direct statement to Harry about what she actually did? If you want a concession from me, I need a grammatical breakdown of this quote proving it's a direct statement, or else an actual excerpt of the surrounding canon text showing that it should be interpreted as a statement and not an indirect quote as the portion presented clearly reads. The burden of proof is on you. You've been relying on other people to do your grunt work all thread, but that's not going to fly here. 'Cause from where I'm standing, there's only one person here twisting the quotation beyond all reasonable meaning, and it's not me.


I didn't harp on Ginny's dating patterns alone; not deliberately. If she'd done anything else of consequence I would have addressed that as well. But dating was a large part of Ginny's character, her behaviour in her later years at Hogwarts.

Is it a flaw that we don't see Ginny in a wider variety of contexts? Yes. Would we have a better idea of who she is as a person if we saw her in those other contexts? Certainly. But that is not a flaw of the character. It is a flaw in the writing. This critique applies solely to Rowling and her lack of competence in building a believable character and love interest. So, can one make the argument that Rowling is sexist based on her misplaced emphasis? I believe one can.

One can't, however, attribute those flaws in the writing to the character of Ginny. A character's flaws depend on the (in)actions of the characters themselves as presented in the work. The points you keep harping on are that Ginny 1) is dating someone during most of her on-page appearances, and 2) doesn't wait long enough after a break-up before she starts dating someone new. The only way either of these speak badly of Ginny as a theoretical person is if you are operating under the sexist idea that there is a right and a wrong way for a woman to date. The very fact that you refer to her as The Girl Who Dates shows very, very clearly that this is what you most object to. Not Ginny The Emotional User, who uses boys as tools. Not Ginny The Unrepentant Bully, who never shows empathy to anyone not named Harry Potter. Nope. Your ire is for, in your own words, "The Girl Who Dates."

I don't know if you're actually sexist. Quite frankly, I don't care. The fact is you've continued to throw around sexist arguments attacking a female character for behavior (dating frequently and not mourning a failed relationship for too long before beginning another) that in and of itself harms no one and is the business of no one but the person dating. To do this you elide the many more substantive flaws Ginny actually shows in-text. Whether you intend it to be or not, this strain of argumentation reinforces sexist tropes and thus is itself SEXIST. Your insisting that it's not because of magical intentions doesn't change reality.