Deathly Hallows, Chapter 19: The Silver Doe

[oneandthetruth.livejournal.com]

The two Hs decide to leave their campground because they think somebody’s around. They go to the Forest of Dean, since Hermione is familiar with that area from camping with her parents. You’d think for that reason its associations would be too painful for her, but Hermione 2.0 is almost as cold-blooded as her idol, Dumbledore.

Harry is on watch when he suddenly sees a silver light. For some reason, when I read this again, I heard the violin Praeludium at the beginning of the Benedictus of the Missa Solemnis playing during this passage. (It’s about two minutes long.) That’s a remarkably  appropriate piece of music, given that the words to the Benedictus are, “Benedictus qui venit in nomine Domini.” (“Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.”) Snape is coming in the name of Dumbledore, the “God” of the Potterverse. That hideous old man is a disgusting, grossly inadequate excuse for a god, but he is nonetheless the closest thing to a god this universe possesses.

Of course, in the context of that music, that makes Snape a Christ figure. *chuckles fiendishly* He’s not a patch on Jesus by any means, but he’s a better Christ than Harry is. Unlike Harry, but like Jesus, Snape devotes his entire adult life to studying his “religion” (magic) and improving his character, spends several years in a difficult and dangerous “ministry” in which he heals and saves everyone he can, is vilified for his trouble, and dies a bloody, painful, and ignominious death. Except for being vilified for a couple of years as a teenager, none of that applies to Harry. And unless you believe the “Jesus fanfics,” Christ never had a normal life after rising from the dead, unlike Harry, who married and had children.

Maybe I’m reminded of Ludwig van Beethoven’s most exquisite music because of the extraordinary delicacy and beauty of JKR’s writing in this passage. She is usually a workmanlike writer, good at conveying information but bland stylistically. Here she does an excellent job of suiting her writing to the subject, conveying both the mystique of the situation and Harry’s wonder with all the elegance and grace of the doe herself:

“And then the source of the light stepped out from behind the oak. It was a silver-white doe, moon-bright and dazzling, picking her way over the ground, still silent, and leaving no hoofprints in the fine powdering of snow. She stepped toward him, her beautiful head with its wide, long-lashed eyes held high.

“Harry stared at the creature, filled with wonder, not at her strangeness, but at her inexplicable familiarity. He felt that he had been waiting for her to come, but that he had forgotten, until this moment, that they had arranged to meet...He knew, he would have staked his life on it, that she had come for him alone.”

Of course, there is that bit of unintentional (?) Snarry in the line, “He felt that he had been waiting for her to come, but that he had forgotten, until this moment, that they had arranged to meet.” That makes the encounter between Harry and the doe seem somewhat romantic. Given that this is Snape’s Patronus, astute readers can’t help seeing something in this “meeting” that Rowling may not have planned to convey.

I don’t know whether Rowling knew it or not, but there is plenty of historical precedent for this scene. The Druid Animal Oracle, by Philip and Stephanie Carr-Gomm, gives details about the mythology relating to 33 animals of the Celtic tradition. The set contains a book, cards illustrated by Bill Worthington with pictures of the animals and other symbolic items (such as plants, carvings, and weaponry), a blue cloth decorated in silver to put the cards on when reading them, and a box and slipcase to hold everything.

The hind’s Celtic name is eilid, which is pronounced elij. She stands for subtlety, gracefulness, and femininity. This is some of what the Oracle says about the hind, including some details that explain why she is an appropriate Patronus for Severus Snape:

The card shows a white hind in the forest...The hind calls to us to follow her deeper into the forest. Standing in a shaft of sunlight, she appears so elusive we are not even sure if she is of this world.

Eilid brings to us the gentleness and grace of the feminine principle...[O]pening to the qualities of the hind will enable you to achieve a greater degree of sophistication, subtlety and elegance--in the best possible senses of these terms.

Deer, and the white hind in particular, call to us from the Otherworld, from the realm of Faery...Poised in moon- or sunlight, Eilid invites us to begin an exploration of the Otherworld, of the spiritual dimension of life.

Drawn reversed, this card may be warning you to be less self-effacing. Rather than adapting yourself, like a chameleon, to the perceived demands and expectations of those around you, you may need to be more assertive.

The Tradition of the HIND

A female red deer is known as a hind, and this graceful animal was considered especially sacred by the Celts and Druids. In Scotland they are called “fairy cattle” and it is said that they are milked on the mountain tops by the fairies. Others believe that the hinds themselves are fairy women who have taken the form of deer.

The Irish goddess of wild things was known as Flidhais--probably a divine huntress like Diana. Like the Great Hags of Scotland, she cared for deer cattle, and is known to some as the deer goddess.

Fairy women could be turned into deer by their rulers....

The hind in particular was seen as a magical animal, capable of affecting men’s lives and ways. The Scottish Lord of Kilmerdon’s life was changed when he followed a magical white hind through the forest. After a mile or so it vanished, but such happiness came into his life from that moment that he built a Lady Chapel in the local church in gratitude....

If our intention is to harm the animal realm, we should beware. But for those of us who hunt for knowledge, and not to kill, the shape-shifting hind will lead us ever deeper into the heart of the forest, ever deeper into encounters with the Otherworld, and with the realm of Faery. (22-25)

The association of the deer with ancient magic accords with my suggestion that Slytherin was originally the highest-status house because it may have been the preserver of Druid wisdom. Druids were called “adders” as a sign of respect. It makes sense for the Head of Slytherin House to have a Patronus that symbolizes the ancient mystical wisdom of the Celts, as well as “sophistication, subtlety and elegance.” Those characteristics describe Slytherin more than any other House.

Of course, the flip side of that--the reverse--is the excessive self-effacement and self-abasement of Severus Snape. His chameleon-like qualities, while invaluable for a spy, or anyone who needs to survive in a toxic situation, particularly for a long time, are not conducive to the growth and development of a healthy, assertive, self-protective personality. For that, he needs to call on the spirits of the adder (nathair, pronounced nah-hir), who symbolizes transformation, healing, and life energy, and the ram (reithe, pronounced re-hu), who symbolizes sacrifice, breakthrough, and achievement. I’ll have more to say on this subject in chapter 33.

After looking at Harry for a moment, the doe walks away, and Harry follows, just as tradition says he must. He is sure that when she stops, he’ll be able to walk up to her and hear her speak. I don’t think you really want that, Harry. It would be both really weird and unintentionally funny to hear Snape’s voice coming out of this creature. On the other hand, I can see this as another instance in which Snarry fanciers would read this passage and see it as romantic.

The doe leads Harry to a small, frozen pool, where he sees the Sword of Gryffindor at the bottom. After trying a couple of spells to get the sword out, Harry comes to the unhappy conclusion that he’ll have to jump into the pool and retrieve the sword physically.

He tries to psych himself up by remembering what defines a Gryffindor: “Their daring, nerve, and chivalry set Gryffindors apart.” In an ideal world, maybe. I don’t see anything daring, nervy, or chivalrous about stalking around school bullying other students, ganging up four against one, or recklessly running the countryside with an uncontrollably dangerous monster. I guess it’s a situation where “the devil makes work for idle hands.” Maybe if Gryffindors were kept busy going on quests, their drive towards constant action would have a positive direction.

Harry finally nerves himself to jump into the pool. He takes off his clothes except for his underwear, breaks the ice, and jumps in. There’s another good passage as JKR vividly describes the agony Harry experiences by immersing himself in the frigid water. Unfortunately, the Horcrux necklace is smarter than he is. Sensing its doom is imminent, it starts strangling Harry to prevent him from picking up the sword.

Think about that: One-eighth of Voldemort’s soul/mind is smarter than all of Harry’s soul/mind put together. That shows how much Voldy had to be dumbed down to make it possible for Harry to beat him. Apparently Rowling has never heard of Siskel and Ebert’s Rule of Thrillers: The quality of a thriller is determined not by the quality of the hero, but of the villain. The violation of that rule is a big reason why Deathly Hallows should have been called Deadly Boredom.

Harry is passing out, about to drown, when he is pulled from the pond. A voice asks, “Are--you--mental?” It’s Ron to the rescue! It’s great that Hermione and Ron get a chance to be heroic by rescuing Harry, in this chapter and 17, but it sucks that the only reason Harry needed rescuing was because of his own rank stupidity.

Ron asks the perfectly reasonable question of why Harry didn’t remove the necklace before jumping in the water. That’s a smarter question than the book acknowledges: Even if it weren’t cursed, it could have caught on something in the pond and killed Harry before he could free it or get it off.

Unfortunately, Ron is not allowed to be smart for too long. Harry asks if the doe Patronus was Ron’s, and Ron says it wasn’t; he thought it was Harry’s. Harry points out his Patronus is a stag, and Ron admits, “Oh yeah. I thought it looked different. No antlers.” Not to mention that female deer are usually smaller and more delicately built than male deer.

After some more speculation about Patroni and how the sword got in the pond, they cut to the chase and prepare to use the sword to destroy the locket. Harry insists it’s Ron’s job to do this; in a nice bit of honesty, the narrator admits, “[Harry] was not being kind or generous...[H]e knew that Ron had to be the one to wield the sword.” I totally agree that Ron showed a lot more valor and chivalry than Harry did: He not only jumped into the frigid pond to rescue Harry, he also jumped in a second time to retrieve the sword.

We get more gratuitous snake-bashing when Harry keeps looking at the S that’s on the front of the locket picked out in tiny emeralds and imagines it’s a snake. Harry opens the locket using Parseltongue--interesting that this never occurred to him before now--and two ghostly figures emerge. They’re Voldie-versions of Harry and Hermione, and they articulate Ron’s worst fears: “Least loved, always, by the mother who craved a daughter...Least loved, now, by the girl who prefers your friend...Second best, always, eternally overshadowed...”

I’ll say it again: When you’re right, you’re right. The evidence is overwhelming that Molly Weasley treated Ron the worst of all her children. And if Rowling doesn’t want us to ship HP/HG, she needs to quit throwing them together and making them leaders, with Ron either in the background or absent entirely. JKR obviously wants us to automatically dismiss certain statements just because they’re made by “bad guys” such as Voldemort and Rita Skeeter. There are two problems with this: (1) The “lies” make perfect sense, far more sense than what we’re supposed to believe. (2) Even pathological liars sometimes tell the truth, typically when it won’t hurt their own interests to do so. For those of us who live in what cartoonist Garry Trudeau calls “the reality-based community,” the evidence is what matters, not what we’re told by authority figures. Those of us in the higher stages of spiritual development are funny that way.

Ron hesitates over “killing” the locket, and the figures continue to taunt him. At Harry’s urging, he finally stabs the jewelry, and it screams as it “dies.” I liked that gruesome detail. Harry insists the locket was lying, that he and Hermione are like brother and sister. Uh, huh. Keep saying that, Harry. Maybe someday you’ll all believe it.

Ron and Harry go back to the tent, and Harry fades into the background so as not to interfere with the lovers’ reunion. That’s a mistake. After Harry wakes Hermione, she shows her delight at Ron’s return by--attacking him? She punches him over a dozen times while yelling at him and screaming for her wand from Harry. Remember last chapter, when I talked about how immature Hermione is? Here’s your proof.

In Separation: Anxiety and Anger, John Bowlby writes about functional and dysfunctional anger in relationships. He describes how common it is for children to be angry at a parent when separated from him or her during a stressful time:

“On occasion a child’s hostility to a parent takes the form of a reproach for his having been absent when wanted. For example, Robertson (1952) describes the angry reproaches of Laura, a child of two years and four months whom he had filmed during an eight-day stay in hospital for a minor operation...The film over and the lights switched up, Laura turned away from her mother to be picked up by her father. Then, looking reproachfully at her mother, she demanded, ‘Where was you, Mummy? Where was you?’ Similarly, Wolfenstein (1957), in her study of responses to disaster, relates how a small girl who had been apart from her father during a tornado, when reunited with him afterwards, hit him angrily and reproached him for having been away from her.

“Both these little girls seemed to be acting on the assumption that parents should not be

absent when their child is frightened and wants them there, and were hopeful that a forceful reminder would ensure that they would not err again.” (246-7, emphasis in original)

So there you have it: Hermione Granger, know-it-all supergirl, is so immature she acts like a preschool child when the boyfriend she’s been missing finally returns. I’m not suggesting she has a father-daughter relationship with Ron; this kind of anger is found in other relationships, too. What I am saying is that her way of expressing her anger is appropriate for a very young child. While adults may certainly feel this kind of anger and desire to hit when reunited with a loved one under similar circumstances, they don’t act it out. That restraint is what separates adults from children.

Hermione acts so crazy Harry has to put a protection charm between her and Ron. I frankly found her behavior so out of control as to suggest mental instability. She engages in two full pages of histrionics before throwing herself into a chair, sitting so tensely I’m surprised the circulation isn’t cut off to her arms and legs. She remains in a bratty snit until the end of the chapter, which is another six pages.

Ron is finally allowed to explain he’d been looking for his friends almost since he left, but their protection charms were too good for him to find them. The Hs’ belief there was someone near their campsite is explained when Ron admits he knew they were near, but he couldn’t locate them exactly. We suffer through another Ridiculous Rowling Retcon when Ron tells them his Deluminator now has new, unexpected powers: (1) It transmits Hermione’s voice, but apparently not Harry’s. This made me think of those stories you hear about people receiving radio broadcasts in the fillings of their teeth. (2) It produces a ball of pulsating blue light that first led Ron towards his friends, then actually entered his chest (near his heart, of course) and acted like a homing device to lead him directly to the Hs.

This is another dumb behavior we can put down to the inadequate Hogwarts education. Anybody with a proper knowledge of the paranormal should have better sense than to follow something that could be a will-o’-the-wisp, fairy light, ghost light, or the like. Things never turn out well for people in folklore who follow those. Come to think of it, that’s true for Ron, too: He continued with this dumb quest and ended up marrying his abusive girlfriend. That may be Rowling’s idea of a happy ending, but it’s sure not mine.

Furthermore, I don’t know about anyone else, but I would be highly suspicious of any device that suddenly started acting in ways it never had before, or started exhibiting capacities I had no reason to suspect it possessed. Ron implies he “just knew” the Deluminator could be trusted and followed its light without question. No doubt that’s because Saint Albus gave it to him, and he would never give anyone something that might cause them harm. Yes, let’s go on believing that--until Snape’s final encounter with Voldemort, anyway...

As an interesting aside, ròn is the Celtic word for seal. In Druid lore, seals represent love, longing, and dilemma. No more appropriate totem animal could be imagined for this boy whose sense of selfhood is undermined by his longing for love from a rejecting mother and inadequate father, and who, like the selchie wives of folklore, is faced with the impossible choice of being who he truly is and being rejected, or denying the best part of himself to gain love. Ron’s intelligence and independence threaten his insecure wife (and best friend), just as the selchie’s identity as a seal-woman threatens her human husband; Ron imprisons himself by hiding who he is so the Hs can feel smart and in charge, just as the selchie’s human husband imprisons his wife by hiding her sealskin in a trunk.

I’m now imagining a fanfic in which it turns out Molly has good reason to resent Ron: He’s not really her son! He is the product of Arthur’s adulterous affair with a selchie woman. When she returned to the sea, she abandoned their son to her lover’s care, and Molly, in true long-suffering saint/martyr fashion, agreed to raise the half-species bastard as her own--while punishing the boy every day of his life for not truly being hers. Ron eventually discovers his true identity and leaves the wizarding world to live in the sea with his own kind, free from any concerns about crazed tyrants, be they genocidal maniacs or abusive “friends.”

After Ron explains and abases himself enough, he is accepted back into the fold of the Chosen Trio. He and Harry then catch Hermione up on the Horcrux destruction.

Hermione tells Ron she still hasn’t ruled out attacking him with birds again. This is supposed to be funny, but only someone with a very nasty, immature sense of humor would find it so. It comes particularly ill from someone like Rowling, who has herself been the victim of abuse in a romantic relationship. Apparently she’s one of those misandrists like Laurie King who thinks it’s despicable for men to abuse women, but it’s hilarious when women abuse men.

At last! That’s hump chapter. We’re halfway through the book. It’s all downhill from here.

Comments

[nx74defiant.livejournal.com]

his Deluminator now has new, unexpected powers

Why a device that puts out light and lead you to your friends? Perhaps it is for times of danger - put your enemies in darkness, while you're lead by a light no one can see.

It would have been nice if instead of Ron saying didn't know why or how, he explained about how he had heard about Deluminators and knew what it could do. After all Ron is a pureblood and has lived with magic his whole life. But no - he can't know something muggle born Hermione does, can he.

Hermione reaction is so out of line. She doesn't show any joy in seeing Ron does she? She doesn't cry, she doesn't hug him than hit him and say don't ever do that to me again.


who has herself been the victim of abuse in a romantic relationship And it is the victims fault for making the abuser angry

[mary-j-59.livejournal.com]

Interesting analysis; I really enjoyed this. When you say, After looking at Harry for a moment, the doe walks away, and Harry follows, just as tradition says he must. He is sure that when she stops, he’ll be able to walk up to her and hear her speak. I don’t think you really want that, Harry. It would be both really weird and unintentionally funny to hear Snape’s voice coming out of this creature. - I can't help wondering if you've seen Sydpad's rough sketch of this scene? It's hilarious!

[oryx_leucoryx]

The Deliminator was supposedly invented by Dumbles himself, so no wonder it wasn't familiar to Ron. BTW, your description of it almost sounds like what Draco achieved with the combination of Peruvian Darkness Powder and Hand of Glory. Is this another case of the 'good guys' copying the bad guys?

[dreamingjewel.livejournal.com]

Funny and acurrate.

[attilathepbnun.livejournal.com]

*snickers* Though, to be fair, I don't remember anyone's patronus talking ....

[oryx_leucoryx]

When a Patronus is used to communicate it can speak with the voice of its sender. In GOF and HBP we see two instances of a message being sent by Patronus (Dumbles in GOF, Tonks in HBP), in DH we see two instances of messages being received (from Kingsley and Arthur). In both cases they speak. (And later we see Minerva sending her Patronus. In addition to Severus, of course.)

[attilathepbnun.livejournal.com]

Aaghk!*slaps self upside head* Thanks for the reminders --- evidently I need to reread, to remind myself of these things

[aikaterini.livejournal.com]

/Maybe if Gryffindors were kept busy going on quests, their drive towards constant action would have a positive direction./

Baeraad had an interesting point about this in one of his HBP sporkings – if Gryffindor is supposedly the home of the brave, where are all of the Gryffindor daredevils? Bill and Charlie Weasley are the only Gryffindors we see who do actually have adventurous jobs. I mean, I guess that you can argue that the position of Auror is thrill-seeking in the sense that it comes with risks, but it doesn’t require guts and adrenaline on the same level as, say, sky-diving does.

/The evidence is overwhelming that Molly Weasley treated Ron the worst of all her children./

And blatantly showed favoritism to Harry while snarling at Ron in the same breath. Of course, Horcrux!Tom doesn’t bring that up, because JKR would have to admit that there might be something wrong with Molly favoring Harry the way she does.

/Hermione acts so crazy Harry has to put a protection charm between her and Ron./

Yeah…sorry, it’s not “slapstick” anymore when somebody actually has to stop her from hitting Ron. When Harry feels that the situation is dangerous enough that his intervention is necessary. That’s not funny. That’s a true-crime episode.

/Hermione tells Ron she still hasn’t ruled out attacking him with birds again./

*flatly* So, all of the fans who cooed about how “great” it was for Hermione to show “girl power” by sending Ron to the hospital wing in HBP or breezily dismissed the scene as just tired teenage melodrama? Can put a sock in it. Hermione has clearly learned nothing, JKR clearly feels that that scene was funny, and at no point are we supposed to think that Hermione is an abuser. Even though, if the genders were reversed, fans would be calling for Ron’s head on a platter if he dared lay a finger on Hermione. No. This isn’t funny. This isn’t charming. Hermione hurt Ron so badly in HBP that he had to go to the hospital wing. And she tried to repeat the damage she caused here. Is she going to attack him with birds again after they get married? Is she going to do it in front of their children? Will it be “cute” and “funny” then? No, if a man is an abusive monster for losing his temper and trying to hurt his girlfriend, then Hermione is an abusive monster for losing her temper and trying to hurt her boyfriend.

[mary-j-59.livejournal.com]

Amen! It is never, ever right to hit your partner. Never.

[oneandthetruth.livejournal.com]

And blatantly showed favoritism to Harry while snarling at Ron in the same breath. Of course, Horcrux!Tom doesn’t bring that up, because JKR would have to admit that there might be something wrong with Molly favoring Harry the way she does.

Most likely, JKR doesn't regard that as a failing on Molly's part. He's Harry Freaking Potter! He's totally awesome! Of course he deserves to be treated better than Molly's own sons (including Percy).

Yeah…sorry, it’s not “slapstick” anymore when somebody actually has to stop her from hitting Ron.

What gets me is that Hermione's tantrum lasts for days. It goes on for several pages into the next chapter. She doesn't start acting normal again until she comes up with the idea of visiting Xeno Lovegood.

at no point are we supposed to think that Hermione is an abuser. Even though, if the genders were reversed, fans would be calling for Ron’s head on a platter if he dared lay a finger on Hermione. No. This isn’t funny. This isn’t charming. Hermione hurt Ron so badly in HBP that he had to go to the hospital wing.

As I said, Rowling and King are both misandrists who thinks it's funny when a woman attacks or stalks a man, but not when a man does it to a woman.

This scene is of a piece with the scene in CoS, when the Trio sets off a bomb throws firecrackers into a cauldron and sends several classmates to the hospital. We're supposed to regard that as amusing, harmless hijinks, too. Even though, if anyone did that in real life, they'd be expelled and criminally prosecuted for multiple felonies, probably including terrorism. But as madderbrad said, those people were Hermione's enemies, so her actions were reasonable. No doubt that's what those scumbags who bombed the Boston Marathon thought about their victims, too.

[oryx_leucoryx]

Isn't it surprising that Rowling can be misandrist and misogynist at the same time? Well, maybe not. The conservatives (especially those of purity culture) are both too.

[hwyla.livejournal.com]

Not only did Hermione land Ron in the infirmary with the first attack, but she wants to do it again at a time when they are on the run.

She will NOT be able to take an injured Ron to Hogwarts infirmary, nor to St. Mungos. In other words - she intends for him to remain injured and stick with them while camping, or else he must apparate away while injured, risking another splinching so he could be healed.

[oneandthetruth.livejournal.com]

Oh, excellent point! I hadn't thought of that, but you're right.

[oneandthetruth.livejournal.com]

Fun as it would be to pin this all on conservatives, it would be neither fair nor accurate to do so. The reason I keep dragging Laurie King into this sporking is because her Mary Russell series is exactly like HP. Both series include these features:

1) The main character is a rich teenager who was orphaned by a murderous attack on hir family.
2) The MC wears Coke-bottle glasses, and there are many references to hir unusual hair.
3) The MC is unwillingly taken in and mistreated by hir angry, bitter, envious, judgmental, money-grubbing, social-climbing aunt.
4) The aunt tries mightily to suppress her niece’s/nephew’s potential, which is so much greater than that of hir lowly aunt.
5) The MC is fawned over for being far more brilliant (intellectually in Mary's case, magically in Harry's) than s/he objectively is according to the text.
6) The MC is histrionically credited with being a miracle-worker who accomplished a feat heretofore thought impossible (saving a “suicidal genius from himself” in Mary’s case and surviving an AK/defeating Voldemort in Harry’s).
7) Obnoxiousness, rudeness, and disrespect by the teenager are praised in-universe as courage, independence, and defiance of overreaching authority. This is particularly the case when the recipient of said rudeness is an authority figure who is trying to make the teenager behave safely, sensibly, and with consideration for others.
8) Reckless and dangerous behavior by the MC and hir cohorts is portrayed as fun and harmless (multi-day drinking binges and reckless driving in Mary’s case, violent felonies in Harry’s). Either no one objects to this atrocious behavior, or if they do, they’re ridiculed as sticks in the mud and/or killjoys.
9) Deus ex machina solutions to the mystery plots allow the protagonist to succeed “brilliantly” when s/he otherwise wouldn't because of hir stupidity and incompetence.
10) Other characters are grossly dumbed down and weakened (i.e., turned into wimps) to make the MC look smart, strong, and brave.
11) I’ve already expounded at length on Snapedom about the dozens of similarities between Sherlock Holmes and Severus Snape.
12) Romances involve repeated physical, psychological, and verbal abuse from and to partners of both sexes. This is presented as not just acceptable and harmless, but also sexy, romantic, and amusing.
13) The authors claim loudly and longly to be good liberals and openly support liberal causes. Yet their series reek of the ugliest, most hateful stereotypes in Western culture regarding gender and often other groups as well.

In fact, the MR series is based on the oldest misogynistic, patriarchal stereotype in the book: A traumatized orphan girl is taken under the wing of a much older, rich, powerful, brilliant man. He trains her to be his ideal helpmate, and they eventually marry. She abandons her burgeoning career to follow him around helping him with his work. Yet King insists not just that Mary is strong, independent, and a good role model, but also that these are feminist empowerment novels that make ideal reading for young girls, so much so that they should be taught in schools, starting in middle school (6th-8th grade).

Hmmm. The first HP book was published in 1997. The first, second, and third MR books were published in 1994, 1995, and 1996, respectively. You don't think...?

Naaahhh. Surely LRK and JKR (Gosh, even their initials are almost the same!) are both just overrated hacks drawing on common tropes of fantasy wish-fulfillment fiction. Not to mention both are narcissists engaging in extended wank fantasies, to use marionros’s felicitous phrase. (The MR books are technically considered mystery, not fantasy. However, even a casual perusal of them shows they could never happen in real life. As mary_j_59 and I once pointed out in another DTCL discussion, Mary even performs physically impossible feats of the kind that normally take place only in fantasy novels.)

[hwyla.livejournal.com]

Yes - it struck me as very strange that she wants to injure him because he left them, enough that he would then need to leave them again! Talk about illogical!