death to capslock

The house of ambition?

Wed, 30 Jan 2019 22:19:00 GMT

Posted by: mary-j-59.livejournal.com

Hi, everyone! I do need to chime in on the excellent post on feminsim below--but I just wanted to point out another wildly illogical facet of these books.

I wasn't the first person to notice this, by a long shot. I think Terri said something about it (more than once) and so did Cardigrl, back when she was still on livejournal. But it's worth pointing out again.

Consider that you are a child with--shall we say, unusual talents? Consider that, as scared as you and those around you might be by those talents, you bring them intact to your eleventh birthday. Then you find out you're a wizard.

Rather than rejecting the message, you enter a brand-new world. Can you imagine how that would feel? I know, I know: we were supposed to experience this along with Harry, but he was not actually a Muggleborn, and he did have faint memories (shown in his dreams) of the wizarding world. His home life was also so dreadful (even if played for laughs) that learning that he was special, privileged, talented, and so on had to seem like an escape.

But picture an actual Muggleborn boy or girl entering the wizarding world for the first time. Picture Hermione, for example. Why on earth wasn't she in Slytherin house, if the Slytherins are supposed to be goal-oriented and ambitious? Is there anyone in canon more ambitious than Hermione?

If the wizarding world were logical, far from being the hotbed of purebloods, Slytherin house should have a higher than average percentage of Muggleborns and half-bloods. It should also have a higher than average percentage of working-class kids like young Severus. Instead, Rowling gives us the racist house full of rich people and their retainers. Which makes no kind of sense. In a logical world, as Cardigrl pointed out so many years ago, the racist house full of establishment types would be--

(drumroll)

Gryffindor!

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Harry Potter Abridged! DH Chapter 19

Sun, 26 Jul 2015 22:15:00 GMT

Posted by: sweettalkeress.livejournal.com

[That night, Harry has a very strange dream]

Harry: Oooh, yes, Nagini—let me stroke your mighty head! Aaaaaaaaaah….

( Read Chapter 19 )

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Harry Potter Abridged! DH Chapter 16

Mon, 13 Jul 2015 23:00:00 GMT

Posted by: sweettalkeress.livejournal.com

Harry: Oh, woe is me! Ron has disappeared and abandoned me! Me! The Chosen One!

Hermione: I’m ignoring you.

( Read Chapter 16 )

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Harry Potter Abridged! DH Chapter 7

Mon, 29 Jun 2015 10:32:00 GMT

Posted by: sweettalkeress.livejournal.com

[The next morning, Harry wakes up from a strange dream]

( Read Chapter 7 )

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Magical Magic Creature Spotlight: Phoenix

Wed, 16 Jan 2013 20:59:00 GMT

Posted by: sweettalkeress.livejournal.com

( the Phoenix )
Fun fact: when I was a little girl I used to wish I was a Phoenix. The idea of being a beautiful magical bird that never died seemed really cool at the time.

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New COS Content on Pottermore

Tue, 20 Nov 2012 17:18:00 GMT

Posted by: dracasadiablo.livejournal.com

( The Polyjuice Potion )

( JKR about The Polyjuice Potion )

( Ghost )

( Chamber of Secrets )

( The sword of Gryffindor )

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Programming Harry for Violence

Sat, 24 Dec 2011 06:50:00 GMT

Posted by: terri-testing.livejournal.com

Someone in the Mary-j-59 thread on prejudice against Muggles made me realize something. S/he pointed out that Harry never attacked the Dursleys in his childish magical outbreaks.

And I realized that this was true.

( Potter )

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