Harry is Dull

[GulPlum]

This thread started on the OT list, then moved to the main list when 
canon started getting quoted, but now I want to bring up something 
which completes the triad and makes *this* list the most relevant. :-)

Pip mentioned that the main reason why Harry might be seen as "dull" 
is perhaps that he sees himself that way. I'd like to draw a parallel 
with the movie series, and in particular with young Master Radcliffe, 
recently the subject of much adulation and admiration from people 
here, some of whom are closer to, or (like me) entirely of, his 
parents' generation rather than his. :-)

Just like Harry's position in the wizarding world in which Harry 
refuses to see himself as something special and gets embarassed when 
people make a fuss, Dan seems oblivious to the clamour around him. 
He's clearly intelligent and surely it hasn't escaped his attention 
that he's the most famous teeenager in Britain, if not on the planet. 

Yet when asked about being famous, his only comment is that he enjoys 
being stopped in the street because people are enthusiatic about the 
film. Quite simply, I refuse to believe that that's the case, that 
girls (in particular) don't fawn over him. He's said that his 
schoolmates in his new school don't give him any special treatment 
(though with all the media coverage all last week, he's surely going 
to be the centre of attraction tomorrow!). :-) 

All in all, he insists in every interview that he is, for want of a 
better word, "dull": a normal kid with normal interests leading a 
normal life. He's clearly aware that this "normality" comes thanks to 
the efforts of lots of people, not least his parents, but he appears 
to do nothing to dispel it. He has internet access at home, yet 
appears not to have any interest in what people are saying about him. 
Heck, he doesn't even need internet access - every single British 
mass-market newspaper carried a full-page article yesterday about 
Friday's press conference, most of them concentrating on how much 
he's grown. 

Like Harry, whether or not his celebrity is justified, whether he's 
famous thanks to his parents or just "pure dumb luck" (to quote 
McGonagall), he is very special if only because he doesn't see 
himself as such and insists that people not give him special 
treatment. Like Harry, he is simply too well grounded and too, well, 
*nice* to be "normal". And that's what makes both the actor and the 
character he plays very, very special indeed...