The Kiss

[Ebony]

No: HPFGUIDX 7335

--- In HPforGrownups at egroups.com, "Jim Flanagan" <jamesf at a...> wrote:
> This may have been analyzed to death before I joined in August, but 
> now that Freud has been dug up, why not raise the topic:  what is 
the 
> significance of Hermione's kiss at the end of GoF?  What was she as 
a 
> 14 year-old girl feeling? I suspect that I already know what Harry 
> was feeling <squirm>.  And Ron.
> 
> -Jim Flanagan
> 
> "The Dementors are a symbol (or sign) of an autoerotic fixation on 
> 1938 Plymouths."

LOL at your sig quote!

Hi, Jim and all--

"Bye, Harry!" said Hermione, and she did something she had never done 
before, and kissed him on the cheek.  (GoF, 1st Amer. ed., p. 734)

Yes, it was discussed.  I think the consensus was that it means 
nothing.  Personally, I agree.  I've already established the fact 
that I have a psychology block that's insurmountable.  :)

Professionally (here the list groans), I'd say that it's im it's a 
prime example of the literate self's futile attempts to unite itself 
with its projected self, the mirror stage, yadda yadda...

As a layman and an enthusiastic H/H shipper, I say it's worthless to 
our argument.  I was H/H subconsciously before GoF, and was R/H for 
six weeks until I found PoU and this list.  I pecked my guy friends 
on the cheek during highly emotional moments in high school and in 
college... big deal.  I think JKR's throwing a red herring out there.

My eighth graders from this summer are convinced that Hermione likes 
Harry, and they use the kiss as part of their evidence.  "You've 
forgotten what it's like to be 13 and 14, Miss Thomas," they 
said.  "A kiss is a big deal.  Even if it's on the cheek."  They're 
not shippers at all, they claim.  "It's not a question of who's going 
to get together... it's a question of what's going to happen."  They 
think their Farmer in the Dell theory will play out as a subplot in 
the next three books.

Then again, my kids are American kids.  I hear that in some European 
countries, kisses on the cheek are exchanged in greeting.  I didn't 
think that was typically British, though.

--Ebony (who is making up for the weeks she was off list by posting 
like there's no tomorrow)