Hermione & JKR

[Penny & Bryce Linsenmayer]

No: HPFGUIDX 3338

Hi --

Okay, this got *zero* response over on the PoU group, so I'm trying it
out here in the hopes that someone (anyone!) will engage in
conversation.  :--)  (So . . . if you're on PoU, you've read this before
btw).

This discussion was prompted by Ebony's query whether fanfic authors
"over-do" Hermione.

I'm more & more intrigued by JKR's statements about Hermione in an
interview with the London Times entitled "Harry and Me."

 http://www.times-archive.co.uk/onlinespecials/features/harrypotter/story18.html
(Part 1)

 http://www.times-archive.co.uk/onlinespecials/features/harrypotter/index2.html
(Part 2)

Okay, so, what does she say?  First, she says some of the standard stuff
we've all heard before
about how Hermione is very much herself as a young girl -- swotty,
bookwormish, a worrywart.
The interviewer then says that she's not so sure that JKR herself has
loosened up as much as she
proclaims.  She says "she (JKR) defends Hermione pretty fiercely too:
'My (JKR speaking)
American editor says that I am mean to her (Hermione) because she is
me.  But I don't think that I
am mean to her.  I love her dearly.'"

The interviewer says "But Hermione tries so damn hard."  JKR responds
with "I understand where
that is coming from.  It comes from believing yourself to be plain and
feeling yourself to be no good
at anything else so you've got to achieve something.  I completely
understand Hermione and I really
love her and I don't want to depict her as a feisty little . . . "  She
breaks off and begins to mutter that
"it" really really irritates her.  The interviewer asks what "it" is.
JKR says: "What irritates me is that I
am constantly, increasingly being asked 'Can we have a strong female
character, please?' Like they
are ordering a side order of chips.  I am thinking, 'Isn't Hermione
strong enough for you? She is the
most brilliant of the three and they need her.  Harry needs her badly."

She goes on to say that it would have been completely inappropriate for
her (JKR) to have thrown
in a few "feisty, gorgeous, brilliant-at-maths and great-at-fixing-cars
girls."

So, I think we learn a few things more about JKR's feelings about
Hermione & about Hermione's
place in the series from this interview.  We learn that really Hermione
isn't *just* a caricature of
JKR's younger self as is sometimes intimated.  She really *is* JKR.  I
know Ebony has mentioned
this to me before, but there can really be little doubt that Hermione is
very much JKR's surrogate in
this series.  I'll leave it to Ebony and others to explore more fully
what exactly we can take away
from this new-to-me revelation that Hermione isn't really just loosely
based on JKR -- she's very
much JKR herself in many respects from the sounds of it (it's been too
many years since my own
English major days I'm afraid for me to come up with all the jargon).

It's clear to me from the above statements that JKR cares very much
about Hermione's character --
perhaps as much or more than she cares for her hero, Harry.  I've always
sort of shied away from
referring to Hermione as the "heroine."   But, I'm starting to think
more & more that maybe she *is* the heroine.  There's certainly some
strong support for this notion in that interview (IMO).  The one thing
I've actually agreed with so far in the Schaefer book on the HP Series
is Schaefer's statement that Hermione's name is awfully close to the
word heroine in fact.  Alot of the Schafer book is rubbish, but I did
pause at that statement.  Then, when I re-read this interview for the
first time since June or early July -- I was very struck by these
statements & their implications.

This seems particularly relevant given our past discussions about
whether Hermione is a strong female character or not.

So . . . is she the heroine or not?  <g>

Penny