UnFunny Things; Perspective; Chapter 37 Comments - LONG

[naama_gat at hotmail.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 16253

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., heidi.h.tandy.c92 at a... wrote:

> (b) does Draco have any idea what an insult "Mudbloods" is - I have 
>a little backstory on this which basically takes place after Ron's 
>Slug curse backfires, which involves Draco asking other 
>Slytherins, "What did I say?" and  a Gryffindor Quidditch player 
>interjecting, "You called her a Mudblood!" and him replying, "Yeah, 
>so? Her parents are Muggles, she's a witch, so she's a Mudblood. 
>What of it?" and one of the Gryffs saying "It's a horrible insult!
>(etc)", then Draco writing home and asking Lucius, who says, "No 
>it's not, it's the same as saying somebody is tall or short. It's 
>just a fact about them." And of course, Draco believes Lucius...I 
>see Draco as being very clueless about the world, and having grown 
>up like a hothouse plant - very insulated, everything he reads & 
>everyone he meets, until he gets to Hogwarts, pretty closely 
>screened - and even at Hogwarts, within Slytherin, none of them are 
>likely to contradict his use of a term like that. He doesn't use the 
>word at all in PoA (I checked!) and in GoF, only uses it twice - 
>once against Hermi, and then here on the train. And even I can't 
>quite figure out why... Maybe Cassie will have some food for thought 
>on this.
> 

I presume you're seriously suggesting this theory, right? Tongue 
firmly out of cheek? (just to make sure I'm not making an idiot of 
myself...). Well, it's very ingenious and I'm more and more inclined 
to read Surfeit but I really don't think that the canon supports it.

When Draco calls Hermione Mudblood for the first time, she had just 
pointed out, in public, that he (Draco) is in the Slytherin team not 
for his skill, but because of his money. He tells her (approximately, 
I don't have the book here to check), "Nobody asked you, Mudblood". 
This is an angry retort to a very pointed insult. Do you really think 
it reasonable that in these circumstances he would use a term that is 
*not* insulting? Has he hesitated to insult her (or anybody else - 
think of poor Neville!) in similar situations?
Further more, on what do you base the Orchid Draco theory? I didn't 
get any impression that he was shielded from common wizard culture at 
all. In GoF, for instance, he has a subscription for the Daily 
Prophet. At the Dark Arts store (beginning of CoS) Lucius tells Draco 
that <paraphrase> it is not wise not to seem fond of Harry Potter 
when "most of our kind" view him as a hero. You don't give 
sophisticated, cynical advice of that sort to a hothouse flower who 
is innocent of all knowledge of such things, do you? 
Another point. To keep a child from realizing that 'nigger' (the 
parallel of Mudblood) is an insult would argue insulation of such an 
extroadinary degree, that it precludes almost any normal contact with 
other people. But Draco is sent to Hogwarts. If his father had this 
plan of keeping Draco in a state of pristine innocence, would he risk 
his being contaminated in Hogwarts?

BTW, I also don't agree with any of the "nice" interpretations of  
Draco. He has lied, cheated, bullied, made trouble, used people and 
told tales. He is a horrible boy. He is so horrible (and he's horrid 
too!) that he seems almost to be an embodiment of the worst and most 
extreme qualities of the Slytherin spirit.

Naama