The Ron/Harry Fight; Ron's Prejudice; Percy; & a smidge of ADMIN

[Penny & Bryce Linsenmayer]

No: HPFGUIDX 16718

Hi everyone --

No sign of baby yet!  It seems she will be more like my husband (late)
than me (punctual to a fault)!  Well .... she could still be punctual,
but it's not looking that way.  :--)

RON/HARRY FIGHT -- I just wanted to add a big "Me too" to the thought
that Arabella originally voiced about how the portrayal of Ron in the
common room (the night he disrupted the conversation between Harry &
Sirius) is meant to awaken our sympathies.  That was beautifully put
Arabella, and I couldn't agree more.  I'm not always terribly
sympathetic to Ron, but I definitely was at that point.  I felt very
badly for both of them, but I do think JKR was emphasizing Ron's
vulnerability.  I also think it's pretty clear that he was likely trying
to make overtures at an apology that evening, since, as someone said,
why else would he wander down to the common room?

RON & PREJUDICE

Rosmerta wrote:

> I've been trying to figure out why I was so shocked/suprised when
> people first raised the "Ron is prejudiced" argument, and I think
> I've worked it out: It seems that JKR uses him a lot of the time, by
> necessity, to carry her water. In the trio, he's the mouthpiece of
> the wizarding world. <snip>  But Ron, as the only wizard-raised
> person in the trio, gets stuck doing a lot of explaining on the
> author's behalf, i.e. this is what most wizards think of werewolves,
> this is what most wizards believe about grims, this is what most of
> us were told about giants. All potentially predjudiced, but don't
> forget it's also Ron who explains about Quidditch, wizard candy, the
> joys of Hogsmeade, etc. The examples are endless.
>
Well, I do think Ron is more than just explaining that this is what most
wizards think about these topics.  He's more than an objective
mouthpiece.  "Get away from me, werewolf!"  I can't recall specific GoF
quotes re: the giants & house-elves, but I think in most instances he
goes beyond merely objectively explaining the popular wizarding stance.
He shakes his head at Hermione's comments, implying in my mind that he
thinks she's just dense!  In the example that I provided earlier this
week, it certainly seems that while he's made an exception for Hagrid,
he has retained a general overall negative impression of giants.  I
think Ron, for the most part, does share the prejudices that are common
to the wizarding world.  In his defense, he quite obviously does not
share the prejudice of some pureblood families against "mudbloods"
though!  But, I don't think he's just an objective mouthpiece for JKR
either.  She could have used several other characters to accomplish this
for one thing.  Ernie Macmillan could have piped up with something in a
herbology lesson.  Fred or George could have made a comment at dinner.
She could have even used Draco & the Slytherins again to make the point
about giants.  But, she chose Ron instead.

PERCY -- For all of it being "Ron week," we've had alot of Percy
discussions this last week!  That's okay by me -- I love Percy.  I like
Amanda's suggestion of the parallels between Percy & Draco's
situations.  I can't decide if I think Percy will recognize the Voldy
threat & Fudge's ineffectiveness immediately when he hears the family
stories or if it will indeed take some time, personal soul-searching &
perhaps a moral crisis at some point.  I think the latter is more
likely.  More dramatic effect in any case.  But, I have no doubt that
Percy will side with his family *eventually*!

ADMIN:  Thanks to the Mechanimagus Moderator for such great ADMIN
reminders.

> The other thing to remember is that 'no responses' does not equal
> 'ignored'.  People sometimes read messages, but decide against responding, perhaps
> because they accept the points made, but don't have much to say beyond, "I
> agree with you!"
>
This is very true!  I *loved* Gwen's post on Snape yesterday, but I had
nothing original to add, so I didn't comment at all.  I agreed with
Amanda's brilliant analysis of the role of the goblins a couple of weeks
ago, but couldn't think of any original thoughts to add so ....

Conversely, no one has yet commented on my ... ahem .... *brilliant*
(IMHO) analysis of why Harry clearly would not favor either of his best
friends over the other.  Sigh.  Oh well.  I'll just assume I'm right.
<g>  That's the beauty of noone commenting on your posts; you just take
the egomanical approach that everyone must agree with you or they'd pipe
up.  [I'm taking the similar approach with my long analysis of why
participation on this group colors perceptions to the same extent
(albeit in a different way) than reading fanfic].

No idea when I'm disappearing, but I'm glad to see that you're in good
hands with the other Moderators.  BTW, when mailing the Moderators at
hpforgrownups-owner at yahoogroups.com, please address your mail to
"Moderators" rather than to "Penny."  You're making the others feel
bad!  <g>

Penny


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