Snape & fame, Myrtle's Bathtime Baptisms, Socking V, Dementor doubts, Christianity in HP, Wizard ethnocentrism, non-mortal spies

[Tabouli]

No: HPFGUIDX 31031

(Tabouli reports from a webmail address while her
unite account is under repair.  Normal service will be
resumed as soon as my ISP gets its act together)

Emily:
> I thnk the very fact that Harry gets to be the big
hero is a big source of Snape's resentment of him.
Dumbledore himself said that Snape turned spy "at
great personal risk" - he put his life on the line
every day for over a year trying to fight Voldemort,
but at the end of the day, who gets all the glory for
defeating him?  A fifteen month old baby with no
concept of what he actually did.  Add in the fact that
said fifteen month old baby was the son of your
childhood enemy ... yeah, I'd be pretty po'd too.<

Welll yes, but is Snape really the glory-huntin type?
 Im sure he wouldnt turn down an Order of Merlin
first class if it were offered, but Im not convinced
that being liked and admired is high on Snapes
priority list (compare him with Lockhart, for whom
this is the most important thing in life!).  Hes
surly and nasty and bad-tempered (not a great way of
winning admirers and friends), he neglects his
personal appearance (ditto), and being a spy/double
agent/whichever he is is by definition a job where he
has to keep a low profile, lest he gets caught or even
assasinated by either side.  A difficult, dangerous
job, but hardly one to win him fame and glory. 
Respect yes, but hardly glory.  How conclusively would
you need to win a war for the spy to be safe running
around with front page praises and garlands round his
neck?

step:
>Maybe Peeves being a Poltergeist is the essence of a
whole bunch of bitter house elves! I mean it could
happen!

Interesting idea.  Though, of course, the Hogwarts
house-elves are, by their standards, working under
great conditions for a kindly master.  And apparently
happy.  If theres any bitterness there, it must be
buried pretty deep

Im inclined towards the enslavement of the mind
theory for house-elves (though I still have a weakness
for the symbiotic relationship with wizards theory). 
Perhaps what the house-elves really need is a good
soak in the best scents, moans and foams David &
Myrtle Bathroom Bonanza has to offer to awaken their
bubbling inner revolutionaries (Ill let Hermione
know).

David:
> Myrtle is ready to satisfy any taste, no matter how
depraved!

(Er, Myrtle Moans with the Kissing Dementors, anyone? 
Only two galleons on video at the Knockturn Alley Nook
of Naughtiness)

Then theres Auroras Sanctuary-in-a-Sock idea.  Now
this has promise.  Maybe it was the love Lily
crocheted into Harrys booties that bounced
Voldemorts curse!  (Protect your precious pumpkin
with Lilys Luxurious Lovewool!  Sock it to
You-Know-Who!)

As for female ghosts, didnt the Wailing Widow come
all the way to Hogwarts from Kent for Nicks Deathday
Party or something?

Mahoney:
> When Dumbledore brings up the fact of Voldemort's
return, Fudge gets a 'dreamy' sort of look in his
eyes.  Then he poo-poo's the idea, and all but accuses
Harry of being nuts based on Rita Skeeter's story.

Hmm, interesting idea.  Ive mentioned before that the
Imperius curse is due for its moment in the limelight.
 Surely at some point one of the major characters will
succumb, causing all manner of juicy plot twists.

Elizabeth:
> I suspect there's more to the Dementors' attention
toward Harry than I've previously realized
Cindy:
> They don't lower their hoods, so he doesn't know
where they are looking, particularly since they don't
even have eyes.

You know, I think JKR is a bit inconsistent with
Dementor sight.  On one hand she argues that theyre
blind and can only sense people close up by their
emotions.  This is how she gets around the whole
Sirius in jail and Barty Junior subterfuge stuff.  On
the other, in PoA Hermione says that the Dementors
would have seen Sirius fly into Hogwarts on a
broomstick from miles in the air.

If Dementors read who someone is by their emotions,
why couldnt they tell Barty Junior and his mother
apart, Polyjuice or no?  And why bother with the
Polyjuice except for the benefit of the other
prisoners if they cant see?  Frankly, if one dying
person looks much the same as another to the
sightless Dementors, and they cant tell the
difference between a man going insane and a large
black dog, Im surprised that more people havent
escaped from the place using similar tricks.

>Cindy (who is still in a bloodthirsty mood and
wonders if Moody's 
>magical eye is really an eye harvested from a
dementor)

Mahoney:
> Um...ew?  Yes, definitely ew.

(Tabouli wonders whether the bloodthirsty Cindy would
be up for some Moaning Myrtles Magical Mad-Eye
Moisturising Bubble Bath)

More Elizabeth:
> I don't think Snape sees the Malfoys for the threat
they are. Time to wake up and smell the pumpkin juice,
in my mind.

Oh no, I think the aroma of pumpkin juice is well and
truly lodged in Snapes nostrils where the Malfoys are
concerned.  Snapes a very very suspicious character,
for a start, and he surely knows that Lucius is a
Death Eater, and a rich, powerful, clever one.  If he
missed a threat that obvious, hed never be cunning
and crafty enough to play a risky game like spying.  I
think favouring Draco is much more likely to be a
sneaky subterfuge.

As for Snape leaving Voldemort before James and Lily
died and the reasons therefor (?), those of you who
got to the end of my Unauthorised Biography of Severus
Snape will have read that one possibility (for the
Snape Loved Lily LOLLIPOPS among us), is that Snape
himself was asked to kill the Potters, and suddenly
realised he couldnt do it(much as he hated James, he
knew that killing James would make Lily hate him
forever and one day he might be asked to kill her as
well, filthy Mudblood that V considers her), and
instead fled to Dumbledore to forge a side-swapping
spy deal, driving V to storm to Godrics Hollow to do
the job himself.

Joanne:
> And my cynical son pointed out how creepy it would
be if Harry could converse with the photos of his
parents

Ook.  Although he did briefly chat with his parents
shadows in the graveyard, remember

HP and the 10 commandments:
> 8 - You shall not steal.

Oh, theres quite a bit of stealing going on.  Sirius
steals food to survive, IIRC, the Trio steal from
Snape to make potions, Filch triumphantly accuses
Peeves of stealing the egg from a Triwizard champion
and thinks this might persuade Dumbledore to eject him
(??).  In terms of the morality of stealing, JKR seems
to be taking, as David says, a humanist sort of line. 
A sort of yes, stealing is against the rules, but not
deeply immoral (like murder), and can therefore be
done if the thief has a higher motive in mind, like
saving Muggleborns, or staying alive and close to
Harry.

David:
> I would say that HP is suffused with Judeo-Christian
morality - as is much British culture.

Ah, a pity I missed the beginning of this thread 
sounds right up the cross-cultural alley I was
wandering in a week or so ago about the US and UK and
their basically Christian laws and values (regardless
of the actual religion or lack of it of UK and US
citizens).

> In particular, the ultimate good is not 'love God'
but 'to thine own self be true', and no outside source
('salvation') is required to live up to that good - I
call that humanism, FWIW.

Im a bit hazy on the exact philosophical definition
of humanism (those 1990 Philosophy lectures were a
long time ago), but yes, JKR does seem to have a
basically secular humanist values system in her books.
 Although I think its less a to thine own self be
true than Dumbledores comment about it being our
choices that determine who we are, and both of these
are linked to Protestant individualism.  That is,
morality is a set of universal laws which define Good
and Evil and should be applied to every individual
equally (be they family, friend or foe), and it is up
to each individual to uphold these laws, with their
conscience (or God) as witness, and determine his or
her own destiny through personal choice and effort (a
la Protestant Work Ethic.

Emily:
> Does anyone else find themselves somewhat perturbed
by the depiction of muggles in Rowlings world?

Not me, actually.  Just sounds like normal (if not
especially admirable) human behaviour to me.  The ol
my group is superior to all other groups (just
measure them by my groups standards!) syndrome,
otherwise known as ethnocentrism.

Deriding or belittling or otherwise dismissing other
groups as stupid or ignorant or primitive (or even a
bunch of badly dressed freaks who turn teacups into
rats) and so on just the thing to remind ourselves
that our group is infinitely better.  The Muggles do
it to the wizards as well, and felt threatened enough
to try to wipe them out.  The snootier purebloods do
it to the Muggle borns.  The human races do it to each
other, and so do the human social classes.  Human
beings have been dehumanising their enemies and
competitors for millennia, and the wizards are no
different.

Gwen:
> I myself came up against the portrait/photo theory
when I was writing my fanfic, because I needed to be
in a place with portraits, but where a portrait
couldn't speak to ID my hero (who was a spy).

Hey, given how helpful the Fat Lady was when Sirius
was lurking, why not have a portrait as a spy??  Maybe
Snape was sent to hang a friendly portrait in Riddle
House!  Actually, come to think of it, why should
Snape risk his mortal body spying for Dumbledore when
there are all manner of already-dead ghosts wafting
about?  Are ghosts too wrapped up in their own tragic
demises and limited memories to help the living? 
Magnanimous Myrtle certainly stepped in to lend Harry
a hand, so to speak, even if her motives may have been
murky

Tabouli.

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