[HPforGrownups] Least favorite characters & "empty Harry"??

[Susanna Luhtanen]

No: HPFGUIDX 28421



Susanna Luhtanen
s_luhtanen at hotmail.com



>From: "Tabouli" <tabouli at unite.com.au>
>Reply-To: HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com
>To: <HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com>
>Subject: [HPforGrownups] Least favorite characters & "empty Harry"??
>Date: Tue, 30 Oct 2001 12:00:11 +1100
>
>Ooo, now let me think.  As I've mentioned before, when it comes to 
>fictional characters, I don't apply the same criteria I would to real 
>people (i.e. would I like them): I judge by whether I think they're 
>well-drawn and interesting and believable.  My least favorites on this 
>score have always been:
>
>1. Crabbe 'n' Goyle (straight from the mute henchmen mold)
>2. Voldemort (the Evil Overlord caricature who looks like an extra from the 
>animated Lord of the Rings)(Tom Riddle had much more style)
>
>On these grounds, I think Snape is great, because he's intriguing and 
>complex and challenging for the reader without being a caricature.  I doubt 
>that I'd like someone like that in person, but that's irrelevant.  I also 
>think Rita is masterly, because even though she's a thoroughly nasty piece 
>of work, she's a wonderful sketch of a bloodsucking, shameless tabloid 
>reporter (hence Skeeter, no doubt).  As for Lockhart, he *is* a caricature, 
>but a very amusing one IMO (says the founder of LIGHT RELIEF).
>
>Fleur is the one character where I wish JKR *had* taken a slightly more 
>feminist stance (and this is unusual for me: I'm usually a stickler for 
>realism not implausibly idealised role modelling and tokenism).  I totally 
>agree that Fleur's performance, for an impartially selected Triwizard 
>champion who is supposedly the top representative from one of Europe's 
>three top wizarding schools, is woeful.  "Ze Grindylows, zey attacked me!" 
>indeed (especially when Hogwarts students learnt Grindylow defence in third 
>year).  Given that she is the only female champion out of four and only a 
>supporting character, I *wish* JKR had let her come third and put in a 
>better performance.  (Is she suggesting that Beauxbatons is too chic and 
>sophisticated to produce good wizards?  Do they have a DADA teacher like 
>Lockhart??).

Yes, that - but remember her comment about Peeves? She'd be able to deal 
with the Poltergeist, I guess. Also, there was Barty Crouch intervening. He 
needed Krum to put Crucio on Cedric (because he could not put HER under 
Imperio like Krum, and, Krum had been taught the Cruciatus Curse in 
Durmstrang). (Why couldn't Krum shrug off imperius, though? Durmstrang was 
somewhat special considering the three curses.)

>One more thing - a friend of mine went to a paper on HP a while ago (never 
>mentioned this), in which the sneering academic said that HP was popular 
>because Harry was an "empty" character, with no real personality or 
>knowledge, into whom children could project themselves.  Sacrilege!  I told 
>my friend, wishing I'd gone to cry her down.  What do people think of this 
>blasphemous theory?

Who ever wrote that, has not read the books and knows not what he's talking 
about!


_________________________________________________________________
Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp