Circumspect Harry, pro-Cho, NKS, Hagrid, HP men

[Tabouli]

No: HPFGUIDX 28503

> David, suspecting that Tabouli isn't telling all she thinks on this 
> one (i.e. the empty Harry):

Wot, me, not rant for pages at the least provocation? (e.g. a tax return, an assault on the good name of Tom Bombadil or a book about robot love, etc.).  Actually, after my initial indignation, I did pause to wonder if there was something in the empty Harry (so to speak!), as David implies.  I think my objection was more to the snooty, dismissive air of the academic concerned (who was female, btw), whom I suspected of looking for reasons to criticise HP because it's highly popular among the unwashed masses and therefore of no literary merit by definition.  I hate that sort of attitude.

Hmm.  To be honest, I haven't thought that much about it since, or I would no doubt have regaled you all with my musings.  I'd need to reread the series with it in mind.  My instinct is that Harry comes across as pretty circumspect - as one of the actors in the movie said, he mostly reacts rather than acts, especially in SS/PS.  Private, wary, intuitive, proud, a touch of learned helplessness (e.g. accepting the Dursleys' favoritism because to him it's normal, or the oppression of the house-elves), but with courage, humour and craftiness.

Scott:
> Cho (She broke Harry's heart and I know what thats
like... I can understand her for that but I don't have to agree/like her for it)

Poor Cho.  All she did was accept an invitation from Cedric to the Ball, and he appeared to be her boyfriend anyway (remember he was unaffected by the best of Fleur's Veela-ing).  We don't even know for sure that she knew about Harry's crush on her (after all, he's a year below her and she's only really interacted with him at Quidditch).  Then, when Harry asked her at the last minute, what was she supposed to do?  Say yes and tell Cedric she's changed her mind?  Stand Cedric up or two-time him just so she could say yes to Our Hero, whom she hardly knows?  Surely that would be much more manipulative and shallow of her.  And it's not as if she turned Harry down in the nasty, disdainful way Fleur turned Ron down, she was sorry and pretty sensitive about it (I could imagine much more snooty rejections from a 15 year old girl... "As if!").

I think we're in need of another support group here.  How about C.I.N.E.M.A.? (Cho Is Not an Evil Minx Association)

Calypso:
> My Pen Name would be Calypso, of course! I just love that name!

Do you like the Suzanne Vega song of that name as well??  The nicest place to eat on the island of Ikaria when I was there (1998) was called Calypso too, if you're ever there...

David:
> >Whisper it who dares, but could she have
>subliminally got some of her words from Nancy Stouffer after all?
>Not that that gives NS a case but our minds are deceptive.

Whatever happened with Prancy Nancy, anyway?  Have JKR's lawyers laughed her out of town yet?

jenny from ravenclaw:
> First, Tabouli - I didn't make that bibliowhatever comment.  Sorry!

Oops!  Sorry.  Whoever it was must have quoted you earlier in their post and I must have misread.


Catherine:
>  I love it when we realise in PoA that Hermione has been crying on his shoulder.  It screams "gentle giant" 
at me.

I see Hagrid as the archetypal lovable bumbler, with all the corresponding faults and virtues of the type.  On the subject of the trio's chumminess with Hagrid, I wonder if the days of children having approved close friendships with large adult males are numbered in the real world, because of the newfound recognition and terror of paedophilia (I think I read somewhere that the correct word should be pederasty, but anyway).  Can you imagine a 13 year old Muggle girl regularly going to the adult male gamekeeper's hut to cry on his shoulder in a real school these days without her parents and teachers getting paranoid?

My feelings on this are mixed.  On one hand, there is no question that paedophilia is abominable.  On the other, I've heard that it's reaching the point where men are reluctant to become teachers, especially in primary school, leading to lack of role model issues with boys, etc.  As another example, a (male) friend of mine once found a small child lost and crying outside his house, and didn't dare to ask her how she was and comfort her because he was afraid of how it might look.  He went and got his girlfriend to do it instead.  As a little girl, I remember having lots of friendly interaction with adult men, and I feel sad to think that this seems to have become taboo.  Answers to OT-Chatter...

Susanna:
> Who of the characters would you want to date and why?

Milz:
> Ummm....well, I would...hmmmm...Being single isn't that bad, is it?;-)
But from my pluses and minuses, Lupin comes out with an equal number.

Amy Z:
> Since you seem dissatisfied with the choices, I remind you that there 
are other men of majority age in the books.  I gather you are 
heterosexual, but you still have some options you haven't explored.  
How about Flitwick?  Bill?  Charlie?  Take a plunge into the 
adventuresome world of affairs with married men and go for Mr. 
Weasley, Malfoy Sr., or Fudge?  Try a life on the lam with Karkaroff, 
or encounter exotica with Hagrid, or break those silly prohibitions 
on dating someone old enough to be your great-great-grandfather and 
snuggle up with Dumbledore!<

(Tabouli chuckles merrily).  For the lady looking for financial stability with the spice of the forbidden, Vernon Dursley has a vacancy in the mistress department.  For the sportier lass, have you contemplated the slightly-suspicious but cheery charms of Ludo Bagman?  Or considered curling up on a carpet with Ali Bashir?  The more nurturing woman with a passion for cats might be tempted to nurse Argus Filch back into health and happiness.  Then, for those who go for the Bad Boy Walk on the Wild Side stuff, there's always Voldemort and his crew.  Let Wormtail slide his silver hand over yours in that movie theatre!  Gaze into Voldemort's smouldering serpent eyes!

Andrea:
> Mmmm...Bill Weasley.  I have a serious weakness for
red-heads (which means I adore the entire Weasley
family without exception - I even have a soft spot for
Percy).  I LOVE a guy with hair you can really run
your fingers through, so that's a definite plus.  He's
just enough of a rebel, but he's also obviously an
intelligent and responsible man.<

For me, though, I think I have to go with Andrea on this one (I'll fight you for him!). Adventurous, quirky, smart, independent, confident, strong sense of self, caring secure family background, interesting, well-travelled, gorgeous long red hair... what more could a woman want?

Tabouli.


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]