My Love of JKR/Snape's kitten

[vulgarweed]

No: HPFGUIDX 37731

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "uncmark" <uncmark at y...> wrote:

Uncmark ranted most eloquently:

> A few rantings:
> PLEASE JKR
> 
> 1) Hurry with Book 5! We're all going through Harry withdrawl!
Agreed!
> 
> 2) No characters going to the dark side. The entire western world 
was 
> raised on Star Wars and Lord of the Rings. Please no corrupting of 
> the main characters (or their families)

Weeeellll....I think it's _because_ the entire Western world was 
raised on Star Wars and Lord of the Rings, and the older myths and 
stories those tales are descended from, that we _will_ see some dark-
siding (and in fact already have). Really, the moral struggle of the 
choices one makes is the whole theme of the books. If there's no 
clear and present danger of corruption where's the struggle and the 
choices? I think we wouldn't have such a stellar array of examples of 
different ways corruption is handled (think of Snape, Pettigrew, 
Crouch Sr., Malfoy junior and senior, Tom Riddle, Sirius Black 
[unjustly imprisoned for 12 years, thereby revealing corruption 
aplenty in the judicial system, somehow resisting it himself but at 
what cost to his sanity?], etc.). I think that theme of corruption 
and its horrid possibilities is the REASON why SW and LOTR have the 
enduring appeal that they do. Those of us who want to be good guys 
know it's not as easy as just putting on the nice clean good-guy 
suit. The storytellers expect us to IDENTIFY with the temptation and 
confusion of Frodo, or of Skywalker junior or senior, because all of 
us have a shadow, and maybe all of us have a price. I'd be very 
disappointed in JKR if she _didn't_ ask us to come to grips with some 
of this fear and doubt through the eyes of a main character.
> 
> 3) It's TOO EARLY to match up 13 & 14 year olds. As this is a 
> grownups club, How many of you met your future spouses at that age?

Future spouses? It's kind of rare, but it does happen. And of course 
it's much rarer in our current society, which is a very large global 
world in which people move around a lot, leave their hometowns 
regularly, and tend to postpone marriage until after university study 
or working for a while, than it used to be. Back in the 
medieval/Renaissance society the wizard world in some ways evokes, 13-
 and 14-year-olds got married all the time. The wizard world seems 
like a smaller and more tight-knit society, so early matches might be 
more common there. 13 and 14....ew, no, but 17 or 18? Yeah, I could 
certainly see that, not all that uncommon in our world, after all. AS 
IT IS NOW, though 13- and 14-year-olds certainly do flirt, suffer 
infatuations, pass around romance novels dog-eared to "the good 
parts," ask each other out, pine away, touch themselves in the dark, 
and if they're lucky, fool around. In modern culture, most people 
date around quite a bit before finding their life partners, and this 
is the age when it starts. To ignore that completely would, IMO, make 
the characters unrealistic. Glad JKR's not doing that. (we don't need 
to hear about anybody's nocturnal emissions, though, she ain't Judy 
Blume.)
> 
> 4) PLEASE STOP THE DEATH PREDICTIONS!!! Harry does not have to die 
at 
> the climax! He can live happily ever after! How would you have 
> handled knowing at 14 that you would save the world and be famous, 
> but by the way... you're going to die at age 18, so don't bother 
> getting too connected to anyone... or falling in love... or 
anything 
> that makes life worth living...

Hm. I could go either way on this one. It's not _necessary_, true. I 
hope he doesn't die. But whether he does or not, he doesn't know it 
at 14! (he doesn't care what Trelawney says). Maybe he suspects--
there is a pretty big target on his forehead, and he's very aware of 
that. He IS a child of war, and he knows that he is. Most children of 
war generally don't worry much about their retirement plans--even if 
they are safe, sometimes it's hard for them to believe. Harry knows 
that when his own parents died, they weren't much past 18, after all. 
And they'd already experienced a lot of things "that make life worth 
living," else he wouldn't be there.
> 
> Done with my ranting... Sorry
> 
> Please JKR! Release BOOK 5 SOON!!!!!
> 
Hear hear!

Now we're probably not going to read about Snape's kitten in book 5, 
alas. Any theories on where this kitten came from? Just wandered in? 
Innocent child of a torrid, illicit alliance perhaps involving Mrs. 
Norris? (Or McGonagall even, but I think Mrs. Norris is more likely).

luv
AV