Wizarding Genetics / HP & Star Wars / Arthur Weasley / PP's House

[Liz Muir]

No: HPFGUIDX 40831

*****Wizarding Genetics*****

dfrankiswork wrote: 

>>...neither wizards nor Muggles have any way of influencing whether
their offspring are magical.  (It has occurred to me that the reason
Squibs are rare might be infanticide: what do you suppose the Malfoys
would do if they had a Squib baby?  The Fudges?)<<

Er, I don't think infanticide has anything to do with squib rarity.
Apparently, you can't really find out if your child is magical til they
reach Hogwarts age. The common examples are Neville and Hermione. If
Neville's relations had known he was a wizard, they wouldn't have gone
through all of their crazy schemes to get magic out of him. So if the
Malfoys were to have a squib (random query: does Draco have any
(younger) siblings? Too lazy to check cannon. Anyone have it on hand?),
they wouldn't know it until the child was 11.


*****Harry Potter and The Force*****
Eloise wrote: (after numerous HP/SW parallel examples):
>>But aren't HP and Star Wars both modern myths which simply draw on
the same mythic archetypes? There may well be parallels between the
two, but I wouldn't go as far as to say that they are *connections* 
and I would certainly not suggest that the one is in any way derivative
of the other. The saviour who waits to learn of and/or develop his
powers until the time is ripe is not an uncommon theme.<<

When you say "not uncommon", you mean "rampant", right? I'm totally
siding with Eloise on this one. The unloved orphan discovering they
have hidden powers/alternate identity/what have you is an extremely
common archetype, especially among childrens/teens fantasy. It just
really appeals to this age group who is looking for an identity. I'll
just list a few examples: Bruce Coville's Into the Land of the Unicorns
series, the Replica series (can't remember who it's by),  Sabrina the
Teenage Witch (American TV show. 16 year old lives with aunts and
discovers her powers), the Lioness Quartet by Tamora Pierce (sorta),
Circle of Magic by Tamora Pierce (VERY), Matilda by Ralph Dahl and tons
of others. This theme is so frequent that it can make you sick! It's a
huge archetype in literature. HP and SW happen to be prevalent
examples.


*****Arthur Weasley*****
Gretchen wrote:
>>In re-reading GoF, a line hit me that I did not notice before. On
Page 203 of the US hardcover version, Malfoy is reading Harry and Ron
an article from the Daily Prophet about Arthur Weasley at Moody's and
the dustbins. Malfoy was commenting on how they got Arthur's name wrong
in the article saying "imagine them not even getting his name right,
Weasley. It's almost as thought he's a complete nonentity, isn't it?"
Is he a nonentity? It was suggested he was an unmentionable-maybe he
is, but uses another name for the sake of his family. Maybe he changed
his name for other reasons? Could this be a "clue" into Arthur's
past?<<

My sources say . . . no. As mentioned by others, the DP doesn't seem to
be the most reliable source in the world and I don't think it's very
serious either. I think that the credibility of the press is slowly
degenerating in the books. This reflects JKR's experiences with them.
In book 1, the DP is where Harry and Ron find out about the Gringotts
break in. The "Evening Prophet" reports fairly accurately the sighting
of the flying car by muggles in CS. In GoF the press' standing has been
reduced to the likes of Rita Skeeter and inaccuate "yellow journalism."


*****PP's House*****
Kristen wrote:
>>I think I made a mistake in my last post in that it was Ron and not
Hagrid woh made the comment about bad wizards and Slytherin. While I do
realize that the arguments for James et al being in Gryffindor are very
strong the comment raises questions. Everyone "knew" that Sirius Black
had gone just about as bad as possible, including Ron. So why would he
make that comment unless he had been a Slytherin?<<

As this quote appears to be coming up in a lot of discussion where
people don't check references, here's the quote once and for all. Ron
says it at the sorting ceremony in the movie, but HAGRID says it in the
cannon. Check your references!! It can be found on page 61-2 of the
paperback PS and on page 80 in the SS hardback. For any other editions,
it's in the Diagon Alley chapter, right after Harry meets Draco in
Madam Malkin's.

"Better Hufflepuff than Slytherin," said Hagrid darkly. "There's not a
single witch or wizard who went bad who wasn't in Slytherin.
You-Know-Who was one."

And there you have it. My personal views on this? Hagrid is
*exaggerating* his statement to make a point. It would be more
accurately stated, "There were lots of dark witches and wizards who
were in Slytherin." I don't think this means that, in the 1000+ year
history of Hogwarts, *no one* who wasn't in Slytherin ever went bad.

As to them not being able to be close friends if they were in different
houses, this is definitely true. However, there seems to be more
interaction between houses as students get older. We have several cases
of dating between houses: Percy and Penelope, Cedric and Cho, etc. And
there's always classes and free time. It does seem more likely that
people will be close if they are in the same houses though. (So this
paragraph is basically meaningless rambling.)


=====
Rowen Avalon (Liz Muir)

"We will not examine how grainy the frosting is. It's a cake. That's all we need to know."
"Everyone keeps learn more and more about less and less until finally they know everything about nothing. It's called specializing."
"The guilty taketh the truth to be hard, for it cutteth then to the very center."
"I have nothing but contempt for a man who can spell a word only one way."

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