Article

[rosie]

No: HPFGUIDX 41216

Ok, so I've been reading that article that was sent for the discussion topic (http://www.voiceoftheturtle.org/reviews/books/richard_potter.shtml) and I couldn't help but get a bit annoyed at some of the things in it...these seem like just little things, but they did irritate me. Have I got some of them wrong?

Any comments etc appreciated especially if you have read the article.

"Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw are the lower orders, hard-working but stupid."

(Although he is describing someone else's theory here)..Isn't Ravenclaw for the clever, rather than the stupid?

"Rather worringly, the only character from a single parent family appears to be the evil Lord Voldemort, whose father rejected his mother when he discovered she was a witch and who later died giving birth to Voldemort."

Maybe I'm wrong, but I always thought a single-parent family was, by definition, one or more children being principally raised by one of their parents alone. Since Voldemort was abandoned by his father and lived in an orphanage...I'm not quite sure how exactly he was "from a single parent family"? He had a single parent, yes, but he was hardly from a single parent *family*, was he?

"Although the climax of each book sees Harry thwarting an attempt by Voldemort or his supporters to either kill him or resurrect Voldemort, by the fourth book Voldemort has once again regained full strength (in fact, he is even stronger)."

Did I miss something....is he actually stronger than he was at the height of his powers? (I'm not saying this bit's wrong, just querying it)

"The very oldest ones have castles and indentured servants, and foreign sounding names that gesture towards the post-Conquest Norman aristocrats, such as Draco Malfoy, Harry's schoolboy rival."

Draco lives in a castle? That's quite a step up from a "manor" isn't it?

"More significantly, all of the central evil characters in the books are male, while all of the senior authority figures are male."

Yes, because the deputy head isn't at all a "senior authority figure" within the sphere of Hogwarts, is she?

"(There are of course no wizard comprehensives, the only alternative education being a comedy correspondence course called Kwikspell)."

The idea of a comprehensive is a school where all children, regardless of ability, can go, that is free (so doesn't segregate by class). Well, we know that there is a wide ability range (Neville vs Hermione)... and a wide income range too (Ron vs Malfoy). Seems fairly comprehensive to me...

"Like Eton and its peculiar Wall Game, Hogwarts has its own bizarre sport in Quidditch, with inexplicable rules (a sort of combination of polo, cricket and rugby, on broomsticks)."

But it's *not* Hogwarts' "own bizarre sport", it's one common to pretty much the entire WW....that is not at all the same as some special Eton game, it's the equivalent of having football/soccer matches!

"Meals are served by servants in the Great Hall"

No they aren't, otherwise everyone would know house elves worked at Hogwarts.

"Instead, at the age of eleven -- a reference to the eleven-plus examination to get entrance to grammar school -- messages arrive saying that Harry has been admitted to Hogwarts school, sparing him the horror of attending a comprehensive, which are thereby classed alongside coathangers and used socks as the sort of second-best that no one really wants."

I think it was more to do with it being a school where people flushed your head down the toilet rather than it being a comprehensive that Harry didn't like...and who would choose a "normal" school, after such bad experiences in a "normal" primary school, when they had found out they were a wizard, and had the chance to escape from the horrible Dursleys (and Dudley's grotty old uniform).

"And it is the female students who are easily taken in by the most palpably ridiculous teachers: Gilderoy Lockhart..."

Yes, that's really strange, isn't it, suggesting that girls are more likely to have "crushes" on a male teacher than boys?

Rosie






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