[HPforGrownups] "Malfoy Is Mabel" and Genre Expectation (WAS: Names)

[Pen Robinson]

No: HPFGUIDX 40185

Elkins wrote:

>Hee.  Oh, yes.  I remember these.  I found them bizarrely fascinating
>as a child.  They were just so utterly alien to my life.  Like
>reading about classical Athens, you know.  Or Middle Earth. Or
>perhaps (given that I always thought those Jolly Good Schools sounded
>downright dystopian -- as, for that matter, I do Hogwarts) more like
>tales from the Gulag. 

Heh.  I went to boarding school (and enjoyed it very much), but despite the
midnight feasts, reality bore no resemblence to the stories... as I assured
a daygirl friend when she was contemplating the possibility of becoming a
boarder.  (Alas that I was so vehement about this, I put her off and she
moved to another school instead.)   And it seems to me that Hogwarts is
distinctly lacking many things that are necessary to the running of a
boarding school.  Even a magical one should have rules about bedtime!

>But indeed, that was precisely how they
>always worked.  The "Rescue and Redeem" scenario was always the order
>of the day in the boarding school story.
>
>Genre precedent here, of course, suggests that Draco Malfoy may well
>have a life-debt to Harry Potter looming menacingly in his future. 
>This possibility has also been strongly suggested by fact that the
>text has been encouraging the reader to draw parallels between Harry-
>Draco and James-Snape ever since the end of the very first book.

Yup.  We even have the Hot-Headed But Loyal Best Friend to be the
unintentional cause of the trouble.

Despite the Mabel analogy, I very much hope JKR won't follow this course,
probably because it will seem too well-worn to me if she does, wot wiv
having read all those School stories.  I'd rather see Draco remain an
unredeemed worm, personally, or discover that he hasn't the courage to
become Openly Evil.

>It's always tricky dealing with genre precedent with the HP books,
>though, because the series is such an utter genre soup. 

<snip paragraphs of Elkins' typically intelligent post on the grounds that
I can add nothing>

>But back to Malfoy As Mabel (or Veronica), I do find it reasonably
>likely that JKR might eventually smack Draco with a life-debt.  It's
>been amply foreshadowed, and there is strong genre precedent. It does
>seem a bit less likely to me post-POA, though.  After all, how many
>times can JKR really plan on pulling that whole life-debt schtick?

Yup, that's another reason I hope Draco won't be a complete Mabel.  Or
Veronica.

Pen