Dean Thomas & diversity; Orphanage; superfluousness

[judyserenity]

No: HPFGUIDX 40303

LD said:
> As far as I can make out, the Ron thats mentioned in that short 
> passage is Ron Weasley, who had already been sorted by the time it
> was Dean's turn. 

Yes, I'm sure the Ron in that passage is Ron Weasley.  But, he should 
have been sorted *after* Dean Thomas, because in the book (unlike the 
movie) sorting was done in alphabetical order. 

LD said:
> It's odd how they saw fit to explicitly spell out the fact that he 
> was black.... I'm surprised they didn't add "Turpin, Lisa was next, 
> a disabled girl in a Wheelchair.... And having disabled 
> people is good..."

Yeah, the tokenism bothered me, too.  I like the "disabled Lisa" 
parody, as well as the one about the Patils.  How about: "The Patils 
were Indian.  Not Indian as in Native American -- although there's 
nothing wrong with being Native American, of course. It's just that 
Native Americans aren't native to Scotland.  Of course, there are 
peoples who *are* native to Scotland, and they are welcome at 
Hogwarts..." (Try to imagine that read in a Monty-Pythonesque style.)

Anyway, thanks to all who cleared up my confusion about Dean Thomas.

Ok, now about the possibility that Dean Thomas was raised in the 
orphanage where Tom Riddle lived.  David noted that Riddle's diary 
came from a store on Vauxhill Bridge road, which wouldn't be 
convenient to a West Ham orphanage. However, I don't think we ever 
found out how Riddle got the diary.  Maybe he found it somewhere, or 
someone gave it to him (although I don't know who would give an orphan 
gifts.)  As for Dean's apparent willingness to return home during the 
holidays, I can think of two possibilities, if he is in fact in the 
orphanage where Riddle lived.  One possibility is that the orphanage 
has improved in 50 years.  The other is that the ophanage was never 
really all that bad, but Riddle's personality and hatred of muggles 
made it seem bad to him.  (Riddle clearly knew who his father was, 
that his father was a muggle, and that his father abandoned his 
mother.  But, we don't know when or how he found out. It's possible he 
knew for a long time while he was at the orphanage, but it's 
also possible that he didn't.) 

Now, on to superfluousness.  In regards to the question of whether 
the Portkey chapter is superfluous -- I regard about 200 pages of GoF 
as superfluous.  (But not, however, the Portkey chapter.)  I mean, I 
love all the JKR books of course, but the plot just doesn't *go* 
anywhere during the middle of GoF.  I really don't care who takes whom 
to the Ball.  (Sorry, shippers.) I wish JKR had whittled it down a 
couple of hundred pages.

Judy, who maybe should have whittled that down a couple of hundred 
words