Hostage Harry

[rosie]

No: HPFGUIDX 40537

Elkins wrote:
"Voldemort and his thirty some-odd Death Eaters all appear, right 
outside of the hedge maze.  Preferably with Harry Potter's corpse, 
just for psychological effect.

<snip>

But, but, but...but they wouldn't really be appearing in the 
immediate vicinity of any convenient hostages, would they?"

Oh oh oh... you're right this theory has more holes in it than a very cheap imported cauldron.. but... re-read what you just said and think.

If they didn't zap Harry before appearing through the Portkey...who would they have as a very convenient hostage?

-------------
Cindy said:
"If it were me and I already assumed that the 
wizarding world were diverse, I would merely shrug at the change in 
Dean Thomas' race (I say "change" assuming, of course, that he 
wasn't always intended to be black).

<snip>

I fail to see the reason for the irritation people express over a 
decision to make a character of a minority race in this instance, 
which leads me to worry that something deeper may be at work."

OK, I am beginning to regret I brought this whole issue up, as it seems that automatically makes me a racist. To be honest, it really doesn't bother me that much if he is black, white, Chinese, or whatever. My question was just the blatant insertation of his race into the section where it hadn't been when JKR wrote it, for a specific audience. 

What I am trying to ask doesn't (unless it's *really* subconscious) stem from racial prejudice, if anything, it's the opposite. Living in the society I do, with people from all sorts of different places, I assume that, in a book like the HP ones set in a similar society, there will be all kinds of people there too. I picture the characters as being a real mix, but at the same time, I don't sit there and think "Ooh, so and so must be white, so and so must be black" unless it really matters to the story. Obviously, with some of them, you are told from the descriptions or names.I think it's great to have an inclusive book, it's just that when you read that this or that character is just "black"...it seems to assume that everyone else is white. I have yet to read a book where it says "So-and-so, a white boy" or whatever and I don't like the way this kind of insertation implies that, unless we are specifically told otherwise, we should assume the characters are white. we are told their race and very little else, that is (to me) reinforcing stereotypes - oh, he's black, he must look like _______ . To me, that is *far* more offensive.

For example, if I was just told that Parvati Patil was "Asian", I wouldn't learn much about her, even though it seems she is from e.g. her name. Her physical description (eg long plait, bangles) doesn't spell out what race she is as it's not really important, although it doesn't contradict what her name tells us, but also reinforces her image as a bit of a girly girl. Telling us Dean Thomas is Black adds nothing to our understanding of his character, so why bother inserting it?

Do you see what I mean? This is a little hard to explain. I hope I haven't offended anyone here.

Rosie


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