[HPforGrownups] All things green/Slytherins

[Edblanning at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 36432

Just a rider, ( I don't know how strict Dicentra is), to say that all my 
examples were from the UK paperback editions. (I sort of implied withthe 
first one that they were UK, but...)
Isn't it amazing that so far there's been hardly any overlap (has there been 
any at all?) I wonder what would happen if we tried this with any other 
colour.

Now, where are the Hufflepuffs and the Slytherins? 

Kyrstyne:
>Slytherins:
>Quick question: Are all Slytherins truly "evil"? Earlier toady, my 
>friend Dana was at my house & took a test for a Sorting Hat, but she 
>got sorted into Slytherin.(I got sorted into Ravenclaw. ;) Anyhoo...) 
>Mind you, she's not a bad person, but she can be really determined & 
>ambitious when she's working on something. Isn't that how Slytherins 
>are supposed to be? Ambitious, hard-working? But back to my point, 
>can kind people be placed in Slytherin? But then too, we don't have 
>good models to go on, do we? (Malfoy, Crabbe, Goyle, Voldie, etc.) Is 
>everybody in Slytherin so mean and spiteful like Harry "shows" us? 
>Please help a poor girl and her friend out.

I think it is against the spirit of canon to categorise Slytherins as being 
intrinsically evil, on the basis that it is the choices you make that are 
important rather than what you are. OTOH, we get into a bit of chicken and 
egg situation here. Is one sorted into Slytherin as a result of the choices 
already made, or is one essentially born a Slytherin, so that the types of 
choice made are basically determined by character. Determinism vs free will, 
again. I'm not a philosopher, so I'll stop there.

If we dicount Voldy, who presumably isn't a typical Slytherin, I suppose we 
have to take Snape as the only example of a  Slytherin  whose character has 
been in any way developed, in contrast to the sketchy, stereotypical 
portrayal of the students (whom of course, we only see from the prejudiced 
viewpoint of the Gryffindors).
So the question is, do you regard Snape as evil? (Answers on a postcard, 
please!)

One of the most worrying things about Slytherins if the Sorting Hat is to be 
believed (and it sorts them, so I suppose we have to) is in the first Sorting 
Hat song: it says that they will use *any* means to achieve their ends. In my 
book, that goes beyond mere determination and ambition, but implies a lack of 
ethics that I'm sure doesn't apply to your friend! Please remember that what 
you used isn't the *real* Sorting Hat and that it can't really see inside 
your head. After all, it sorted me into Gryffindor, and I'm sure I really 
ought to be a Ravenclaw (me and the rest of this list, it seems!)

Eloise


Eloise


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