Do people like SYCOPHANTS?

[cindysphynx]

No: HPFGUIDX 36702

Eileen wrote (about her supply of pity):

> > Is this wide-spread phenomenon? Or are we only a few whose supply 
> > of pity is infinite?

Elkins wrote (of the plight of minions):

>If they're not cannon 
> fodder, pure and simple, then they're secondary villains that the 
> reader is supposed to roundly despise: they hardly ever get any 
cool 
> lines of dialogue, they rarely have a decent dress sense, they're 
> almost never good-looking, and their dignity is stripped from them 
as 
> a matter of course.  . . . They're losers, through and through.

Aw, I know what you're thinking.  Cindy is just going to taunt Elkins 
and Eileen for their defense of weak characters.  It's going to be 
ugly, you're saying to yourself.  That Cindy is so mean, you're 
muttering under your breath.

Actually, no taunting.  Not this time.  I can kind of relate to what 
Elkins is saying here.  Weak characters are kind of pitiful, almost 
by definition.

Where I have trouble, though, is the idea that there is plenty of 
sympathy, empathy and pity to go around.  Take the Shack, for 
instance.  When it is the Trio versus Sirius, we're all routing for 
the Trio and no one feels sympathy or empathy with Sirius.  (Right?)  
Even when Harry is standing over him threatening to blast Sirius.  
(Right?)

Then it becomes Lupin, Sirius and the Trio versus Pettigrew.  
Although Elkins makes a mighty fine case for Pettigrew needing some 
sympathy and all, the problem I have is that I have a limited 
reservoir of sympathy and empathy.  It's a zero sum game for me.  To 
have some feelings for Pettigrew, I have to take those feelings away 
from the other characters.  And in the Shrieking Shack, there's just 
no room for that.  Lupin is staking a claim to sympathy in a Big way, 
Sirius is doing the same, Harry always is entitled to some, and Ron 
has a broken leg.  Where am I supposed to find some extra sympathy 
for Pettigrew?

Now the graveyard is completely different.  Cedric has just been 
killed.  Harry is tied to a gravestone with a filthy rag in his 
mouth, but compared to what happened to Cedric, that isn't so bad.  
Pettigrew, though.  Pettigrew is cutting off his *hand*.  And we know 
how difficult this must be for him.  Indeed, the author laid a 
foundation in the first chapter that this would happen, and then she 
explained Pettigrew's inability to refuse Voldemort in Harry's 
dream.  So there's some sympathy to be had for little Peter there.

And as soon as I was sure Harry was in a world of hurt, my sympathy 
for Peter evaporated.

Elkins again:

> I guess I must share your strangeness then, because for me, if 
> there's one person in the scene in fear for his life, then that's 
the 
> person who *always* gets the first claim on my sympathy.  It 
doesn't 
> matter who it is or what he's done: the desire not to die is just 
so 
> compelling, so universal, so utterly *fundamental* that it garners 
> sympathy and identification as a matter of simple human default -- 
> very much as physical pain does.  

Interesting.  Then does this mean that Crouch Jr. had your sympathy 
when the dementor sucked out his soul?  How about Buckbeak, and by 
extension, Hagrid?

Elkins again (on Sirius' Big Line)

> ("YOU SHOULD HAVE DIED RATHER THAN BETRAY YOUR FRIENDS" 
> statement.)
> 
> That line of Sirius' has never made me feel too good either.  
> 

Oh, Sirius didn't really *mean* that.  I mean, he just meant that he 
didn't really buy Peter's story that Voldemort forced him to do it.  

True, Sirius risks his life repeatedly for his friends.  But then 
again, we haven't seen Sirius knowingly walk into a situation where 
he is facing a substantial risk of death.  He faced Peter in a duel, 
but Sirius should have won.  Sirius hangs around Hogwarts, but he's 
able to do it as a dog.  He comes back from his warm-weather hideout 
to be close to Harry, but he stays well-hidden.  So, yeah, I think 
Sirius is blustering on there just a bit.

But that's OK, because Sirius is Dead Sexy.

Cindy (who thinks we need an apology meter *and* a pity meter)