Evil and Slytherin was Re: Perspective ... / Coherence

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 38865

I said:
<<<Try to re-create the Potterverse from another character's point 
of view and you confront the fact that much of Rowling's world is 
not realistically rendered after  all. 
Certainly the Slytherins are not.  <large snip>

The moment I try to  conceive of them as morally complicated, 
however, their situation makes no sense. Are they Slytherins 
because the Hat recognizes that at the age of eleven they are 
"criminally incurable"? OTOH, if they aren't hard cases, why  treat 
them as if they were?>>>>

Penny said:
>>>>>Er ... is having ambition regarded as rendering one 
"criminally incurable"?  <g>  Seriously, this notion that the 
Slytherins are all evil is very flawed in my mind.  They are 
ambitious.  Power-hungry.  Cunning.  Willing to use "any means 
to achieve their end."  But, not necessarily criminal.  Not 
necessarily Evil.  Not necessarily.  <<<<<

Sarah said:
>>>>Erm...wait-a-minute...Since when has the defining 
classification of 
Slytherin been incurable evil? Ambition, cunning, 
ruthlessness...all traits 
that *could* lead to evil, certainly, but not evil in themselves. 
<<<<<<


 I wasn't saying that the Slytherins are *evil*. I said that Slytherin 
House is  anti-social. That's different.

Slytherins, we are told, "use any means to achieve their ends."  
That philosophy is anti-social, " hostile to or disruptive of the 
established social order: marked by or engaging in behavior that 
violates accepted mores." It is  the exact opposite of what the 
House system is supposed to teach. The House system, as 
McGonagall says, is  "your family within Hogwarts." It exists to 
reward achievements and punish rule-breaking, that is, to 
indoctrinate the children with the mores of the wizarding world. 
(ch 7 PS/SS)

Sarah:
>>Why would they keep such a house around, anyway?<<

Why does Ankh-Morpork have an Assassin's Guild*? Because 
it's *funny*. A House system, at Hogwarts or in real life, is 
supposed to teach  the values of working together, wholesome 
competition and so forth. It's a  way of  invoking peer pressure to 
get the kids to internalize the rules. Slytherin House subverts 
that, except that it isn't subversion since the Hat *openly*  
proclaims that Slytherins ignore the rules for their own ends.  

 I don't think  that the Slytherins will all  turn out to be evil. Even 
Draco might decide to disobey his father. (I don't think much of 
his chances of living happily ever after, though.) It just can't 
happen in a way that would cause a character to say, "Dear me, 
why are we sorting  impressionable young people with a 
tendency to be ruthless and ambitious rule-breakers  into a 
House where those behaviours are encouraged? Silly thing to 
do, really."

* a reference to Terry Pratchett's Discworld series

--------
I am surprised there could be any question about whether the 
books are supposed to cohere from volume to volume. What 
other reason could there be for going back and getting the wand 
order right? 

Pippin