Who vs. Who / Interesting Article (Slate)

Fri Nov 8 21:30:35 UTC 2002

No: HPFGUIDX 46334

Responding to two messages at once since I read HP4GU
in digest form -- I'd never be able to keep up with
everything otherwise :}

> Message: 2
>    Date: Fri, 8 Nov 2002 03:28:39 EST
>    From: SylverSongblade at aol.com
> Subject: Who versus who
> 
> I've always thought that Dumbledore had to be out of
> the way by book 7 to 
> produce these results:
> 
> Harry vs. Voldemort
> Ron vs. Draco
> Arthur vs. Lucius
> 
> I figured that the ultimate battle had to be between
> the two biggies: Our 
> hero and his tormentor, his arch nemesis. Dumbledore
> can't offer him an out 
> with his safety net, though I will miss him sorely. 
> ...Now for Ron, he's got a HUGE bone to
> pick with Draco, so do 
> their fathers.

While I love the character dearly, I fall in the camp
of people who think Dumbledore will die (or have some
other phoenix-rising-out-of-the-ashes type phenomenon
occur) somewhere during books 5 - 7.  And I agree
wholeheartely that it would be tough for Harry to
fully come into his own while Dumbledore's still
around.

What I really liked about this post is the
juxtaposition of Ron / Arthur with their respective
nemeses (Draco / Lucius).  And they're battling on
multiple levels:

a) Basic good vs. evil (fathers and sons)
b) Taunting about wealth / status (fathers and sons)
c) "Pull" with the Ministry of Magic (fathers)
d) Muggle sympathies (fathers and sons) -- which
becomes even more personal for Ron when factoring
Draco's verbal assaults on Hermione (interpret an R/H
SHIP alert here as you choose -- SHIP or not, Ron
doesn't like Draco singling out his friend)

> I still can't figure who Hermione would face off
> with... if this model proves 
> correct, I think JKR will provide us with someone's
> butt for Hermione to 
> kick. 

While I follow this theory that each of the characters
you've mentioned has a signficant foe to defeat, I
don't think that 'foe' necessarily needs to be a
person.

In Hermione's case, the 'foe' (or cause) could be:

a) SPEW -- having some marked influence on improving
House Elf quality of life

b) (if you're a SHIPPER) Ron / Harry -- choose your
ship, but part of her battle is being noticed for
something other than her smarts (which I understand,
but she shouldn't see her smarts as a liability)

c) Muggle-dom -- She's representative of the Death
Eaters' target population 

> I don't see Sirius and Snape facing off,
> they're on the same side 
> (Snape could die anyway, that'd be cool for the
> plot). 

Snape & Sirius have a common battle for personal
credibility among their peers (teachers / fellow
wizards).  Each of them is in the position of having
to prove which side they're on -- and having to hide
behind some alter ego in the process.  I'm counting on
JKR to reveal (soon!) what Snape's stake is in Harry
himself -- we already know why Sirius wants Harry kept
safe.

> I also think Neville 
> will prove his mettle by facing off someone big, but
> aside from Draco, he 
> doesn't have anyone to be his "opposite". 

Neville's biggest challenges are his self-confidence
(including identifying his strengths / talents as a
wizard, although we're leaning toward Herbology on
this one).  I'm a Neville fan -- I'd love to see him
come through on some difficult Herbology-related
challenge!  

And the other is conquering the fear / memories
associated with his parents' torture -- which may
suggest Neville's participation in ultimately
defeating Voldemort.  

I know people have drawn parallels between Neville &
Pettigrew...I'm hoping JKR doesn't resort to such
obvious literary redundancies in the two Hogwarts
generations.  From what I've seen so far, she's
celebrated the positive things Neville can do (ie. the
house points awarded @ the end of PS/SS).  I'm hoping
against hope that Neville gets more shots at being the
unexpected hero, not the weak link.

>    Date: Fri, 08 Nov 2002 12:07:52 -0600
>    From: "James P. Robinson III"
> <jprobins at ix.netcom.com>
> Subject: Interesting Article
> 
>          The author of this article
> (http://slate.msn.com/?id=2073627) 
> makes an interesting, if negative, appraisal of
> Harry, his abilities and 
> his character.  

Thanks to TLC, I'd spotted this Slate.com article
before seeing this post on the list.  Slate's
journalists are political commentators and, while they
may have some thought-provoking things to say about
the political and business scenes, JKR's books seem
somewhat outside their typical scene...although, as I
give it more thought, they could be grouped under the
heading of "Social Commentary."  

At any rate, the only difference between the author of
that article and an online troll / flame is that the
author's getting paid.  Slate.com *likes* to incite
people's ideological fires and no doubt is banking on
some pretty incendiary replies.

- MT

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