[HPforGrownups] Re: Hermione's rude comment

[The Crashing Boar]

No: HPFGUIDX 74718


  From: Wanda Sherratt 
  <<<snip>> Perhaps the biggest fault with it is that it was too 
  subtle.
  > 
  I would like to believe that this is the case, but I don't.  Rowling 
  is not a subtle writer.  When she wants us to get a point, she tells 
  it to us, often over and over.  When Draco called Hermione a 
  mudblood, there was immediate outrage, a brawl, and the discussion 
  of the insult went on into the next scene.  When Snape called Lily 
  the same, he was immediately shouted down, insulted in turn by Lily, 
  and then handed a further beating by James.  If Rowling were trying 
  to say something negative about Hermione's character, someone would 
  have reacted to her comments about Firenze.  Nobody did.  I think 
  that we are giving Rowling more credit for deep thinking than she 
  deserves.  It looks to me like she thought of Hermione's remarks as 
  a "zinger", putting the other girls in their place, and that was 
  it.  It obviously worked for some, but to me, the putdown is 
  strangely out of place, given Hermione's background and the themes 
  in the books up until now.

  Wanda


  I have to admit, I agree with you.  Perhaps instead of 'subtle' I should have said 'poorly developed'?  JKR *might* have meant to take this further, along the lines I suggested.  However, this scene does smack of the oneupmanship sort of thing even adults do in their day to day interactions with people.  It's also the sort of scene I could see Hermione replaying later in her head and cringing when she realises how it *might* be taken, but as the books are largely from Harry's POV, we wouldn't get to see that.  I just like to point out other possibilities!

  Dawn


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