(was: The Sorting Hat)
Barry Arrowsmith
arrowsmithbt at btconnect.com
Sat Dec 20 11:31:40 UTC 2003
No: HPFGUIDX 87374
Responding to a combination of two of K's posts here, which gives me
double the opportunity of stirring the pot.
>
K:
Albus maintains he left him with an abusive family so that he wouldn't
grow up with people treating him like he was something special and then
has consistently treated him like that for five years. He comes up with
this absurd idea at the end of OoP that he has kept Harry in the dark
to protect him after consistently failing to take any meaningful
actions to do so over the last four books. Either he's nowhere near as
wise and powerful as we've been told or he's out and out lying for some
reason - and I'm beginning to
favour the latter idea. Dumbledore is playing a real-life game of
Wizards' Chess and cares as much for the welfare of his pieces as a
child with a toy chess set - the only trouble being that toy chess
pieces repair themselves after every battle and human beings, even
wizards, don't.
>
Kneasy:
Hate to point this out, but you're starting to agree with me. This
could lead you into to all sorts of mental trauma if you're not
careful. This is the path that ends with full membership privileges in
the League of Conspiracy Theorists, Paranoia Division.
I've long bashed on about dear old bumbling DD as the Puppetmaster.
He prevaricates, he obscures, he manipulates, he lies. I don't claim
that he is evil, but he is setting everything up so that it conforms
to his plan, whatever that is.
He whitters on about the truth being precious and I immediately recall
that quote by Churchill "In wartime, truth is so precious that she
should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies."
DD has only one aim - to defeat Voldy. Everything else is secondary to
that; casualties are inevitable, they always happen in a war, so he'll
accept them, reluctantly. Even Harry could be sacrificed if it led to
the certain destruction of Voldemort. Meantime, Harry is being forged
as a weapon, honed and sharpened, but he cannot be allowed to know
what the plan is all about. Harry is likely to end up manoeuvered into
a position where his options are severely limited, where he will then
act as DD hopes and has planned for. I'm convinced that DD knew that
James and Lily would be killed and accepted it because only that way
could Harry become Voldys!Bane.
And won't Harry be pissed when he realises this!
>
K
*grumpy today for some reason and just waiting for someone to say
something unwarranted about the Slytherins so I can let fly*
And on the subject of people grouping all the Slytherins together
(which we are, but only sort of) if JKR doesn't give us anyone but
Snape out of Slytherin house who isn't evil to the bone by the end of
book seven the loud thump you hear will be me throwing my book across
the room in disgust. She has a strong anti-prejudice theme, she has a
strong theme of choice and individuality (Harry, Dobby etc) and yet she
seems to be telling us you can write off 25% of the wizarding world's
children at the age of 11! Other than Snape the closest we've seen to a
Slytherin not being totally rotten is
Regulus Black, who may have been a bigoted idiot but did try and get
out even if it did get him killed.
>
Kneasy:
I'm a bit disappointed myself, but in the other direction. Slytherin
aren't evil enough for my taste. Some of them may actually have some
redeeming features. Remember, Harry is really a Slytherin; maybe there
are some more like him tucked away in the Common Room in the dungeons.
I do love really satisfying baddies. Unmitigated villains; cruel,
vicious, unrepentant would-be despots. We need more of them - more,
more! Blood should drip from the pages; Draco should stuff Hedwig with
forcemeat and serve her up for Sunday lunch; Crookshanks would make a
great pair of gloves; turn Trevor into a yo-yo. Yes! And that's before
we get onto the characters that irritate. Luna Lovegood in particular
is deserving of very special attention, preferably involving Lupin, a
full moon and some Bearnaise sauce. And Dobby! No sadistic detail would
be excessive where that little toe-rag is concerned. I salivate at the
thought of a combination of fire ants and a chopped chilli pepper enema
while he's employed as a substitute bludger. Lovely! LOLIPOPS rule OK!
Mind you, I'm totally opposed to gratuitous violence. One must protect
the younger readers, after all.
Kneasy
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