(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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