[HPforGrownups] Re: A small rant about stereotyping in the WW and Hogwart...

[eloiseherisson at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 49967


  BoBaFeTT (thank goodness for cut-and-paste!):

> Me:
>   Keep in mind these houses are most likely setup for their differences to 
> keep them competitive, and we all know competitive situations can get 
> fairly testy.
>   So in actuallity it's not to much to expect the hatred to grow rather 
> than subside over the 1000 years.

Eloise:
In _The Science of Harry Potter_, Roger Highfield explains by reference to 
the "Prisoner's Dilemma", that the house system at Hogwarts with its physical 
separation of the students into four groups contributes to greater stability 
and prevents the ambitious and self-seeking nature of the stereotypical 
Slytherin from dominating. The "Prisoner's Dilemma" is a game by which 
mathematicians, social scientists and biologists simulate the conflicts 
between groups and individuals: the conflict between selfish desire and the 
co-operation necessary for group advancement.

It's too long to explain in detail but I shall quote (briefly):

"Mathematical models suggest that when cooperators, such as Gryffindor, meet 
other cooperators, they tend to prosper. The non-cooperators, such as 
Slytherin, don't completely take over, even though in any given [individual] 
exchange with a cooperator they do well, because defectors do poorly when 
they interact with each other, while cooperators thrive and can even 
'convert' some defectors to the better payoff from reciprocal cooperation."

(Dumbledore and Snape, perhaps?)

BoBaFeTT:
> 
>   When looking at it I am a  bit surprised in the group Harry Hermione and 
> Ron all being Griffendor.
>   I would have much more expected to see groups comprised of 1 of each 
> house.
>   Generally speaking you see a leader (gryffindor) a brain (hufflepuf) a 
> fighter (ravenclaw) working together against evil (slytherin)
>   We do see those traits in the group of 3 but their all Gryff's.


Eloise:

I think the brains belong to Ravenclaw, don't they? Perserverance and hard 
work to Hufflepuff.

Remember that the houses *are* very separate at Hogwarts, that the students 
live with their house-fellows, eat with them, can't pay social visits as the 
locations of the common rooms seem to be secret, have lessons largely within 
their own house group.

Hogwarts does not facilitate mixing. If JKR had wanted her main characters to 
be of different houses, she would have had to conceive the Hogwarts House 
system very differently.

It has been noted more than once that in fact the trio all display traits 
pertaining to different houses. As you would expect, unless JKR created 
incredibly crude, stereotypical characters. RL people tend to be complicated. 
JKR's best characters are just that.

It has also been suggested (by myself and others) that JKR is in fact 
inviting us to fall into the trap of stereotyping, only to pull the rug out 
from under us later.

Yeah. That was a bit of a mixed metaphor. You know what I mean.


BoBaFeTT:
> 
>   If anything I could see that there would be a greater chance that the 3 
> houses would group together against the Slytherin (they kinda do)

Eloise:
See The Prisoner's dilemma, above.

~Eloise

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