[HPforGrownups] nautical hazards//judgments//Cho

Tue Jan 21 02:36:44 UTC 2003

No: HPFGUIDX 50218

 I wrote:
> But I don't think I like Harry with
> anyone. I remember that I got very
> mad the second I read the line "She
> was shorter than Harry by about a
> head, and Harry couldn't help
> noticing, nervous as he was, that
> she was extremely pretty. She
> smiled at Harry as the teams faced
> each other behind their captains,
> and he felt a slight lurch in the
> region of his stomach that he
> didn't think had anything to do
> with nerves."  (PoA, "GRYFFINDOR
> VERSUS RAVENCLAW"). 
> I don't know why - it's *not*
> because I want Harry for myself
> <g>, or have a specific preference
> for whom he will end up with, but
> since then I've always disliked Cho
> Chang 

Petra Pan:
Does this mean you dislike Cho solely 
because Harry has a crush on her?  
<snip>
How do those of you who feel this 
way about Cho reconcile your 
poor opinion of her with the book's 
theme of the importance of choices?  
In other words, what choices has she 
made that led you to dislike her so?

Me again:

OK... I thought about what Petra Pan said for a while, and came up with a possible reason for why I dislike Cho Chang. I am still not sure if that is the real reason, but that comes much closer than anything else. 

First off, I don’t dislike Cho because of what she is like – I don’t know what she is like. I don’t like her as Harry’s romantic interest.

You see, I hated to see Harry melt like ice cream in the sun as soon as he laid eyes on her. For two and a half years of his life we watched Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny and many other people grow and develop, we’ve grown to love some of them and dislike others *for a reason*, and here comes Cho Chang of whom we *and Harry* know *positively nothing* (at the moment) except that she is extremely pretty – and Harry falls for her like Romeo for Juliet. In GoF, Cho Chang is still as pretty as before, but we find out that she’s nice. So? There are loads of nice people out there, and the fact that Harry knows that Cho is nice doesn’t mean he knows any more about her than he did when he first saw her. 

>>“In other words, what choices has she made that led you to dislike her so?” <<

Cho didn’t make any choices. That’s part of why I don’t like her. She’s just this neutral character in the background that for some reason occupies Harry’s thoughts and *this annoys me*.

Now... Petra Pan also wrote: “How do those of you who feel this way about Cho reconcile your poor opinion of her with the book's theme of the importance of choices?” – It’s not a poor opinion of Cho. It’s the inability to have an opinion.

Petra Pan:  

<<Neither Cho nor Ginny are intrinsically undeserving people.  In order for me to read them as such, I would have to NARROW and FLATTEN my viewpoint.>>

I don’t read Cho as an undeserving person. She might be great, she might not be, but before I know her better, I won’t like her.

I wrote:
>> do you think it might be because she's not from Gryffindor? I wonder...

Petra Pan: 
<<Perhaps the answer to this may shed some light: do you dislike every 
non-Gryffindor?  Do you hold a prejudice against any other non-Gryffindor?
<snip>
So, how can such dislike be explained?  Or justified?  To have a strong opinion, positive or negative, about people we barely know is the definition of prejudice after all.>>

OK, I don’t dislike every non-Gryffindor, and I don’t dislike Cho per se, but rather the idea of Harry “melting into a puddle of goo” as soon as she looks at him, since, as you justly pointed out, we barely know her. So that’s not prejudice <evil grin>.

<snip my H/G arguments>

Petra Pan:

<<Seeing that you've just made a case for H/G (using principles that do not 
apply solely to Ginny, BTW) are you sure you're not a closet H/G shipper?
<snip>

'Cause your earlier statement "I don't think I like Harry with anyone" now reads like a description of an opinion you...uhm...no longer hold. And therefore no longer justifies your dislike of Cho.

Me:

See, I hate the idea of Harry/Cho *now* - but I might grow to like it if we have some more Cho in the foreground. I am OK with Harry/Ginny *now* - but I won’t be disappointed if it never works out. I don’t like Harry/Hermione – because I like Ron/Hermione. But other than that, I honestly don’t care whom Harry is with - *now*. I might change my opinion later. I would, however, like to see more Ginny development in the series.

And I honestly don’t mean to offend anyone who believes in love at first sight. I do believe in it, I just don’t think that what Harry feels *is* love.

Regards,

Maria,

who won’t board a ship with Harry on it until she reads OoP, if not later.

---------------------------------
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]