SHIP: Author intent (was Ron and Hermione do TOO banter!)

[Amy Z <lupinesque@yahoo.com>]

No: HPFGUIDX 50368

David wrote (I don't seem to be able to snip it more than this):

> There are two broad possibilities here, IMO (I am not discussing 
> here the possibility that there is only one pairing intended and 
the 
> other is a disastrous accident caused by clumsy writing and/or 
> reading.):
> 
> 1) that one shipping position is misdirection and the 
> other 'reality'.  In this case it would almost certainly be R/H 
that 
> is the misdirection and H/H (or some no-ship or even FITD) that is 
> what will transpire.  This possibility is broadly in line with 
other 
> plot aspects of the series, e.g. Snape-as-villain in PS, Percy and 
> Bagman in COS and GOF.
> 
> 2) that the situation is more symmetric and that both H/H and R/H 
> are being kept open as future possibilities until JKR (and 
Hermione) 
> eventually plumps for one of them, or openly refuses both pro tem.
> 
> On the first possibility we would be given enough information in 
> future books to 'decode' the current books to say what 'really' 
> happened, e.g. we would be told why Hermione blushed at a certain 
> point, or what her problem is with Fleur.
> 
> On the second, we would eventually get insight of a moment of real 
> uncertainty over both boys for Hermione, thus both endorsing and 
> relativising aspects of both the R/H and the H/H interpretations of 
> the former books.
> 
> I have trouble with both readings.  The first because once I know, 
> for example, that Quirrell is the villain, all the previous Snape 
> passages 'click' and I have no desire to go back to any other 
> interpretation.  Seeing the H/H interpretation of various passages 
> in GOF does not have the same effect on me: I recognise much of 
> their force but it doesn't leave me with that sense of having 
> penetrated JKR's misdirection with R/H.  I stress that is a 
personal 
> reaction: I make no claim to suggest that others should feel the 
> same.  Possibly JKR's imprimatur on H/H in OOP would make me feel 
> differently.
> 
> On the other hand, the second reading introduces a degree of 
> uncertainty that strikes me as untypical of the HP series.  Yes, 
> mystery and deception, authorial and by characters, abound, but 
> underlying it all JKR maintains the conviction (IMO) that there 
*is* 
> a reality that can ultimately be known.  IMO it is for this reason 
> that we get so invested in our interpretations: we buy into the 
> illusion and so suffer anxiety and discomfort when our 
> interpretations are seriously challenged, akin to that we feel when 
> our real world perceptions are challenged.  The second reading does 
> not *contradict* this, but it stresses ambiguity resolved by 
choice, 
> rather than ambiguity resolved by revelation, which I see as more 
> typical in the Potterverse.  But then again, choice is an important 
> theme, so I'm sure JKR could weave it in with her usual aplomb.  
(It 
> will be interesting to see how and if Lupin's undoubted ambiguity 
is 
> resolved.)

I don't think the ship turning in either (or a third, or no) 
direction would affect me in the same way the Quirrell revelation 
does, because the situations are quite different.  Quirrell was 
always working for Voldemort, ever since we met him.  We go back and 
read the story with that knowledge, the way we reread a mystery 
knowing whodunnit, and the knowledge is valid from page one.  The 
same goes for Lupin being a werewolf, Sirius being a good guy, Snape 
saving Harry from Quirrell, etc. . . . unless one or more of these is 
later undone in a double twist, of course.

R/H or H/H developing into an indisputable fact wouldn't rewrite the 
past the same way, because *it wasn't true earlier*; the characters 
really are changing.  We do a bit of this with shipping--e.g., we 
reread PA for hints that Ron was already starting to like Hermione, 
and find them--but it is much more nebulous.  If Harry and Hermione 
get caught locking lips in the broom cupboard in OP 6, we'll look 
back for hints, and find them, but it won't mean Harry and Hermione 
have been romantically interested in each other since PS/SS 1 
(obviously) or even GF 37.  Unlike Quirrell's true nature, these 
feelings might be something that simply aren't there yet, but will be 
later.

As a result, the ambiguity of the current ship-oriented passages will 
live on, albeit with a strong tinge from whatever the outcome is.  We 
read Snape's activities in PS/SS with the pleasure of stereoscopic 
vision, but they aren't *ambiguous* (assuming for the sake of 
argument that the final verdict on Snape will be that he's a good guy 
and really was saving Harry for good reason in PS/SS).  R/H and H/H 
as currently written are ambiguous, I agree, and will remain so even 
if the ship sets sail, unless we get a passage where Harry says "I've 
liked you ever since the Yule Ball"; even then, we can say "He didn't 
*really* know then how he felt; that's just hindsight."

Amy Z