[HPforGrownups] Slytherin-Ever So Evil after all?

[EnsTren at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 69223

Dan writes:

> I loved Order of the Phoenix, but my biggest disappointment was with 
> Slytherin.
> 

I cousoled myself, remembering that JKR said that OOP was a set up for the 
last books

> I never believed Slytherin himself was an evil man. I thought that the 
> rumors of his being a vile Pureblood fanatic in the same vein s the Malfoys and 
> Blacks was based on 1000 years--his views get distorted from, perhaps, 
> mistrust of muggle-born students to full-blown racism. Bah. 
> 

Bravis!  You should be first Mate on the SS SALAZAR, or the USS SALAZAR...I 
haven't made up my mind yet.

> I've always seen the Slytherins as the group nobody understands, that 
> aren't Ever So Evil at all. 

A thought.  I don't think even the slytherins understand themselves.  Or what 
they are supposed to be.

I thought we'd only seen a couple bad apples and there were, somewhere, 
"good" 
> Slytherins. After all, in Chamber of Secrets, Rowling was all about our 
> choices shaping us--we've seen characters switch sides several times (Snape to 
> "good," Peter to "evil," for example) yet three books later, we've *never* 
> seen a single Slytherin strive to go against the flow of his/her fellow 
> students.

Because they are sneaky!  It wouldnt' be cunning to come out and shout "I 
HATE THE DARK LORD!" and then get beaten up by the rest of them.

No, better to watch and wait in quite.

 Personally, I never read Slytherin as the Evil house--I just thought that 
ambition was 
> particularly likely to be found in Evil people, though Bravery, 
> Loyalty/Hard Work, and Intelligence are as well... Anyways, my views of what Slytherins 
> were can be summed up in a paraphrase of a lovely piece of fan-fiction, 
> Answer to the Authors by A.L. Milton:
> 
> Slytherin qualities include our defiance of authority, our endurance, our 
> independence and our utter disrespect for convention, pious platitudes and the 
> pseudo-sentimental emanations of established authority. In short, we are sly, 
> cunning, ambitious and tough. On the good side such qualities can produce 
> people like H. L. Mencken and T. E. Lawrence. On the bad side, they can produce 
> Martha Stewart.
> 

A motto!  Slytherin is what drives us forward, and what keeps us alive in 
times of extream strife, as does courage.  Gryffindor is like a brillate flare 
rallying your allies to you...and altering the enemy where you are.  SLytherin 
is like the jews hiding and worshiping in secert during the nazi regime

> Was anyone else disappointed in Order of the Phoenix's portrayal of the 
> Slytherins? Are they really an Ever So Evil House that deserves to have their 
> dungeon permanently flooded?


Again, I consoled myself, and wait, and pray to merlin


Nemi
       --Black Dragon
       --Slasher and Yaoist
       --Utterly Psycotic