Bloodlines & Social Order Backstory (Was: Another Flint)

[charme]

No: HPFGUIDX 119244

<<snip>>

> Carol again:
> First my apologies for being unclear. I certainly didn't mean that
> *you* were rewriting the story, and I'd be the last person to
> criticize theorizing or speculation on any point (though I confess
> there are topics I avoid because I find them a bit too speculative for
> my taste).
>
> I meant that JKR, via her narrator and the various characters,
> established Colin creevey and the other victims of the basilisk as
> Muggleborns in CoS. *She* would have to rewrite the story to give them
> a different heritage if she thought it was important to do so, but
> she'd have to go to a lot of trouble to explain how the basilisk and
> Tom (or Ginny) got it wrong.
>
> I agree that a lot of attention has been focused on Dennis Creevey's
> size (not to mention that he established in my mind, at least, that
> the Giant Squid is a "good guy"), and I'm sure we'll see more of both
> Creevey brothers. I'm also sure that Dennis Creevey's size will play a
> fairly important role. (We'll also see more of Dean Thomas's skill
> with calligraphy and drawing; otherwise, why establish it in the
> narrative?) But, IMO, there's no need to change what we've been told
> about their heritage to do so. After all, we've yet to be told why
> Flitwick and Dedalus Diggle are tiny. Maybe, like Hagrid, Professor
> Flitwick will be revealed to have a nonhuman parent. But the Creeveys
> have been established as Muggleborns, and I think it would be more
> trouble than it's worth *to JKR* to explain how not only the Creeveys
> themselves but Ginny and Tom and apparently McGonagall and Dumbledore
> were wrong about victims being Muggleborns.

charme responds,

Thanks for clearing that up, however we differ on an important point (that's 
not bad, just to each his own, aye?), the one being that JKR would have to 
"rewrite" anything to do with the social blood classifications and monikers 
she's established. I think there's more to that rationale than we've been 
told, and this may be part of the intent of the next book. I might also 
mention that in my mind, there has to be more a backstory not only with 
bloodline geneaology, but also history around the creature classification 
denoted to elves, goblins, and centaurs simply because they are referenced 
repeatedly  in all of the books and more importantly in the DoM chapters of 
OoP. Add to that the revelation that giants and wizards married, wizards and 
Muggles, and one has to wonder that through some of the families bloodlines, 
if there aren't other creatures who have been in the mix in the genealogy in 
some way. All it takes is the six degrees of seperation argument applied to 
genetics, then all manners of possibilities exist. Otherwise, why introduce 
half giants, and the various allusions to:

appearing "troll" like (Flint),
tiny (Colin, Dennis, Flitwick),
large (Madame Maxime)
loping (the new character in HPB, which makes me connect loping with lions)
duck footed & round shouldered (Krum)

I'm sure there are others and would love to list them all.

I also note Ron's comments in CoS that state that wizards would have died 
out if they hadn't started to marry Muggles - might that be the same for the 
other races like elves and goblins? Add this to why statues of supposed 
*creatures* would appear in the MoM along with wizards who believe their 
races to be beneath them? DD alludes to an answer when talking to Harry in 
his office after the DoM battle, by saying for too long wizards have 
mistreated and abused their fellows and are reaping their reward - and the 
statues in the MoM depict and are describe to the reader as almost a 
"greater than thou" attitude of dominance over them. Notice the word 
"fellows"  DD uses, which by the definition in Webster's includes the word 
"equal." Here in the US, our Civil War was fought in part to free 
"creatures": black slaves who were considered "beasts" by their masters and 
slave traders - yet that didn't stop Jefferson from having a relationship 
with one his "slaves." Since JKR has referenced racial inequality and WW2 in 
her comments on various interviews, chats and her website, I can only 
surmise there's more backstory to be generated to these references.