Pureblood attitudes and the word "racism" (Was: James the Berk?)

[delwynmarch]

No: HPFGUIDX 106888


Charme wrote :
> I don't think I stated anywhere that anyone had to agree with me;  I 
> merely stated I agreed with Alla.

Del replies :
Yes, but by agreeing with Alla, you were automatically disagreeing
with me :-) I *cannot* let such a deep and outrageous offence go
unpunished, I'm sure you can understand that :-) ?

I, Del, wrote that I wasn't sorry Sirius died and Charme answered :
> I'm not sorry or otherwise; there seem to be a great deal of folks,
> including JKR herself, who are sorry he did have to die.

Del replies :
Now, if we all loved the same characters, it wouldn't be fun, would it ?
Honestly, I can understand why people are sorry he had to go. I would
have been too, if Sirius hadn't been grating on my nerves all book long.

I, Del, wrote :
> > I say : actions speak louder than words. JKR is showing us that
> > *nobody* can escape their emotions. Even someone as old and wise 
> > and experienced as DD *repeatedly* (year after year for 4 years) 
> > made the very same wrong decision because of his emotions. It tells
> > a lot indeed.

Charme answered :
> While I sort of agree with you there, I also believe that DD 
> understands and admits his mistake.  Admitting you made a mistake for
> what you preceived as the right reason (the "I cared more for your 
> happiness" line)  and learning from it is apparently, in my view, 
> something other characters in the book are sometimes unable to do. 
> The phrase that comes to mind is "the road to hell is paved with good
> intentions," doesn't it?

Del replies :
I'd say : give them time. It took DD FOUR YEARS to finally admit he'd
made one mega-huge mistake. And his decision was challenged 3 times in
the meantime. Not to mention that we don't know that he would have
revealed the truth to Harry if he hadn't been forced to by Harry
discovering the existence of the Prophecy.
So I guess other characters, younger, less experienced characters, can
be given quite some time to realise and admit their own mistakes.

Charme wrote :
> I've done the canon/logic/fact in other posts (I have a problem with 
> the word "fact" since what we're reading is an imaginary world, but 
> I'll go with it for now), however I do manage to throw some humor
> in there:  it shows I both am interested (seriousness) and I'm not 
> obsessed with my own view so much that I can't leave the door open 
> (humor) to change my mind after reading info from someone else.

Del replies :
I can be extremely tenacious as long as nobody finds the right words
to convince me, but once they get through to me, I have no problem
changing my mind. So I wouldn't describe myself as "obsessed", even
though I might look like it sometimes :-)
And I simply *love* humour. I wish there was more of it on the list.
But I guess the main problem is that using humour is not easy to do
without veering off-topic very quickly. Humour is a great tool to
discuss stuff, especially when mixed with seriousness. And it's also a
great stress relief tool :-)

Del