Original Order, Imperius and Inheritence and traits

[cubfanbudwoman]

No: HPFGUIDX 108114

Jen wrote:
> > <snip>
> > The part I keep wondering about is whether JKR isn't also sending 
> > message about origins being important to understand who you 
> > really are. Harry was certainly hurt by 11 years of not knowing 
> > he was a wizard, thinking his parents died in a car crash. 
> <snip>
> > And what Riddle doesn't know about his origins would probably fill
> > a book. He's made a life for himself based on half-truths, 
> > speculation, etc., it seems to me. Perhaps if he had known more 
> > he would have made different choices? I don't know, but JKR did 
> > say he wasn't born evil.
> > 
> > And then there's all the stuff Harry *doesn't* know about which 
> > continues to haunt him--who was James, really? Why does he have 
> > no other relatives? Would he have done better in Slytherin? 
> > There's so much he doesn't know about himself and his & his 
> > parent's past yet, but it continues to shape his actions & fuel 
> > his fears in the present.
 
 
Eustace_Scrubb:
> As Amey said, blood (genealogy) in and of itself means little.  But 
> as you add, that doesn't mean that _history_ means little.  Many of 
> the problems the WW has are a result of the failure to record and
> disseminate knowledge of its history.  Just as Harry (and Tom 
> Riddle, also) know little of their own heritage, the Wizarding 
> World as a whole tends to ignore its history, particularly anything 
> unpleasant.  Whatever we may think of the curriculum at Hogwarts, 
> it's clear that the history taught there is boring and nearly 
> useless.  I doubt that Binns was much better at teaching it when he 
> was alive, but I think the lack of value placed on the subject is 
> pretty clear--not only did Binns  just continue on his merry way 
> not noticing that he'd become a ghost, the Headmaster (whoever it 
> was at the time) didn't bother to fill the position with a living 
> professor.
> 
> In the WW as a whole, the tendency is to ignore conflict (treatment 
> of house elves, relations with centaurs) and to create false 
> symbols of magical unity (the statue in the lobby of the MoM), 
> avoid discussion of  potential problems (the fact that Voldemort's 
> demise was far from certain after Godric's Hollow) and to forget 
> the past rather than try to learn from it.
> 
> So Harry is quite representative of the Wizarding World as a whole 
> in his lack of knowledge of his past and his failure to ask 
> important questions.  The latter is a pet peeve of many readers and 
> has sometimes been seen as a convenient if sloppy authorial tool to 
> keep the reader in suspense.  Maybe it's much more than that.  
> Maybe it's a critical part of the overall story...and just maybe 
> Harry will have to overcome this to prevail in the end.


SSSusan:
Wonder why I'm suddenly thinking of the infamous, oft-attributed-to-
FDR phrase, "Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it"....

Eustace, I think your next-to-last paragraph is especially 
important.  There *does* exist in the WW this tendency to shove 
problem issues under the rug and to seemingly ignore some historical 
fact--or to paint it in a falsely positive light.  [It strikes me, 
too, that Fudge--whether ESE! or Bumbling!) is an excellent Poster 
Boy for this attitude, is he not?]  

You're right that it makes sense that a part of this lack of 
knowledge/failure to ask important questions can be chalked up to an 
authorial tool to keep us in the dark, but I would not be at all 
surprised if JKR makes this lack of knowledge/failure to ask, and 
especially, failure to learn from the past, a critical part of the 
story.

Siriusly Snapey Susan