JKR's dismay at favourite fansite Slytherins

[arrowsmithbt]

No: HPFGUIDX 100037

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "pippin_999" <foxmoth at q...> wrote:
> 
> Pippin:
> I'm not sure it's a question of JKR not understanding fans,  or 
> seeing only black-and-white versus seeing something good 
> about Slytherin. Fan fiction and fanon often treat Slytherin House 
> as not only redeemable but already redeemed or simply 
> misunderstood.   Racism gets downgraded (upgraded?)  to 
> pardonable ethnic pride, and Dark Arts fanatics are merely 
> people who look good in black. 
> 
> It  must be a little shocking to discover that  the fans treat  
> Slytherin redemption/misrepresentation as a fait accompli when, 
> in canon, it has barely been broached as a possibility. And to 
> have it done so easily! Characters who appear to be hard core in 
> canon prove to be  willing to change provided some 
> understanding person (usually female <g>) takes an interest. 
> Old misunderstandings are washed away in a tide of good 
> feeling and never surface again. Enjoyable as all that is in fan 
> fiction,  I don't think JKR is going to be able to get away with it. 
> 

Obviously I can't speak for female fandom (though sometimes
I despair of it) but as a hard-core, dyed in the wool, unrepentant
connoisseur of mayhem and dirty deeds, I will be severely disappointed
if any of this redemption and forgiveness stuff comes to pass. Why
should it? No reason at all, so far as I can see. In fact, just the opposite.
In five books there  hasn't been *one* good Slytherin. And the way JKR
responds to the inclinations of fandom suggests that she's not about
to alter her view of them as anything other than a thoroughly bad lot.
Splendid!

The Slytherin/Pureblood mindset is not Voldy's doing; it was there long
before he appeared on the scene. It will still be there when (if) he is 
defeated. Do you really think Bella or Malfoy would sign the pledge
and start banging tambourines if Voldy vanished? Not likely. They
(particularly Malfoy) might keep a low profile, but it wouldn't change
what they *thought* - and that's what counts. It would be a replay of
the events after the first Voldy war; claims of being Imperio!-ed, of
being misunderstood, of being coerced - right up  until another
Dark Wizard appears. Then it all starts all over again.

The apparently widespread liking for Slytherin despite the way they
are depicted in canon is of course a product of human nature. Who
can put their hand on their heart and swear that they have never 
wished that they could do something truly nasty and get away with it?
Slytherin is the embodiment of a lot of personal fantasies. "Oh!" some
will cry, "I'm not a racist, or an elitist or a whatever!" Never said you
where, but for everyone there is a "they" out there that they would 
dearly love to grind into the dust, if only to visit upon "them" their
just desserts and show "them" just how wrong-headed they've been.
Be honest.

JKR has pointed out, quite forcibly that Snape, Lucius, Draco are most
definitely not the way they are portrayed in the films. That they have
no likeable characteristics. Fine by me. I like ole Sevvy the way he is;
miserable, misanthropic, bitter, vengeful. Lovely. This idea that if
only you can understand someone then they become somehow nice
or reformable is a bit naive IMO. Get to know them better and you're
probably going to find further reasons for hating their guts, that tends
to be my rule of thumb. 

Maybe there are a few fans who latch onto the redemption bit as
a salve for the hankering they have for Slytherin. Perhaps they're not
really all that bad after all; they can be redeemed and forgiven.
Excuses, excuses. 
Much more satisfying to accept them for what they appear to be 
and then revel in the final climactic orgy of come-uppances and
balancing of accounts.

Kneasy