JKR's dismay at favourite fansite Slytherins

[dumbledore11214]

No: HPFGUIDX 100044

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "arrowsmithbt" 
<arrowsmithbt at b...> wrote:
> 
> 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


LOL! Just a brief comment, Kneasy. I am NOT looking for redemption of 
the Slytherin house as it stands now. As it is now, it is quite 
disgusting as clique of pureblooded bigots, but I find (as I said 
earlier) that it is very primitive to mark eleven year olds every 
year as future death eaters. Even if we suppose that those kids come 
to school with the racist ideas in their heads, I take offence at the 
suggestion that those values cannot be unlearned when you are eleven.

Putting them in the environment, which encourages such garbage, is 
idiotic at least. I know, we should blame Sorting Hat for that. :o)


By the way, I do remember JRK saying that Lucius and Draco are "lost 
causes" and Amen to that, but I don't recall her putting Snape aside 
as the lost cause.


Alla