JKR's dismay at favourite fansite Slytherins

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 100088

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "dumbledore11214" 
<dumbledore11214 at y...> wrote:

> 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.<


Pippin:
Do you have a source for the quote? I couldn't find it at Quick 
Quotes. 


I did find this: 
****
http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org/quickquotes/articles/1999/109
9-starledger-garrity2.html
Q. Tom Houseman asked, "Do you think that anyone in real life 
is truly wholly evil like Draco Malfoy and Voldemort?" 

A. Rowling said, "My instinct is to say that probably not, but I
can't answer that question without ruining the series for you." 
Rowling said that in future books she will attempt to show "why 
Voldemort is who he is.
****

One could certainly argue that the reason she couldn't answer 
the question was because she wouldn't use the words "truly 
wholly evil" to describe Draco and Voldemort, but isn't in a 
position to explain why. 

Nor do I think that Slytherin House is destined to be a repository 
of evil. According to the Sorting Hat's songs in Books Four and 
Five, the founders were originally all great friends and worked 
happily together. Now I don't think chivalrous Gryfffindor and 
gentle Hufflepuff would have been happy to work with Slytherin if 
he had been driven by hate from the beginning.

Nor do I see Slytherin's preference for teaching pure blood 
wizards as necessarily indicative of hate.  We wouldn't conclude 
that a  dog trainer who only trains German Shepherds hates all 
other dogs, or thinks only Shepherds should be trained. 

Also, if Hogwarts worked then as it does now,  the Founders  
shared their magical knowledge with each others' students, 
while using the House system to pass along their individual 
philosophies. There was no discrimination as far as magical 
learning was concerned. It was  this that forced Slytherin to 
leave--he no longer wanted Muggleborns to be accepted to the 
school at all, according to Professor Binns. 

What happened to poison Slytherin's mind with hate we don't 
know, but since Rowling says the Hat is sincere, it must have 
happened after it was created.  That means the Chamber, a 
product of hate, was not part of Slytherin's plan from the 
beginning, and people are not picked for Slytherin House 
because they are racist or hate-filled.  What is happening, I think, 
is that people who don't want to associate with racists and 
hatred are rejecting the House as Harry did, leaving it to the 
Malfoys and their ilk. This is cultural--it has nothing to do with
the  Hat at all.

Pippin