JKR's dismay at favourite fansite Slytherins

[dumbledore11214]

No: HPFGUIDX 100146

Sorry for reposting my own post, but I found too many typos in it. :)

I doo know how to spell "Slytherin". really. :o)

Alla

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "dumbledore11214" 
<dumbledore11214 at y...> wrote:
> --- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "annemehr" <annemehr at y...> > 
> Hi, Alla,
> > 
> > I like your posts, so I thought I'd pass along parts of a post I 
> made
> > back in May (#99587). 
>

Alla:
> Hi, Anne! Thank you for the compliment. I like your posts too, so I 
> definitely enjoyed reading this one, especially since I don't 
> remember  reading it first time around.
> 
> 

> snips first excerpt
> 
Anne wrote: 
> > [...]
> > I'm not sure what JKR means to do with Slytherin in the future. I
> > think Harry will indeed have reason to rethink his early 
judgments. 
> I
> > think JKR's scenario of the perniciousness of labelling people 
and 
> of
> > the dangers of group mentality is a valid point for her to bring 
up,
> > even though it's more subtle than having "fair" Houses where each
> > student is more likely to be judged on his or her own merits.
> > 
> > I also think that some of her dismay at people identifying with
> > Slytherin may stem from being worried that they are actually happy
> > with the status quo. If she wants to make a point about the way
> > Slytherin is sorted, people will miss it if they don't think
> > anything's wrong to begin with. She may also not realise how much
> > some Slytherin fans may be rooting for the "underdog," which is
> > exactly what those students are in a very real sense.
> > 
> > By the way, this is not to let Draco off the hook. True, he is at 
a
> > disadvantage in that both at home and at school his faults have 
been
> > encouraged. His choice, if he ever makes it, to be "good" will
> > necessarily be much harder than your average Hufflepuff's choice. 
He
> > may not actually be at heart any more evil to begin with than many
> > others who look much better. Still, the choice is ultimately his 
to 
> make.
> 
> 
> Alla:
> 
> 
> Oh, I don't know. I am hoping that JKR will follow up on bringing 
the 
> houses together, but I am not so sure that Harry will have to 
rethink 
> his earlier judgements about Slytherin House.
> 
> 
> I think the best we can hope for is either learning that "pureblood 
> hatred" was brought to the heart of Slytherin ideology by someone 
> other than Salasar and he, poor Dear, was simply misunderstood, 
> imsinterpreted by later generations ( the big problem with this 
> assumption for me is the Basilisk. It is VERY hard to accept that 
> Salasar left this monster in the school for something good). The 
> second possibility is that the majority of Slytherin House will 
> decide to abandon their "mudblood hating" and dissolve together 
with 
> other houses at the end of the books.
> 
> 
> Can you suggest any other possibilities?
> 
> 
> 
> 
Anne previously:
> > 
> > Besides all that, I don't think Jo means that every Slytherin will
> > turn out evil, just as not every evil wizard was a Slytherin.  I 
> just
> > think she intends that SSlytherin's choices have resulted in a 
house
> > that turns out noticably more evil wizards.
> > 
> > Somewhere in that post, in a piece I didn't quote, I theorised 
that
> > the 11-year-old Slytherins didn't arrive with any more faults 
than 
> the
> > rest, but that their faults were uniquely encouraged by their 
> house. 
> > This leaves one to wonder why Dumbledore hasn't done something 
about
> > that. Either he's powerless to meddle with the Sorting Hat 
(though 
> it
> > would seem simple just to leave it in his office), or he believes 
> that
> > the ultimate choice between good and evil lies with the students
> > themselves, regardless of where they're sorted.
> 



Alla wrote:
 
> Yes, definite yes. Slytherins superiority complex and racist 
attitude 
> thrives in such environment. I don't know why Dumbledore did 
nothing 
> yet.
> 
> 
>  
> Alla