Bad guys and black hats (was Re: Unreliable narrator)

[Renee]

No: HPFGUIDX 117499


--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "pippin_999" <foxmoth at q...> 
wrote:
> Pippin:
> Perhaps we should also distinguish between the character's 
> words and actions, and the reader's perception of those words 
> and actions. 

> It seems to me that what I shall call Fanon!Lupin is as much the 
> product of reader speculation, conjecture and outright disregard 
> of canon as that admittedly noncanonical beast Fanon!Draco.

Renee:
"The" reader doesn't exist, so I'd say that every reader can only 
speak for her/himself. Moreover, no reader can really make such a 
distinction as you propose, because it's impossible to separate text 
and perception. A reader can point out factual errors, as you did 
with your fanon!Lupin list, but that's about it. That fanon!Lupin is 
at odds with the text doesn't automatically tell us what we are to 
make of canon!Lupin.           

 
> I realize it's very unconventional to make a sympathetic character 
> the villain, especially in what some of us think of as a 
children's 
> book. In that sense, considering Lupin as a potential villain 
> requires a subversive reading. But JKR has said all along that 
> her bad guys are not conventional black hats.
> 

Renee:
Did she put it exactly like this? (Quote, please?) Because I can't 
help thinking that a lot of JKR's bad guys, including the chief 
villain, *are* fairly conventional black hats. I'd be disappointed 
if she really said this, and it would reinforce my opinion that 
authors should refrain from explaining their own texts.     

Or did she perhaps say that not all her bad guys are conventional 
black hats? In that case, the most likely interpretation of the 
statement is that not every bad guy is a Death Eater, to paraphrase 
Sirius. (Just like the Balrog and Shelob in Tolkien's LotR do not 
serve Sauron yet easily qualify as agents of evil.) I can think of a 
few examples: ministry people like Fudge and Umbridge, but also 
Sirius's' parents, who were Dark Wizards yet unlike his brother 
didn't join Voldemort. And a character like Crouch Sr., though maybe 
not truly bad, does what he perceives to be the right thing with 
disastrous results. 

This serves to add depth to the series and make it more interesting. 
However, characters that look okay to non-subversive readers but 
turn out to have been Voldemort supporters all along for whatever 
reasons of their own, are ultimately no more than conventional black 
hats. They undermine the statement, instead of confirming it. 

Renee