Revisiting the Black family tree

[stbjohn2]

No: HPFGUIDX 118292



Alshain wrote:
> 
> Hi,
> 
> When Sirius says that all pure-blooded families are inter-related, 
> people usually tend to take it literally and infer that every old 
> family we've seen in the books so far has to be on the Black family 
> tree. I'd like to challenge this conception a bit and at the same 
> time check if I'm reading more into the text than what is actually 
> there (then again, this wouldn't be unusual in HPFGU either), and 
> save the family tree from breaking under the weight. Basically I'm 
> viewing it as equal parts of generalisation and hyperbole.

Sandy -- I took it as generalization and hyperbole too, and interpret 
it to mean "all pureblood families of a certain social class (rich) 
and political persuasion (leaning to the dark, purebloods-are-
superior side) are inter-related"


Alshain: >  
> For all that pure-bloods are said to be rare, there seems to be a 
lot 
> of them dotted throughout the books. [snip]
> the Snapes as per JKR, [and lots more snips]

Sandy: Are you basing that Snape is pureblood on her comments at 
Edinburgh? Because the way I read those remarks, she basically stood 
on her head to avoid commenting on whether Snape was pureblood. She 
confirmed he wasn't a mudblood (that wasn't exactly a surprise) then 
rambled for a long time on unrelated matter before stating something 
along the line of "there are clues to his background in the books." 
As with all JKR clues, they can be interpeted either way, so 
apparently his heritage will be important at some time, and will then 
become clear. (When she was asked a similar question about Lupin's 
background she gave a simple declarative answer "he's half-blood," so 
it's not like she isn't willing to tell us anyone's heritage, as long 
as it suits her purpose.)

Sandy