JKR characterizations--oversimplification?

[doctor_fangeek]

No: HPFGUIDX 114977


So there's been a lot of talk about new stuff on JKR's site.  Since 
I'm not 100% sure about the spoiler policies on that (it's not the 
book itself), I'll add a few spaces first:
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Okay, then.  JKR says the following about Sirius in her update:

"Sirius is very good at spouting bits of excellent personal 
philosophy, but he does not always live up to them. For instance, he 
says in "Goblet of Fire" that if you want to know what a man is 
really like, 'look at how he treats his inferiors, not his equals.' 
But Sirius loathes Kreacher, the house-elf he has inherited, and 
treats him with nothing but contempt. Similarly, Sirius claims that 
nobody is wholly good or wholly evil, and yet the way he acts 
towards Snape suggests that he cannot conceive of any latent good 
qualities there. Of course, these double standards exist in most of 
us; we might know how we ought to behave, but actually doing it is a 
different matter!"

Now me:
I know I'm not the only one who was disappointed by this (hi, 
Jen!).  But I find myself unable to *not* comment on why.  I *know* 
Sirius is flawed.  I accept that.  I think most/all of the 
characters in these books are flawed, and that is a good thing.  I 
accept that JKR thinks he's flawed as well.  But several of her 
comments really bugged me, in that she actually puts forth 
interpretations that I found frustratingly simplistic when I saw 
*readers* spouting them.  In one case, she also really misrepresents 
what she actually wrote in forming this interpretation.

For example, the whole thing about how one treats one's inferiors as 
it relates to Sirius' attitude toward Kreacher.  Frankly, I just 
don't see it.  Yes, Sirius loathes Kreacher (as JKR confirms, if it 
wasn't already obvious).  But JKR's own depiction of Kreacher as a 
character (who is horrid, btw, even to the one person who is kind to 
him) and her description of Sirius' background (and Kreacher's place 
in it) suggests that Sirius loathes Kreacher for who he is and what 
he represents of Sirius' past, not because he is an "inferior."  
Dumbledore even points out that Sirius didn't have this attitude 
toward house elves in general.  Yet JKR then goes on to use "Sirius 
loathes Kreacher" as evidence that he doesn't live up to his own 
pronouncement.  Right.

Then there's the whole "no one is wholly good or evil."  Well, to 
start off with that's *not even what Sirius says in the book.*  He 
says that the world is not divided into "good people and Death 
Eaters."  And how is that inconsistent with almost all of what we 
see/hear about his view of Snape???  In GoF he points out that he 
can't imagine Dumbledore letting Snape teach if he'd been with 
Voldemort, while at the same time making it clear that he doesn't 
like Snape at all.  Hmm.  So Snape is not "good" but also not a 
Death Eater?  And the inconsistency is where?  Color me confused.  

Frankly, even if Sirius *had* said what JKR is now attributing to 
him, I don't know that his hatred of Snape has much to do with 
that.  He may not think about whether there is any "good" in Snape 
(and the feeling seems quite mutual), but that doesn't necessarily 
mean that, if pressed, he would say that he thinks the man 
is "wholly evil."  I honestly don't know that we know enough to tell 
(and neither did Sirius live long enough to have a chance to find 
out).  And as a friend of mine pointed out, in terms of OotP in 
particular, Sirius has in fact just found out that Snape really 
*was* a Death Eater, which can only serve to add fuel to the view of 
him as a nasty person who has always been up to his eyeballs in the 
Dark Arts.

Then again, I find her reduction of Sirius' good points/virtue to 
his loyalty and affection for James frustratingly simplistic as 
well.  Why bother to tell us so much about his family and childhood, 
about how he left home because of his beliefs and his opinion of his 
family's beliefs, if none of that means anything with regard to 
Sirius' character????

I *know* the books are about Harry.  I understand that I probably 
shouldn't look quite so hard at Sirius, or any other secondary 
character (and I like or am interested in quite a few).  But OotP 
made me wonder (for many reasons which I won't go into now as 
they're not germaine to the main point of this post) whether JKR 
wasn't quite as good a writer as I'd thought she was, and this sort 
of reductionism (even vis a vis a "minor" character) isn't making me 
more confident.

Lisa