Gay Harry? (was:Re: Slughorn makes me uneasy)

[antoshachekhonte]

No: HPFGUIDX 138590

> Betsy Hp:
> But Harry doesn't need to *work* on his relationship with Ginny.  
> Once they get together it goes swimmingly.  (Probably the reason we 
> see little of it. It's like a pleasant picnic: fun for the 
> picnicers, boring for the observers.)
> 
Antosha:

I think this is an excellent point. I worked with a theatre director who loved to say, "Good 
marriages make bad theatre." I think Harry's relationship with Ginny (once it IS a 
relationship) exists in the book as a respite from all of the terror, drama and angst. But we 
don't need to see much of it--just enough to let us know that they're happy together and 
seem to be getting along, as you say, swimmingly.

Now, as much as I hated the "stupid noble" routine at the funeral, it seems to me that the 
one thing that it set up (however artificially) was trouble in paradise. We'll see if Harry and 
Ginny finally have to fight through some stuff at the beginning of book seven.


> His "relationship" with Draco is a huge problem though.  Draco has 
> stepped out of his usual role.  Draco's supposed to be the one 
> obsessed with Harry, and suddenly that's changed.  Since Draco had 
> never had any real sort of relationship with any of Harry's friends 
> (he was only interested in them as they related to Harry) they don't 
> notice when things change.  
> 
> I read an essay (long, long ago, so I can't source it) that talked 
> about how the descriptors JKR used for Draco were often feminine in 
> nature. (He blushes pink, for example.)  If JKR *did* choose to 
> write Draco in this way it's not surprising that when Harry turns 
> his attention toward Draco some "false leads" (to borrow your 
> phrase) spring up.
> 
> Betsy Hp, who's slightly afraid that she really didn't answer the 
> question at all

Antosha: 

I think that the sensuality of the descriptions of the various Slytherins in HBP--even 
Slughorn is described in voluptuary as well as voluptuous terms--served, as you 
suggested here, to separate them from the Gryffindors, et al, as well as to highlight the 
emergence of Harry's own sensuality. And to soften the image of the Slytherins: Voldemort 
and Snape aren't the only images of Slytherin behavior that we carry away from this book.

Still, I think seeing Harry's obsession in homoerotic terms is taking it a bit far. (I think I'm 
agreeing with you here, Betsy.) Harry is obsessed with Draco--he, the narrator and 
Hermione (I believe) all describe him as such. And, as you say, it allows Harry to observe a 
change in Draco's demeanor over the course of the year that finally (FINALLY) transforms 
him from the paper-flat school bully that we knew in the first five books into something 
resembling a human being.

But no monster/beast ever roars in Harry's chest (or any other portion of his anatomy) 
when Malfoy comes near, or walks by with giggling girls or lies with his head in Pansy's 
lap. He's not obsessed with Draco, he's obsessed, in fact with Draco's activities and his 
motives. He knows that Malfoy is up to something. He always suspects it, in every book--
that Snape and Malfoy are up to no good. For once, JKR has given the reader proof in the 
second chapter that Harry is RIGHT--Draco IS up to something and Snape IS helping him. 
So as sensual as the descriptions are, they are, as you pointed out, just "false leads."