Elkins' Draco Malfoy Is Ever So Lame. Yet Sympathetic. And Dead, Too.

[nrenka]

No: HPFGUIDX 124446


--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "horridporrid03" 
<horridporrid03 at y...> wrote:

> Betsy:
>
> And yet, the entire point of Elkins' post is that JKR does an 
> absolute superb job in making Draco attractive - through 
> Hurt/Comfort and also "Sympathy for the Devil."  And Elkins 
> demonstrates that JKR knows exactly what she's doing when she 
> writes Draco's scenes. So JKR is saying one thing in the books and 
> a completely different thing in her interviews. (Prime reason I 
> take her interviews with such a giant block of salt.) No, the 
> intense attraction amongst the fans for "bad boys" like Snape and 
> Draco and Sirius are totally the result of JKR's prose.  

Perhaps I'm being uncharitable, but what one also really has to 
remember about that post is that it's pre-OotP.  There was a lot of 
sympathetic posting about Draco then that fizzled up and died with 
New Canon, partially because so much of it was incumbent upon future 
revelations.  Eight million fanfics with Draco becoming better 
inclined towards Harry et. al. died in a flaming can(n)on barrage.

Most importantly, Draco as Harry's rival is something that has been 
pretty much demolished by OotP, particularly end revelations.  *Ron* 
is more of Draco's foil than Harry is.  The areas of competition 
between Harry and Draco were steadily removed or altered in OotP, and 
by the end, Harry has far more to deal with than the infuriated yet 
ineffectual Draco--who is in the shadow of Daddy yet again.  (I now 
remember a friend's comment to the effect of "As soon as Lucius 
enters, Draco really pales in comparison".  But even Lucius is highly 
overestimated, I think--oh, there was a lot of wailing at him doing 
minion duties.  But I digress.)

The Inquisitorial Squad and their powers seem to argue against 
Elkins' idea that Draco is not much of a House leader.  There is, of 
course, no evidence that the House as a whole was completely behind 
him and his squad--but there's certainly absolutely no evidence to 
the negative.  That means it's canonical that no Slytherins engaged 
in disruptive behavior large enough to reach the notice of our 
heroes, notably *unlike* those who honored everyone at the end of GoF.

So OotP in many ways confirms a lot of Elkins' analysis: that Draco 
Malfoy Is Ever So Lame.  What is notably not confirmed in the book, 
and even hinted against, is the idea that Draco must change.  I've 
argued before that it's eminently possible that a new face for 
Slytherin House comes into the notice of our hero, which makes good 
sense with the paradigm of 'what Harry notices' expanding (and she 
did tell us we'd finally get to see some of the enigmatic Blaise 
Zabini).  But I don't buy the argument that "Since Draco has been 
static, he now has to change".

Why no--he can stay what he really is, in essentialist terms.  His 
choices and tendencies, even only partially realized, express quite 
clearly what he is, and hints of deviation have all been unrealized 
hints...in fact, downright frustrated hints.  I personally find that 
to be far more believable than Redeemed!Draco, although that is 
nicely BANG-y.  Being the Diana fan that I am, I'm not giving a 
privileged place to BANGiness when I guess.

So much of reading Draco as genuinely sympathetic requires tacking 
things on to every situation.  I get wary, myself, when one is 
continually saying "X really also means Y"; suppositions build into 
layers and take on a life of their own.  They tend to be weak in 
hurricanes.  The other part of reading him as genuinely sympathetic 
is generally an expectation that things will change.  Possible, but 
hard to argue anything solid from.

We'll all see in July, won't we?  Anyone up for bets and keeping 
track?

-Nora notes that she will have to remain in disagreement with Betsy 
over the interviews, but also notes that it is an eminently testable 
argument in the long run....hehehe...