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

[horridporrid03]

No: HPFGUIDX 124454


>>Nora: 
>Perhaps I'm being uncharitable, but what one also really has to 
remember about that post is that it's pre-OotP.< 

Betsy:
But none of the language Elkins quotes, none of the examples she 
points out are negated by OotP.  In fact, there are even more 
examples from OotP of the same hurt/comfort phenomena.  In a previous 
post I spoke about the "Harry and George put a beating on Draco" 
scene.  There's plenty of fodder right there.  "Malfoy was curled up 
on the ground, whimpering and moaning, his nose bloody." (Scholastic 
hardback p. 413)  JKR loves to hurt Draco, and while he suffers, he 
suffers in a manly or an attractive, way.  She doesn't have him cry 
or puke or turn green or anything else to negate the hurt/comfort 
points Draco earns in this scene.  Harry, on the other hand, walks 
away without a scratch.  It's a strange choice -- especially if JKR 
is trying to put Draco in a thoroughly unsympathetic light. 

>>Nora: 
<snip>
>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...<

Betsy:
Oh, I think Draco as Harry's foil or rival was demolished much sooner 
than OotP.  In GoF Draco's big hit on Harry is... badges.  Oh yeah, 
Draco.  Very scary.  In PoA Draco is a mere tool used by his father 
to get at Dumbledore.  And he gets pimp-slapped by a girl.  Again, 
not a big threat to Harry.  In CoS he's the red herring, and I think 
the readers figure that out way before the Trio does (Draco as the 
Heir?  It just didn't fit, did it.)  Even in PS/SS Draco doesn't do a 
good job fillng the role as Harry's foil.  *Harry* defines him that 
way, but JKR never lets Draco win, so he's not a very satisfying 
rival for the reader.  I think OotP is where Harry finally figures 
out what the readers have known for several books.

I agree that the idea of Draco as *Ron's* shadow fits much more 
smoothly.  Draco digs at Ron better than anyone, and even in OotP 
Draco makes Ron's life fairly hellish.  And they're good opposites.  
Draco is all about words, Ron is much more physical.  They're both 
pure-bloods but with different politics and vastly different 
families.  Though I think they both have attention issues.  (I read 
an essay somewhere where it was suggested that Draco would have been 
a happier Weasley than Ron.  His love of performance would have 
helped him get past the "over-looked sixth son" thing Ron suffers 
from.) If Draco does turn out to be the "good" Slytherin, I think Ron 
will be the one to have to biggest problem with him.  (But wouldn't 
that be a good symbol of the newly cleansed WW?  A Weasley and a 
Malfoy working together.)

>>Nora:
<snip> 
>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.<

Betsy:
I could start an argument about what exactly has Draco done that he 
needs to be "redeemed" -- but that would be a digression. :)  It's 
not that the static character must change.  The static nature of 
Draco isn't what brings in the fans.  Otherwise Dean or Lavender 
would get a similar amount of discussion time.  And they don't even 
come close.  There's a reason so much time has been spent pouring 
over Draco, and I can't think that JKR has written about him in the 
way she's written about him to just keep him in a perpetual state of 
stasis.  

So much of what she writes about Draco is contradictory.  Draco is a 
spoiled little boy who bullies his family into getting him everything 
he wants, a wizard version of Dudley we're told.  And then we're 
given a scene that makes it clear that Draco is *not* the cherished 
little apple of his father's eye we thought he was.  He's a physical 
coward, and yet he handles the overly rough treatment at the hands of 
Crouch!Moody with surprising dignity.  Draco is a bully who never 
fights fair, and yet it's always Draco getting jumped on by 
overwhelming numbers, some attacking from behind.  Would the real 
Draco Malfoy please stand up?  
 
>>Nora:
>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.  

Betsy:
But so much of the series demands going beyond the initial surface 
reading.  It's set up in PS/SS when we realize that the real villian 
of the book isn't scary, swooping, Snape, it's poor, stuttering, 
Quirrell.  And readers just don't have far to go to see that how 
Draco puts himself across and how the Trio see him is not the whole 
picture.  If we don't pick that up from the contradictory scenes JKR 
gives us, she hits us over the head with the Heir of Slytherin red 
herring.  JKR practically grabs us by the wrist and says, "see, he's 
not what you think he is."  I think that passes the sturdiness 
inspection. 

>>Nora:
>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.<

Betsy:
I just don't think Draco has all that far to go.  He doesn't have to 
change all that much.  Heck, James and Sirius behaved worse than 
Draco ever has, and they turned out all right.  (I know, I know.  
Language.  So we'll give him a bar of soap.)  But, as I said in an 
earlier post, I've had sympathy for Draco since PS/SS.  He doesn't 
have to redeem himself, to my mind.  He hasn't made a choice yet, so 
which way he'll go is still very much in the air.

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

Betsy:
I'm not willing to bet, because the interviews *do* make me nervous.  
I'd like to think JKR is a better writer than to give away all of her 
secrets at PR events.  I think Draco will have a role.  I just worry 
it will be as an object lesson. A pretty weak object lesson, IMO, 
but... 

Betsy