Voldemort the Cartoon (was Re: Draco = Evil?)

[lupinlore]

No: HPFGUIDX 124765



> Betsy:
> Yes, context.  In a world with Voldemort you'll have a hard time 
> convincing me that silly, petty, Draco is supposed to be *evil*.  
> And *worst* fellow student?  Please.  He's barely a blip on Harry 
> and co.'s radar.  Why else did we hear so little of himn OotP.  His 
> digs are tired, and his songs, while hurtful to Ron, won't cause a 
> bunch of dead bodies.  And won't get a fellow student expelled. 
> (Hello, Tom Riddle!)

You know, this is very interesting, and I think at the heart of a lot
of arguments we have over the Dursleys, Snape, and Draco.  That is
that people often point out that the Dursleys/Snape/Draco aren't
*really* evil, because Voldemort represents the *real* evil in the books.

And there I think is the problem for a lot of adult readers, including
myself and others in my circle.  We just can't take Voldy seriously. 
The man is *such* a cartoon!  I mean, who can read a Voldemort scene
and not laugh?

And therein lies the problem.  We can take the Dursleys seriously,
particularly after OOTP, because we have all known people who make or
would make abusive parents.  We can take Snape seriously because we
all know the kind of pain his hatefulness can bring.  We can take
Draco seriously because we have all known bullies and know what can
happen to them in adult life.  We can take Dudley seriously for the
same reason.  But Voldemort?  The man is an over-the-top cliche
straight out of a comic opera or a comic book.  We (my circle and I)
just can't see him as a very real threat.  I mean, his best Death
Eaters and he couldn't best a bunch of fourteen and fifteen year-olds
when they (the DEs) had the advantage of springing a well-laid trap! 
And his dialogue -- good Lord!  Is he quoting "Bartlett's Book of
Villainous Vacuity?"  To top it all off, he dresses in black and looks
like a snake part of the time!  He even roars, hisses, and growls like
some kind of escapee from the Island of Doctor Moreau.

Yes, of course intellectually the books present him as a threat.  Of
course intellectually we know he killed the Potters and is the cause
of Cedric and Sirius' deaths and so forth.  But emotionally we just
can't believe in him as a character or really feel, deep in our
hearts, that he is the real threat to Harry that many of the other
hurtful figures seem to be.  We see him, laugh, and say "standard evil
super villain, makes needlessly complicated plans that explode in his
face, kills a few of the heroes or their loved ones, chews the
scenery, totally defeated and killed in the end as a matter of course,
but now Snape/Vernon/Draco (DD if you're so inclined), THERE'S a
detestable and dangerous figure!"

JKR hasn't helped matters by her interviews, either.  Voldemort has
NEVER felt love for ANYONE?  How over-the-top (and emotionally
unbelievable) can you get?  Even Satan, we are told, once had his good
points.

So perhaps, just perhaps, how seriously you take the behavior of the
Dursleys/Snape/Draco depends largely on how much you can believe in
Voldemort.

Lupinlore