Molly, Motherhood, and Myopia

[M.Clifford]

No: HPFGUIDX 125238


Lupinlore:
> So, in sum, to ascribe much angst to Molly over her status in 
general with the purebloods, or to think she sees muggleborns as 
untrustworthy , etc., is, I think, to badly misunderstand her 
character.  

Valky:
Au contraire Lupinlore, I think you misunderstand me.
Allow me to embellish even further...


Lupinlore:
She is a radically non-ideological figure.  I just don't think her 
mind works that way.  

Valky:
I agreed for the most part about your position regarding Molly's 
dispassion for pureblood/nonpureblood ideology, up to this.
I don't actually think that Molly is all that *radically* non 
idealogical. She has world views and societal opinions, true that 
they matter for the most part only as they relate to the people that 
she loves deeply, but to some degree she is liable to lean upon them 
for security, I think. 
I do really like your comparison of Molly to the Empress by the way, 
just don't forget she has a reversed *meaning* too.


Lupinlore:
Molly is concerned with individual people in individual 
situations.  ...edit.... not abstractions 
like "pureblood," "muggleborn," or "society," or "the Wizarding 
World."  If she feels left out of Wizarding Society I suspect she 
ascribes it to certain "snobbish" individuals like Narcissa Malfoy, 
not to the beliefs of an abstract set like "the purebloods."  

Valky:
See, here's where I am misunderstood, I agree, but for two minor 
details that you have missed. The first - Narcissa is not the 
minority in this situation Molly is, so the snobbish individuals you 
speak of, well they constitute a greater whole than that. If the 
roles were reversed tomorrow and Molly's side was King even after 
all the Weasleys have been pained to endure Narcissa would still be 
treated better than Molly is now, which brings me to my next 
point... these people are Molly's kin and she loves them and wants 
to be among them. I never meant that she ascribed the blame to a 
group, what I was trying to say is that the community group *means 
something to her* as a whole and it matters to her that they love 
her children and her husband. This *includes* purebloodist wizards 
because they *are family*.


Lupinlore:
I doubt she even routinely thinks of "the Ministry" but rather of 
those "unfair people who won't promote Arthur" or those
"awful people who put Harry on trial."  

Valky:
No I disagree, Molly has a huge respect for the Ministry, as an 
entity, I don't think she non-regards the entity of the Wizard World 
or its laws at all. Though I do concur that for the most Molly 
doesnt really have a a great deal of regard for the Ministry or the 
WW as an abstraction but it does affect her children and her family 
as an abstraction nonetheless. So the children must be unto its 
approval so that they can be OK and Arthur so he can be OK and 
that's very important. The abstraction may not be her field of 
expertise, but she has a societal view and understands that the 
abstraction has authoritarial weight, so she doesn't disregard it. I 
think it would ring a bit childish to do so anyhow.


Lupinlore:
I'm not saying she's stupid.  Of course she understands the concept 
and reality of "the Ministry" or any other abstraction.  But I don't 
think that's the rubric she uses on a day-to-day basis to organize 
the world, even rather deep down in her automatic thoughts.
> 

Valky:
Well yes, and no for me. I think she does daily deal with a rubric 
that is greater than one entity at a time. The societal group as her 
kin is something that affects her a lot. Reread her Howler to Ron, 
and her dressing-down of Mundungus in OOtP Chapter 6 if you doubt. I 
think that society is fairly constantly on her mind, but that may be 
the reversed Empress implication in her character, perhaps by the 
end we will see Molly's card turned back to its fortunate position 
and that is when the societal regard will lose it's weight on her 
shoulders.