Harsh Morality - Combined answers

[nrenka]

No: HPFGUIDX 121209


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

> Betsy:
> I would argue that the proof is indeed in the pudding.  There are 
> *tons* of readers who support and love characters the narrator 
> would  have us think are unworthy.  There are many who truly 
> believe Percy is a good person badly treated by his family.  The 
> readers firmly behind the idea of a redeemed!Draco are legion.  
> (And not all of them are unduly influenced by Tom Felton. <eg>)  
> And do I really have to bring up Snape supporters?  All of these 
> readers can quote you chapter and verse *from* cannon to support 
> their point of view.  They are not making stuff up whole cloth.  
> They like these characters not in *spite* of Potterverse, but 
> *because* of what JKR puts in the books for them to grab hold of.  
> Just follow the HP Essay link from the HPFGU Portkey and look up 
> the "bad" characters for some great examples.

Ahoy, the cannons are firing again! :)

Ahem.  To continue to play devil's advocate, most all of these 
supporters of the 'unworthy' (your word, not mine) also have one 
thing in common: their perspectives rest VERY heavily upon the 
prediction of future revelations, with a few admitted exceptions.

What we've been talking about here is the eminent possibility that 
things work out harshly, once we know all the information.  Knowing 
all the information requires one to re-read the past with knowledge 
of the future, and to go "Well, maybe that Sympathetic!Draco reading 
of mine really *wasn't* there".  [For a good example, search the 
archives and you'll find a well-known but no longer active here 
poster arguing that Draco was really honestly trying to warn 
Hermione in the DE ramage scene in GoF.  That doesn't exactly hold 
up with OotP Draco.]

There is, to be moderately blunt about it, a lot of creation of 
greyness (especially around a character such as Lucius Malfoy), that 
hinges on the "We don't know he doesn't, it hasn't been explicitly 
nixed in canon, so he *could*...", which is often used without 
reference to larger thematic issues.  IMHO, that takes one fairly 
far astray.  Purely factually, I can probably nitpick a ton of 
things into proving that Draco is deeply ambiguous or even 
sympathetic, but I'm at least 50% to be mowed down by the next 
book. :)

They may quote chapter and verse, but interpretation on an 
incomplete text is a very tricky thing.  I, for one, think most of 
the characters are going to be less complex in sheer disposition 
than we think they are (for those who we lack backstory for).  Many 
of the characters are very grey now, but could easily be tipped 
either way by that ONE key little piece of information.  There is 
something at least moderately metaphysically BANG-y coming.  JKR has 
said that now is the time for Answers, and I think she likes Answers 
more than she likes ambiguity.  I see a lot of the wiggle room being 
closed off--not all, but most.

> If the characters were as black and white, if the Potterverse was 
> as unforgiving, as you're saying it is, I don't think the books 
> would be nearly as interesting.  Nor as mysterious.  

Mystery novels always have a solution at the end.  Of course, 
there's the "what does it all MEAN?", but you can't really work that 
out before you know what all happens.  I'm going to be contrary.  I 
now bet on the much cleaner ending as opposed to the messy and 
ambiguous one.  We'll see, no?

-Nora cringes at the winter storm heading her way