Am I the only one... AND why Snape dislikes Hermione

[Milz]

No: HPFGUIDX 135069

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, Nanagose at a... wrote:
<big snip to the most important parts of the discussion>
> Nobody is saying Hermione is a genius, but she's still highly 
> intelligent. 

Au contraire. Alot of readers have inflated Hermione's abilities to 
that of HBP and have compared her to HBP. HBP is truly talented and 
gifted to be able to improve on the textbook's instructions: it shows 
a deeper understanding of the physical nature of the ingredients and 
how the qualities affect other ingredients. HBP was able to devise 
spells , hexes and jinxes: that shows an application of magic 
principles that exceeds knowing when to use the particular spell. As 
I've many times said before, Hermione isn't a dummy, but she's not on 
the same intellectual level of HBP or the Weasley Twins. Until she 
can demonstrate that she belongs in this class, we should refrain 
from deluding ourselves that she is.

> She might not have made up new inventions like the Weasley 
> twins, but has she ever had to?  

No, because Hermione runs to her books. So Hermione - books = can't 
do a thing without them.

Plus Hermione's encyclopedic knowledge is a plot device for Rowling 
to toss in the odd fact.


I'm not sure who said it, but somebody pointed out 
> that the fact that she doesn't take any steps to remedy the 
obviously faulty 
> instructions in her textbook shows that she can't think outside of 
her books, 
> but I think that it just shows that she's never had to do anything 
like it 
> before.  Snape always wrote correct formulas on the blackboard-- 
she's never had 
> to question her instructions before, so why should she now?

Why should she question the instructions now? Because they are 
faulty, that's why. The mere fact that she can't bring herself to 
acknowledge that a book is wrong or deficient is an example of why 
Hermione doesn't think outside of the box. Within the "box", 
textbooks are correct, unquestionable. Yet, the box in this case is 
faulty---the readers know it's faulty, Hermione knows it's faulty, 
Harry and Ron know it's faulty. But she is insistent that it is 
correct. She only follows what convention tells her to follow even if 
it is wrong: that's intellectual stagnation. Rather than questioning 
and trying to problem solve, she accepts the faulty book information 
as fact---in other words, her intellectual curiosity is diminished to 
non-existent due to her overdependency on the books.

HBP figured out that the book was faulty. But instead of accepting 
this flaw as fact, HBP found ways to make overcome the deficiencies 
of the book. In other words, HBP thought outside of the box rather 
than sit back and think "Well the book says this. Whatever the book 
says is right." Again, innovations and discoveries were initiated by 
people who dared to question "why" and who dared to find better ways. 
They weren't initiated by people who only did what the book said.

>There's no way we can say 
> that Hermione could never come up with similar innovations if 
that's what she 
> decided to put her energy into.
> 
And until there is canon to support that Hermione does 
something "Weasley Twin-like", it's not wise to assume she will and 
use that assumption as the basis for discussions about Hermione's 
ability think outside of the box.

Milz