[HPforGrownups] Re: Ginny VS Harry

[P. Alexis Nguyen]

No: HPFGUIDX 135170

LPD wrote:
> I find all this Ginny/JKR bashing really interesting.  I was really
> hoping that Harry and Ginny would get together so was thrilled but
> not surprised when it happened.  JKR certainly left subtle clues
> throughout the books but clues none the less.  You just have to know
> where to look for them.
<<<SNIP>>>

Yes, we've all heard the JKR statement that she left anvil-sized
clues.  I guess there were quite a few people who did pick up those
clues.  Frankly, though, JKR left just me wondering if her anvils and
my anvils were the same size.  Yes, the R/Hr clues were anvil-sized;
even many of the staunch H/Hr shippers saw those clues.  However, I
was happily oblivious to the H/G clues.


> PS/SS -: Ginny and the Hogwarts Express.  There was no reason for
> Harry to notice her if it wasn't going to be significant later.

Or maybe he's just a rather forlorn boy noticing a rather rowdy
family, something he's never had?  Harry noticed Mark Evans, too, but
we know what a theory disaster zone that one turned out to be. 
Besides, Ginny is significant to the story for the simple fact that
she's a Weasley.  There was no reason for me to construe this first
notice of Ginny as anything other than a demonstration of the
Weasleys' familial interactions.


> CS -: Ginny overcoming her crush to stand up to Malfoy clearly
> demonstrated that even then, she understood Harry "...he didn't want
> that".

I took all of Ginny's CoS behaviours with a grain of salt.  She was,
after all, possessed for the majority of the book.  For me, that means
that any behaviour JKR assigned Ginny was destined to be more for the
advancement of the plot rather than the advancement of her character.


> PoA -: Platform 9 3/4, a connection is made whilst laughing at
> Percy.  The first sign of a shared sense of humour.

I've had a similar experience with both of my older siblings, so while
I do agree with you in that this moment did help show an advancement
in Harry and Ginny's relationship, I disagree that anything romantic
had to come of it.


> GoF -: At the Yule Ball Harry notices Ginny dancing with Neville and
> is watching closely enough to notice that she is wincing as Neville
> steps on her toes.

My sister picks up on my littlest facial expressions better than even
my mother, and I find that she's usually looking out for me in social
situations.  In fact, since many of my friends are elder siblings,
I've been told that this was fairly usual behaviour for an elder
sibling.  I, therefore, saw the Ginny/Neville dancing scene as more
proof that Harry wasn't being set up for Ginny, and besides, on the
short list of Hogwarts students that Harry considers important, all of
the Weasleys seem to be very high on that list.  It makes sense that
Harry would be looking out for the youngest Weasley.


> OoP -: Here there are a lot of big clues (firelight reflecting in
> Ginny's eyes, the possession reminder, chocolate in the library etc)
> but also some really clever ones.  Eg, after Cho walks in on the
> train carriage Harry wishes that she had found him laughing with
> cool people and not with Luna and Neville.  Ginny is not included in
> this even though she too is in the carriage.  When they arrive in
> the Great Hall it is noted that Ginny is immediately hailed by a
> group of 4th years and goes to sit with them - a clear pointer to
> her popularity.

I disagree that the Cho thing was a clever hint towards a future H/G
ship.  Instead, it served to cement that Ginny is a popular girl,
which I dismissed Harry's noticing as Harry being superficially aware
of what his "sister" is doing.


> There are also lots of references to Ginny being near Harry during
> OoP.  After he is banned from Quiddich he is sitting in the common
> room with Hermoine on one side and Ginny on the other. Coming home
> from St Mungo's on the train Molly leans across Ginny to ask Harry
> if he is feeling alright - suggesting she is sitting next to him.
> And as they all cram into the telephone box preparing to enter the
> Ministry of Magic Ron passes the phone to Harry over Ginny's head.

The problem is that I don't really see these hints as "anvil-sized
clues."  Now that the ship has been deemed seaworthy, I see all these
previous situations where Harry and Ginny are next to each other as
JKR possibly hinting at the future H/G ship, but when I first read
them, I dismissed them.  Why?  They were MINOR incidents at best!  (I
guess I was supposed to comb the HP books more thoroughly than The
Great Gatsby?)  If JKR had said anything other than "anvil-sized
clues," I would have attributed the H/G ship to me being obtuse, but
JKR said she was being obvious, thereby making me feel like a careless
reader for not picking up obvious hints.

Don't get me wrong.  I don't hate JKR; I don't think any of us do.  We
have, though, come to expect better of JKR as a writer.  It's a fine
line, but I do want to make the distinction that it isn't "JKR
bashing" so much as "critiquing a writer's work," and oh boy, there
was a whole lot to critique in HBP.

The H/G ship smacked of "oh goodness, the R/Hr ship is very obvious
but that'll mean Harry being lonely so let's invent someone perfect so
that Harry won't be alone."  And even then, as many other people have
said, a Harry pairing would have been fine had we been convincingly
sold on it.  Ginny's development being "off-camera" and being told to
us DOES smack of bad writing, the kind of writing that I got bad marks
on during my creative writing classes.

For me, the H/G ship would have worked had it been built up in a
similar fashion to the R/Hr ship.  I don't really see any good reason
why R/Hr should be together, but JKR convincingly sold me on the ship
based on the facts that these two (1) have feelings for each other,
which were demonstrated to me instead of being told to me, and (2)
aren't blind enough to think that they are each others' soul mates,
found at the very young age of 16.  Let's face it; people can and do
find love at a very young age, but it happens so rarely that the
unbelievability threshold is already very high.

The worst part of all, though, is that, at the end of HBP, I'm
supposed to believe that Harry and Ginny are in love with each other? 
Um...up until then, I was willing to buy the "this is an adolescent
crush that will be built up to true love in Book 7" theory, but
instead of building up those tender feelings, JKR tells me that Harry
and Ginny have found their true loves at such a young age.  Again with
the telling instead of showing!  It seems to me that, for such a
lauded author, when writing about relationships, JKR would have failed
my creative writing classes, because when writing about the romantic
life of the HP characters, JKR actually made it pretty easy for me to
put HBP, which IS a good book, down.

Lastly, as Sienna implied, either way we feel about it, Harry and Ron
both have major Oedipal complexes.  Oy.

~Ali, who probably shouldn't have written this email but did anyway