Hermione thinks outside the box ; SPEW (was: Am I the only one...)

[delwynmarch]

No: HPFGUIDX 135659


Gatta wrote:
"I'm with Del on this one. Hermione is smart enough to know that she
needs a foundation before she can build."

Phoenixgod countered:
"No she isn't. She proved that with SPEW. She just jumped into the
middle of trying to fix a problem without understanding it.  "

Del replies:
Hermione spent *hours* researching the House-Elves, in the library and
with people. After a while, she even worked on finding the way to see
them herself.

IMO, SPEW was very much "thinking outside the box": the WW box that
says that there's nothing to question about House-Elf enslavement.
Except that there is. It's even the very first thing we learn about
House-Elves, through Dobby in CoS: that some of them are extremely
unhappy having to serve cruel and abusive masters with whom they
morally disagree. So Hermione questioning the whole House-Elf
enslavement matter is definitely a sign of thinking outside the box:
she doesn't simply accept the way things are done in the WW.

Now sure she seems to be going at it the wrong way, and she's even
going against the wishes of many of the very people she's trying to
defend. But that's *part and parcel* of thinking outside the box! For
one stroke of genius, there are dozens of downright lunatic ideas.
That's the way it goes. And only *time* often tells the difference
between the genial ideas and the lunatic ones. So there's no way to
know if SPEW is a stroke of genius or a stupid idea, not yet.

Phoenixgod wrote:
"But I think that Hermione generally lacks the imagination to be an
inventor. She is technically proficient with magic but lacks the
creative spark to really push the bounderies of anything. She is a
smart, but conventional thinker."

Del replies:
How conventional was it to suggest Polyjuice Potion to weasel secrets
out of Draco?

How conventional was it to sign up for every additional classes in CoS?

How conventional was it to have Rita interview Harry, and then to have
the interview be published in the Quibbler?

How conventional was it to Jinx the DA members?

Personally, I see many signs of Hermione being very creative when she
wants to. What signs make you think that she is so conventional and
uncreative? (IOW: do you have canon support for your opinion ;-) ? )

Phoenixgod wrote:
"Slavery is wrong in the muggle world so it must be wrong in the
magical world. she doesn't stop to think that maybe elves work under
different rules than people do."

Del replies:
But that's *precisely* what thinking outside the box is about. Taking
something from one domain and applying it to another domain, that's
typical of geniuses. By refusing to believe that things are just
different in the WW, or that the way things are done in the MW is
irrelevant to the WW, Hermione IS thinking outside the box.

As far as human slavery is concerned, I'll remind you that most
people, especially among the masters but also among the slaves
themselves, thought there was nothing wrong with it. It was just the
way it was.

And even now, many things are still accepted in many parts of the
world because "it's just the way it is". Take the Indian caste system
for example: most Indians had no problem with it for centuries,
including among the Untouchables themselves. But now that they are
being influenced and encouraged by people from "Western" cultures,
more and more Untouchables are daring to change their minds, speak out
and demand a change.

Hermione is doing exactly what has to be done whenever a culture is
supporting something they deem immoral: she's promoting the grant of
"higher" rights to a caste who doesn't yet enjoy them.

Phoenixgod wrote:
"Her limitations in the social arena I think indicate the problems
that she would have in the academic one."

Del replies:
I totally disagree on this one. The social arena and the academic
world are not at all the same thing, and they don't need to be
connected. Geniuses are sometimes socially awkward, or even downright
anti-social. Moreover, Hermione is NOT limited in the social arena.
She looks like she got it wrong with the House-Elves, but she has also
repeatedly shown that she understands people reasonably well.

In a follow-up post, Phoenixgod wrote:
"She wasn't thinking outside the box. She was thinking like any other
late twentieth century muggle girl."

Del replies:
Exactly! She was thinking like a *Muggle* girl, and that's where her
genius lay. She DARED apply something Muggle to the magical world, and
*that* was thinking outside the box.

Ever since they arrive at Hogwarts, the Muggle-born kids are told that
the MW and the WW are two different things, and they are encouraged to
leave their "Muggleness" behind. But Hermione didn't. Instead she
dared apply a Muggle concept to a magical species. That is *exactly*
what thinking outside the box is about.

Remember what DD said about the Fountain of Magical Brethren? That it
was telling a lie. DD thought that the way wizards see House-Elves is
*wrong*. So Hermione seeing them in a different way is good.

Phoenixgod wrote:
"Instead she reacted as if Dobby and every other house elf had desires
and needs exactly like a human would."

Del replies:
You forget one important detail: Dobby DOES have desires and needs
exactly like a human. Hermione did not invent that. Dobby relishes in
his freedom, he is asking for wages, and Hermione had nothing to do in
that. 

Now most WW people think that Dobby is the old Elf, that he's the
freak, the exception. But what if he is the *forerunner*? What if he
is the first of his species to dare asking for a change? What if there
*really* is somethig wrong with the House-Elf enslavement as it is
practiced today? Then by fighting for a change, Hermione WILL turn out
to have been a social genius, in a few decades or centuries!

Geniuses *often* seem to be wrong *at first*...

Del