The good Slytherin (Draco Malfoy)

[delwynmarch]

No: HPFGUIDX 131542

Lupinlore wrote:
"I think the "Harry's viewpoint" argument is deployed a lot more 
often than it should be.  We always talk about Hermione and DD being 
JKR's mouthpieces.  But I suspect that Harry is her eyes.  I think 
often his perceptions are JKR's perceptions."

Del replies:

Examples:

* Snape is trying to kill Harry in PS/SS, while Quirrell is just a
poor scaredy stuttering teacher.

* Diary!Tom is a poor courageous orphan to whom Harry can relate.

* Sirius Black is a monstruous traitor, a Muggle-killer, who wants to
kill Harry too, in PoA.

* Crouch!Moody is Moody in GoF.

* Cedric is a shallow pretty boy in GoF.

Need I go on? The number of times when Harry gets things wrong is way
too high to pretend that he correctly reflects JKR's view.

In fact, from experience, I now personally take the opposite stance:
if Harry is so sure of something about someone, then he's probably wrong.

Lupinlore wrote:
"When it comes to Slytherin house, I think a lot of Harry's basic
perceptions are Rowling's basic perceptions.  That is, much as many
readers would like it to be otherwise, she really does find the values
and characteristics of Slytherin house problematic and mostly 
objectionable, and she really does have a mostly disapproving 
attitude toward people who evince those values and characteristics."

Del replies:
You are confusing several issues here.

1. Does JKR object to the Slytherin values? I'm not sure. Through
Percy, for example, she showed that she doesn't hold ambition at any
cost in high regard. However, she showed through the Twins that she
doesn't have a problem with reined-in ambition, the type of ambition
that pushes one to work extra-hard to achieve their dreams. Through
Hermione in OoP, she seems to approve of cunning, when it is applied
to good goals. And so on.

2. Regardless of what she thinks of the Slytherin values, do we know
that JKR thinks of the Slytherin students as evil or even just bad or
mean? This one is easy: no we don't know that.

JKR has taken great pains to show us that the other 3 Houses contain
many different kinds of students, including students who don't seem to
embody their House's values at all. She has carefully shown us nice
and not nice students in each of the 3 Houses. So assuming that she
would hold a simplistic black-and-white view of her Slytherin
characters seems extremely illogical to me.

Lupinlore wrote:
"But I doubt very much, despite the wishes of many readers, we will
see an argument for the value of craftiness or ambition.  I just don't
sense that JKR has a great deal of respect for those traits."

Del replies:
Funny then, that she made those traits major qualities of Hermione's
and the Twins'...

Lupinlore wrote:
"But it would also illustrate the real fact that you can't save
everyone, and that people often tread a very easy path to damnation."

Del replies:
The examples of Peter Pettigrew and Regulus Black should have taught
you that there is nothing easy in being a DE. It might be the easiER
path for some people in some circumstances, but it is never easy. The
concept that it is easy to be that evil is a very false and dangerous
one IMO.

Del