DD's dilemma - Protections and Perspectives

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 126389


--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "lupinlore" 
<bob.oliver at c...> wrote:

> 
> I think lots of the issues we (we meaning fans) see in the 
books arise from this tendency.  For instance the issue of the 
Slytherins.  I think JKR just needed some people in the early 
books to be the villains.  I doubt the whole issue of marking a 
quarter of children at Hogwarts as "evil" crossed her mind until it 
erupted in fandom.<

Pippin:
::blinks:: I doubt it. What we might call the Slytherin Question 
echoes historical reality far too closely for that. To wit, the other 
houses rejected Slytherin's philosophy, but they seem to have 
found that they couldn't disavow Slytherin House without 
uprooting themselves. The resemblance between this situation 
and the history  of  conflict  between Protestants and Catholics, 
or between Christians and Jews, are to me too obvious to be 
accidental.


I do think that JKR is dealing with the issues she raises on her 
own timetable, which may be too slow for some readers. If we 
are not party to Dumbledore's thinking as he decided what 
lesser evils he was prepared to tolerate for the sake of the 
greater good, it is because JKR wants the issue and the 
anguish to be fresh when Harry grapples with it. He'll have to, 
considering the Sorting Hat's advice. He may find that he needs, 
not the hypothetical 'good' Slytherins, but the  unreformed 'evil' 
Slytherins, many of whom, for all their bullying, cheating ways, 
are prepared to support Harry against Voldemort, as they 
showed by standing for him in GoF.

My own feeling is that a bright shining line is being drawn 
between the bullies who kill, and the bullies who, tempted 
though they might be, nonetheless refrain from killing.

Lupinlore:
 > I think the issue of Veritaserum and Legilemency with regard 
to Sirius in Azkaban functioned the same way.  Was JKR 
attempting to send a message about trust in authority or the 
application of technology to court cases?  <

Pippin:

Considering that JKR used to work for Amnesty International, 
and these kinds of things are burning issues for them, I'd say, 
"Yes, indeed."

Pippin