In Defense of DD (was Re: DD's dilemma)

[lupinlore]

No: HPFGUIDX 126566


--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, Magda Grantwich 
<mgrantwich at y...> wrote:
> 
> > Lupinlore:
> > I suppose a lot of it comes down to what you view as goodness.  Is
> > a person who controls themselves and thus "floats above" the 
> > ordinary fray of humanity good, or simply detached?  Does getting 
> > involved in the pain and sorrow of life, including the pain of 
> > others, make you lose perspective?  
> 
> 
> I believe you are misunderstanding what Tonks said.
> 
> Harry's strong emotions upon (apparently) learning that Voldemort 
had
> Sirius at the DoM and was torturing him overwhelmed all his other
> faculties.  He became consumed with the urge to rescue Sirius
> immediately and refused to listen to Hermione's very reasonable
> questions about how such a situation had come about.  By going with
> his feelings over his logic and intellect - both in analyzing 
whether
> his vision was plausible and in determining a realistic plan of
> action - Harry surrendered important points to Voldemort before he
> ever left Hogwarts.  
> 

<SNIP>

Okay.  That IS a very good observation.  However, it is rather beside 
the point of Dumbledore and whether or not we can buy him as JKR 
wants us to.  I don't think anyone is disputing the idea that it 
isn't good to be totally carried away by your emotions.  And I don't 
think anyone is saying that Dumbledore should have matched Harry 
scream for scream.  

HOWEVER, being carried away with your emotions is not the same thing 
as showing a believable amount of sympathy/compassion that would have 
led us to buy into JKR's characterization.  Alla has addressed this 
point very well.

Quote from Alla:

I definitely DON'T need Dumbledore to become hysterical during his
speech at the end of OOP. I agree it would have been a little wierd,
BUT I do need a little bit more of emotion, just a little bit -
like for example when Harry looks at Dumbledore he could see , I
don't know , shame in his eyes, or something like that.

Also as I said earlier - I DEFINITELY could go without
Dumbledore "cutting accross" ,when Harry says that "she never loved
me". I wanted Dumbledore to listen better and acknowledge that Harry
has every right to feel as he feels and dislike his time spent with
Dursleys.

I also would like Dumbledore to SPELL IT OUT - something like - I
would NEVER left you with Dursleys, if there was any chance that you
could survive without it and I am very sorry for what you suffered
at their hands, but unfortunately I had no other choice.

This is just not the issue, where I want to second guess the author
and figure out what she was trying to say. I mean, it can be
interesting quite often, but on this issue, I want JKR to be very
clear and I just don't think that she is.

Unless of course Puppetmaster!Dumbledore is what she was trying to
present, then to me she succeeded, but it does not look to me that
this was her intent, and this is of course IMO only.

Now Lupinlore:

I must agree 100% with Alla's argument.  A hysterical Dumbledore 
would not have been appropriate.  Nobody is asking for one.  However, 
there is a lot of room between hysteria and coldness.  There is a lot 
of room between being carried away by your emotions and suppressing 
them to the point that, if they exist, they can't be detected.

And of course, this is NOT just an issue of emotions.  It is also a 
matter of thoroughly inadequate explanations.  Dumbledore's speech 
left a lot of very important points unanswered -- enough to 
legitimately think that JKR has not done a very good job of 
justifying the repeated statements about Dumbledore's goodness to 
which we've been treated.


Lupinlore