Does JKR want us to hate Draco? (was: Re: Admonishing Snape)

[cubfanbudwoman]

No: HPFGUIDX 129648

Betsy earlier:
>>How do we, the readers, *know* that JKR doesn't like Draco?<<

Betsy after responses:
> Okay, so this is the "JKR wants us to hate Draco but is such a bad 
> author she can't get it across in the text and is forced to give 
> readers a heads up in interviews and on her website," point of 
> view.  In other words, readers *aren't* able to pick up that Draco 
> is evil to the bone.  Only fans devoted enough to visit the 
> website and listen to interviews are able to realize how JKR feels 
> about Draco.  You'll excuse me if I find such arguments as less 
> than satisfying. 


SSSusan:
I concede that the responses you have gotten, Betsy, are those which 
point to the website or interviews, where JKR is talking about Draco 
and Draco vs. Tom.  But I do *not* agree that that is the only place 
we readers are being told that Draco is a nasty bit of work.  "Evil 
to the bone" is not a phrase I'd use -- at least not yet -- but 
Draco as a nasty bit of work, as a bad boy, as a thoroughly 
unlikable person, I would say yes... *in* canon.

Maybe I'm wrong, but I think those who say Draco has fans because 
some readers do a lot of projecting and/or a lot of filling in the 
blanks with things they want to be true about him is true.  I have a 
feeling that if we had a poll of HPfGU members re: whether they 
think JKR *likes* Draco as a character [as opposed to liking him as 
a character she gets to write], I think the response would be 
overwhelmingly "NO!"  And I don't think they'd have to turn to the 
interviews/website to get that feeling.

I mean, let's turn the tables a bit.  If we want to stick just to 
canon and avoid interviews & website fodder, can people point to 
places in canon where JKR is telling us she *does* like Draco, or 
that he's *not* seriously nasty?  I know I don't see it anywhere.  
Perhaps she's painted him as a child we're not *never* sympathetic 
towards at all, nor perhaps not as a child we're 100% convinced 
can't change, but that she *likes* him?  I'd need some examples of 
that.


Betsy:
> A casual search around the internet calls up quite a few thinking 
> folks who *do* hope for something better.  Are *all* of them 
> fooling themselves?  Or is there something *in the text* that 
> gives folks hope?

SSSusan:
This is my question, too.  I *don't* see anything in the text that 
gives people much hope, even if the possibility isn't totally closed 
off.  But we were also talking about *liking* Draco as a character, 
not just whether he has hope of turning himself around.  Again, I 
just don't see it in canon.


> Betsy:
> But does JKR succeed in getting across that Draco is evil?  

SSSusan:
She does for me.  Buckbeak, his taunting of H/R/H, his constant put-
downs and threats about Mudbloods and Lupin and Hagrid, his attacks 
on Harry, his insults of the Weasleys, ....  I don't see how this 
ISN'T succeeding at showing us that he is, if not evil, damn near 
close, and certainly not likeable.

Siriusly Snapey Susan