Emtional satisfaction and traitors was Re: ACID POPS and Teenager Draco

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 157686

  
> > Sydney:
> > 
> > Actually, I do think Pippin is wasting her time with ESE Lupin,
> > because I think there's a reason so few people hold that theory. 
> > Because it's not emotionally satisfying.  If it WAS emotionally
> > satisfying, there would be a lot more people on that bandwagon.
> > 
> 
> Neri:
> The problem with the "emotionally satisfying" argument is that
> emotions tend to be subjective, and we don't always know what does the
> *Author* find emotionally satisfying.  I don't believe in ESE!Lupin
> myself, and I don't find it emotionally satisfying, but when I'm
> arguing against it I usually try to use canon and rational arguments.
> I certainly wouldn't try to convince Pippin that I know better than
> her because I'm a Lupin fan. If anything, being  Lupin fan would make
> me a *less* objective judge of any Lupin theory, especially theories
> that Lupin is evil. 

Pippin:
Emotional satisfaction doesn't vary *that* much, or there wouldn't
be untold millions of Harry Potter fans. Our anxiety about traitors has 
been raised by Snape's apparent betrayal of Dumbledore, and to resolve
the story in an emotionally satisfying way, JKR is going to have to deal 
with it. But how?

Which did you find more emotionally satisfying, the unmasking of
Quirrell in PS/SS, or the unmasking of Kreacher in OOP? Kreacher
fell a little flat, right? Having the character that raised our anxiety about
treachery  turn out to be the villain doesn't nail us with the full impact of
treachery, because to effectively address our anxiety about treachery, 
the treachery has to be unsuspected.

In the Empire Strikes Back, our anxiety about treachery is raised by
Lando. We *don't* have any emotional need to see Luke's father as
a traitor. It's not emotionally satisfying that he is a traitor, what's
emotionally satisfying is that Luke has to to deal with it.

Any social structure that depends on mutual obligation and consent
is going to generate anxiety about traitors. We know there are people
like Voldemort for whom mutual obligation has no meaning, there
are people like the Slytherin Quidditch team who are always trying to
game the system, and there are people who secretly identify with the
excluded, which of course also plays into our anxiety about excluding
people. 

In HP this latter category has mostly not been treated seriously. Hagrid
goes overboard with his sympathy for monsters, and Hermione gets 
carried away with trying to help the House Elves. James, Peter and Sirius
got carried away with helping  Lupin. But the potential for
seriousness is there -- the animagi transformations and the werewolf
outings were a betrayal of Dumbledore's trust, and may have laid
the groundwork for later ones.

Pippin