Le Guin and JKR Re: JKR and the boys (and girls)

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 162212

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "horridporrid03" <horridporrid03 at ...> wrote:

> I am hopeful the next book will fix the problems I'm having with the 
> series so far.  Hermione may well end up with egg on her face and 
> realize she has to come down a peg or five hundred.  But, given some 
> of JKR's comments, I'm not holding my breath.
> 
> It's funny you bring up LeGuin, Pippin, because wasn't she the one 
> who said the Potter books were a bit cruel, or mean, or something 
> like that?  It was the sort of thing I scoffed at for a long while.  
> At this point, I tend to agree.

Pippin:
Le Guin said she thought the first book was 'ethically rather 
mean-spirited'.

http://books.guardian.co.uk/departments/sciencefiction/story/0,6000,1144428,00.html

I can understand that, though I don't agree.
Plenty of people think that Slytherin didn't get a fair shake from 
Dumbledore. Me,  I don't think we can judge the
ethical message of the books until we have all seven. But I don't
expect I'll be 100% satisfied with the philosophy of the books.
Why should a young, Christian mother in Scotland have the
same take on life as a middle-aged Jewish empty-nester in 
California?

Still, I don't see what is so offensive about saying that Hermione
makes a better role model than Pansy. I don't think it's Pansy's
girly-ness that offends Rowling, considering this quote:

 "There comes a point where Susan, who was the older girl, is lost 
to Narnia because she becomes interested in lipstick. She's 
become irreligious basically because she found sex," Rowling says. 
"I have a big problem with that."
http://www.accio-quote.org/articles/2005/0705-time-grossman.htm

Given that, I have to believe  Rowling called Pansy a Stupid Girl 
because Pansy is mindlessly fond of a would be Death Eater, not 
because she was interested in boys or wore an unbecoming dress 
to the ball.

Pippin
Hoping Betsy enjoys her liedown on the beach, and who forgot
to say that she can relate to Betsy's awful prom night. While I
cleaned up well in my prom pictures, my wedding album shows
a less than flattering haircut, too much eyeshadow, and the
desperately wide-eyed stare of a woman who is trying not to
squint because she was too vain to wear her glasses. Eurgh!