Cursed Jobs, Cursed Locations, and plain ol' bad luck (was RE: Why does Snape...

[lupinlore]

No: HPFGUIDX 148811

Ceridwen wrote:
<SNIP>
> On the larger level, could places like St. Mungo's, apparently 
> abandoned shops which are in reality WW businesses or service 
> facilities, be JKR's way of explaining away the same sorts of 
> places you're talking about?  The inexplicably deserted storefront 
> between two thriving businesses *could be* an entrance to a secret 
> Wizarding location now, to any child who sees it day after week 
> after year.  Another writer could explain them away by making them 
> secret criminal headquarters, I suppose.


Chuckle.  Yes, other writers would explain them another way.  I read 
a piece by Stephen King several years ago and it addressed that very 
issue.  He said something to the effect that if you showed him, 
(Western writer) Louis Lamour, and (Romance writer) Barbara 
Cartwright all the same small lake, he would write a story about a 
dark and demonic presence rising from the depths of the lake to prey 
on the surrounding towns, Lamour would write a saga of a range war 
touched off by water rights, and Cartwright would write a tale of two 
people who meet on the shores of the lake and fall passionately in 
love despite both being engaged to rich, powerful, and thoroughly 
unsuitable people.  

In this case, if you showed Rowling, King, (Adventure and Espionage 
writer) Tom Clancy and (Police Procedural writer) Dan Mahoney a 
deserted storefront amid thriving businesses, Rowling would explain 
it as an entrance to a wizarding facility, Mahoney would, as you 
suggest, explain it as a front for a drug ring, Clancy would make it 
the headquarters of an espionage operation, and King would blame the 
vampires hiding from the sun under the floorboards.


> On the topic of the DADA position, it does seem more likely that 
> the position has been cursed, since curses do exist in the 
> Potterverse.  But, it would be pretty funny if the only reason 
> they lose teachers there is because they've exhausted the pool of 
> decent teachers and so can only get the dregs to fill that slot.


It would be interesting to see a complete list of the DADA teachers 
and the reasons they left, wouldn't it?  Often you can come up with 
at least plausible explanations for strings of bad luck if you 
examine the circumstances closely.  For instance, I've noticed that 
when you look carefully at a lot of "jinxed" locations it turns out 
that their parking is poor compared to their neighbors and they often 
don't have much frontage for advertising -- neither of which might be 
apparent at first glance but both of which are killers for certain 
kinds of businesses, like bars and restaurants.

With regard to the HP saga, I can think of several reasons why it 
might be hard to keep a DADA position filled.  As you say, maybe 
there just aren't very many good teachers of that subject around -- 
it would require a very special skill set, after all.  Or maybe it's 
an economic problem.  If Hogwarts follows the model of the Muggle 
world, even the Muggle world when the Edwardian Public School 
tradition was at its height, then it probably doesn't pay very well.  
Maybe DADA skills are in enough demand that most people who would be 
good at the job can make a lot more money working elsewhere, for 
instance as curse-breakers for Gringott's or as Aurors for the 
Ministry (I can speak from personal experience when I say that 
although government jobs may not pay as well as some other lines of 
work, they tend to pay a LOT better than teaching).  If we were to 
discover that all the DADA teachers in the last two or three decades 
had spectacular meltdowns that would be one thing, but if there are a 
lot of notations like "Went to work at Gringott's" or "Joined the 
Auror office" that would be another thing entirely.


Lupinlore