JKR is a Death Eater? (was:Re: Hobbsian worlds; Crime & Punishment)

[horridporrid03]

No: HPFGUIDX 145859

> >>Betsy Hp:
> > I'm really uncomfortable with that sort of philosophy.  Rather 
> > than using rules fairly applied to everybody, some rules are    
> > made for one sort of person and other rules are made for another 
> > sort. So, Draco deserves to be physically tortured because of   
> > who he is. But Neville should never be challenged because of who 
> > he is.
 
> >>BAW:
> Right.  Neville is a nice person.  Draco's a jerk.  But Neville 
> WAS challenged; remember his transformation from Wimp!Neville to 
> KickA@@!Neville in OotP?  And, academically, he was able to pull 
> off a respectable number of OWLS.

Betsy Hp:
Yes, but the argument is being made that challenging Neville is 
abuse and torturing Draco is funny.  IOW, Neville is a human-being 
and Draco is a little bit less than human.

> >>Lupinlore:
> Yep, you are pretty much right on the money. The Potterverse is not
> an impersonal one. Who you are matters an enormous amount.
> <snip>
> So, within the boundaries of the Potterverse, how "rules" are     
> applied or not is very much influenced by the people involved.    
> Lupin gets a pass, by and large, for his faults, as does Hagrid.   
> Snape and Draco do not. Dumbledore gets a pass. Tom Riddle does    
> not.
> <snip>
> Who you are matters a very great deal in the Potterverse. Once    
> again, this, I think, is JKR's basic conservatism coming through.
> <snip>

Betsy Hp:
This is fascinating to me, and I think it really points to how 
differently we approach the books.  Because basically, both 
Lupinlore and Bruce are saying that JKR agrees with the Death Eater 
philosophy -- some people are just inherently better and more 
deserving than others.  She may not judge a person by their blood 
(though there are a lot of blood ties in the story), but she does 
see some people as "more equal than others", to pull in an Orwellian 
phrase.

I think a lot of the people protesting the lack of morality in the 
Potterverse, demonstrated most overtly by the severe anti-Slytherin 
bias seen within, would agree that JKR does think this way.  But HBP 
has convinced me that JKR does not think this way.  She went to an 
awful lot of trouble to give Draco a human side if she's really 
working with the premise that Draco is less than human and so 
deserves to suffer inhumane punishments.

Since I come at the books with the view point that JKR *is* a moral 
person who is against bias and prejudice, I read them in an entirely 
different light.  I question the idea that eleven year old children 
can be classified as evil.  I question the idea that only people 
liked by one rather emotionally damaged little boy can be good.  So 
I don't utterly dismiss the members of Slytherin House.  And I don't 
assume that Cedric Diggory is a bad guy and Fake!Moody a hero.

The very fact that JKR sets up as her worst villains people 
espousing bias and prejudice, the very fact that her main good guy 
actively works against the bias and prejudice of his world suggests 
to me that I'm not merrily wandering down a garden path.  Book 7 
will be the deciding factor of course.  But I for one will be 
shocked if JKR turns out to be ESE.

> >>Lupinlore:
> <snip>
> While Harry is waiting in DD's office, one of the former          
> headmasters engages him in a benign conversationa and             
> says "Dumbledore thinks very highly of you, as I'm sure you know. 
> Oh yes, holds you in great esteem!" He doesn't say "Dumbledore    
> speaks well of your accomplishments," or "Dumbledore thinks you   
> have done very well indeed here at Hogwarts" or "Dumbledore often 
> praises your deeds" or even "Dumbledore thinks you are a wonderful 
> example," but "Dumbledore thinks very highly of YOU. Yes, holds   
> YOU in great esteem." That is ist is not Harry's accomplishments  
> that primarily impress Dumbledore, or Harry's achievements, or his 
> adherence to a particular set of moral laws, it is who Harry is    
> that DD finds important.

Betsy Hp:
In my neck of the woods this is what's known as parental love.  
Loving a child for who he is, not what he's achieved, is what good 
fathers (or grandfathers) do.  And that does not contradict a non-
biased code of morals, nor does it suggest that prejudice is good.  
Dumbledore is allowed to love Harry.  What he should not do is make 
one set of rules for Harry and another for all the other students. 
That can be hard for a parent to do, which is why most teachers 
avoid having their own children in their classroom.  And Dumbledore 
may have fallen down a time or two.  But his love for Harry does not 
prevent Dumbledore from seeing Draco as a human-being just as worthy 
as Harry.  I think JKR felt Dumbledore did the right thing for Draco 
on the tower.  And I think the scene on the tower is a good place to 
look if we want to get a glimpse of JKR's moral beliefs.

Betsy Hp