James' essence WAS: Re: Choice and Essentialism

[dumbledore11214]

No: HPFGUIDX 153963

> Carol:
> James, for all his being an off-screen minor character seen 
through the eyes 
> of others (and unfortunately re-idealized by Harry after Sirius 
Black's 
> death because of his determination to hate Snape), turns out to be 
a rather 
> complex character. Maybe someone can boil him down to his essence, 
but that 
> essence does not appear, at least to me, to be his opposition to 
the Dark 
> Arts.
> 
> Magpie:
> You totally got me--I was making James up out of my head without 
really 
> knowing him!  The Dark Arts line really is a tricky one because 
not only do 
> we only have that one line which isn't necessarily accurate, but 
hating the 
> Dark Arts can easily be something one would say to give James 
justification. 
> Actually, in that scene I feel like that's what it is.  I mean, it 
seems 
> like James hates Snape for whatever reasons he hates them 
according to their 
> history and whatever the thing is about Snape himself that James 
hates.  But 
> then there's that handy fact that Snape is "bad" that means 
whatever he does 
> to him is okay even if Snape was just sitting there at the time.
> 
> So all we really have to go on about James are the actions we know 
about, 
> and those definitely don't add up to whatever his essence is 
because two 
> people can do the same thing for different reasons.
>

Alla:

I don't know if we can reduce the James' essense to his opposition 
to Dark Arts, BUT I have very little doubt that he indeed hated Dark 
Arts a lot.

Yes, this line appears to be a justification in this scene, I won't 
argue that, but is it false justification?

Not in a sense that it was Okay to do what they did to Snape,because 
James hated DA, sure it is not, but in a sense that the said fact is 
a lie? It can be both - the said fact could be correct, but the way 
Sirius uses it is a justification, which is wrong. Makes any sense?

I said so in the past that I don't see 
Sirius as a liar in general, that even in his statements about SNape 
I see truth hidden besides insults and obnoxiousness, but I see 
absolutely no reason for Sirius to lie about his best friend.

Yes, James is a minor character, yes, we don't know much about him, 
although I'd say that we know quite a lot by know, but PRECISELY 
because he is a minor character, I would say that every line about 
him counts and this one to me counts a lot.

JMO,

Alla