[HPforGrownups] James' essence WAS: Re: Choice and Essentialism

[Magpie]

No: HPFGUIDX 153964

> 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?

Magpie:
Personally, I see no reason for Sirius or Remus (can't remember which one 
said it) to be lying and he doesn't sound like he is.  I put it on the same 
level as Sirius reporting that Snape went around with "a gang of Slytherins 
who all became Death Eaters."  Despite the fact that Snape happens to be 
alone in the Pensieve scene, I still don't think Sirius is lying--why would 
he, after all? And what would be the point of that kind of false 
information?  Sirius not liking Snape doesn't mean his information is always 
wrong.

So it's more like I'd consider Remus or Sirius as having limited 
understanding of Snape himself, and if asked I doubt they themselves would 
consider the hating the Dark Arts comment a detailed representation of what 
was going on with James and Snape.  I don't think it's a lie, but it's 
intentionally simplified. They're trying to calm Harry down any way they can 
and they don't want to go into the whole story of five years of animosity.

So yeah, I agree with just how you see it.  But also Carol, because I think 
her point is just not to think we know about what made James tick from the 
limited information we have.  Actually, JKR seems to play with that 
intentionally with James.  One would think that Snape would never be 
accurate about James, but it turns out there was some truth in what he said 
about him.  Likewise Sirius, while not lying about James, turns out to have 
made Harry feel like he'd been misled when he saw the real thing.  The key, 
though, is that JKR isn't cheating by having characters lie, just as I don't 
think Sirius or Remus was lying about James' hating the Dark Arts.

I should say that I think there are places where Sirius is closer to lying 
because of his bias.  I took everything he said about his family with a big 
grain of salt.  Again, not that I thought he was lying--his mother, at 
least, seemed to live down to everything he said about her.  But the way he 
so quickly had a bad take on every person he was related to made me think 
there was more to their stories.  And of course I think that was leading up 
to Regulus.

-m