James' essence/some Sirius and his family WAS: Re: Choice and Essentialism

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 154058

Alla:
> <snip> Heee, I am not sure how you can agree with both Carol and
myself since I don't quite agree with Carol. If her point is simply
that we don't know what made James tick, Okay, I will buy that we
don't know everything that made James tick, but partial reason is
given and I see no reason to doubt it, honestly. <snip>

Carol responds:
My point is that we can't reduce James's "essence" to an opposition to
the Dark Arts. The information we have about him is contradictory and
comes from biased sources (Snape on the one hand;
Black/Lupin/Mcgonagall on the other). Black is the only person who
speaks of James's opposition to the Dark Arts. The one scene in which
we actually see him shows nothing of the sort. He seems much more
complex to characterize by a single trait attributed to him by a
single character, particularly one who is biased in his favor.

I'm *not* saying that he wasn't opposed to the Dark Arts, nor am I
applying that Black was lying (though he may be seeing James as
Slughorn sees Lily, with a tendency to view him favorably and ignore
his failings because he's dead). It's a human failing to wish to see
people we cared about as better than they were after they're dead.

Also, it doesn't seem to me that an opposition to the Dark Arts
explains the childhood antagonism between Severus and James, any more
than it explains the similar antagonism between Draco and Harry.
Certainly James himself gives no such explanation. ("Because he
exists" is all we get.) Nor do I think that what we're told about
James and Sirius being the best in their at "everything they did"
holds water--HBP seems to indicate that Severus was better than either
of Potions and DADA, for example, though perhaps as usual his
brilliance was overshadowed and underacknowledged. I see no evidence
that Severus was jealous of James's Quidditch skills, either--which is
not to say that he wasn't, only that all we have is Lupin's one-time
speculation to that effect.

We're not getting a clear and unbiased picture here of either young
James or young Severus. Both are being oversimplified--in part, as
Magpie says, because neither Lupin nor black understands him.

And while James no doubt opposed the Dark Arts when he was older, as
opposed to when he was fifteen and chiefly concerned with getting
Lily's attention and hexing people who annoyed him, he never had the
reasons for hating the Dark Arts from childhood onward that Sirius
did, and he (James) almost certainly had other reasons for opposing
Voldemort, most notably Voldemort's reign of terror, that caused him
to join the Order in the first place.

I'm not knocking James, though I don't like his bullying behavior in
the Pensieve scene, nor am I saying that Sirius Black was a liar
(though I certainly don't see him as an objective witness). As Magpie
says, both Black and Lupin were trying to placate Harry when they
talked to him after the Pensieve scene. Both of them wanted 
Harry to regard his father with something like the affection they felt
for him. And I agree with Magpie that Black--who is surely not known
for analytical thinking (my observation, not hers)--has a tendency to
oversimplify things, including both his family background and Severus
Snape.

Do I dare to say that dogs, however brave and faithful, see in black
and white? (I mean no offense to anyone by this remark.)

Carol, simply noting that what we see of James and what we hear of him
don't create a clear and coherent picture of either the boy or the man