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

[Magpie]

No: HPFGUIDX 154132

Carol:
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.

Alla:

If Magpie made an observation that Sirius has a tendency to oversimplify 
things, then I have to disagree with her. Sorry, Magpie.

Trying to justify to Harry - YES, oversimplify things in general - not 
really, IMO.

Magpie:
Totally anal post, but Carol was saying that was her observation, not mine, 
about Sirius over-simplifying. Though I don't think she necessarily means it 
as saying that Sirius over-simplifies everything.  I remember finding him a 
relief when I re-read GoF because he was thinking logically!

What I do think he has a tendency to do, and he shares this trait with lots 
of characters, especially Harry, is sometimes let his emotions cloud his 
thinking.  When he's describing his family, for instance, and claiming that 
no member ever did anything worthwhile, that they were idiots, or hated, or 
bought their way into anything that looked respectable, I don't think he's 
over-simplifying, but that it's his pain speaking more than his true 
objective thoughts on his family.  Carol, I think, made the reference to the 
loyalty of dogs and that may be a good way to think of it-not in an 
insulting way, but wiht the idea that Sirius is always trying to show his 
affection or pain of loss any way he can.  He would never, for instance, 
have spoken about James the way Dumbledore speaks about him to Harry right 
after his death.
Even his claims that Regulus was an idiot are, I think, possibly a way of 
distancing himself from emotions about him he doesn't want to feel.

In this case, in the context of the scene, one thing Sirius isn't doing is 
sitting down to have a long chat about the whole history of Snape and James. 
He's giving Harry the parts that he thinks are most important for Harry to 
understand at that moment (okay, we did wrong, but James was really a good 
guy and Snape was...Snape)--really he gives Harry two reasons for the 
animosity: James hated the Dark Arts and Snape was jealous of James being so 
good at everything.  It's sort of a classic combination--I've heard it in a 
lot of fandom kerfuffles too: "I hated so-and-so for some ideological reason 
that made me have issues with her, and she just irrationally hated me--let's 
assume she was jealous."

Personally, I'd love to know the details of the Snape/James animosity. So 
far we've ironically seen more of Snape's side of it (which reveal some of 
his own issues) with his references to James strutting, the Pensieve scene, 
and the insulting of Snape through the map.  Then we get the HBP who comes 
across to Harry like a cool guy.  JKR may be holding back on the personal 
stakes for James.  It doesn't seem to quite fit the disinterested bully 
impression we get from the Gryffindor side.

-m