[HPforGrownups] Re: JKR and the boys (and girls)

[Janette]

No: HPFGUIDX 161587

>
> Phoenixgod2000:
>
> I think Harry, Ron, and
> Draco--if they could get past Draco's assery--would have more in
> common with each other than Hermione and Ginny do.  I can't imagine
> what they would even talk about aside from Harry.


montims:
but then you are not a teenage girl at Hogwarts.  They can talk about
classes, teachers, the Weird Sisters, RW v WW politics, the food, all manner
of things.  Hermione is a year ahead of Ginny, so she can prepare her for
school stuff in a way that her brothers can't...

Phoenixgod2000:

> When I was in school, I was hardly a big man
on campus in a much bigger school than Hogwarts and I could have
named every student in my class and said something about them.

montims:
now I went to school in England where there were 30 pupils in my class, and
3 classes in my year.  Due to a dysfunctional childhood, I was (and am
still, to some extent - can you tell?) lacking in social skills.  I hung out
with 2 other girls occasionally, could not name every single student in my
class even after 7 years, and had no idea who the others in my year were,
let alone those in other years.

Phoenixgod2000:

> She does seem to have the dating scene sown up but I actually do find
that out of character.  This is the girl who in her first year had
almost no friends and barely knew how to act around the ones who were
her friends.  she got better over the years, but I have known a lot
of students in my years as a teacher just like Hermione (male and
female both) and I can tell you they are no good at dating except
inside their head. Get them in a real situation and without fail they
fall apart.  For her to be somehow antisocial and an uberdater cool
chick strikes me as inconsistent writing and a cheap way of showing
up the guys and making them look pathetic.

montims:
however, me again (and I am not saying I am like Hermione, just giving a
real life example that differs from your experience) - at 14 I started going
out with Steve (17, apprentice in the local factory and owning a car) and
went out with him for 6 years.  He was gorgeouslooking but shy, and equally
messed up by his parents.  At 16 I had my hair Sassoon-styled and got
contact lenses.  We made a fabulous couple, as the photos still prove when I
can bear to see what I used to look like, and my school life (which I hated)
was just a way of marking time till the evening came.  People from school
who knew me as drab and dreary couldn't believe it was me if they saw me
out.  I was grown up with Steve, and his equal, and he only knew me from
outside of classes.  It was at school that I felt insecure and out of
place.  I think the parallel is clear.


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]