JKR and the boys (and girls)

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 161631


> Betsy Hp:
> So it's good I'm not asking her for that. <g>  We don't know 
> Hermione's visiting Hagrid in PoA at the very moment she visits 
> him.  But we do find out about it because it's important to 
> establish what Hermione (a main character) is doing while being 
> shunned by Ron and Harry (two other main characters).
> 
> The idea that Hermione is *also* hanging out with Ginny, 
> establishing a close friendship, and that JKR does not, can not, and 
> should not, share that with us is...  well, it's confusing.  How can 
> you argue that Hermione and Ginny were hanging out together when 
> canon doesn't show it happening?
> 
Pippin:
Because canon shows us Hermione and Ginny being giggly 
together at the beginning of PoA and making their 
appearance together at the beginning of GoF. It's never
exactly made clear what Hermione is doing at the Weasleys, or
how long she's been there, Harry just takes her presence for 
granted. His two best friends are there, how nice. But whether 
Hermione was invited as Harry's friend or Ron's or someone 
else's wasn't made clear.

Betsy HP
> If it was *supposed* to have happened and JKR just didn't get around 
> to covering it, then the story got away from her and she's playing 
> catch up.  Which is bad writing.

Pippin:
I think a lot of people  are thinking the H/G ship story was supposed to
be 'shy, friendless Ginny blossoms into the girl who will win Harry's
heart' and JKR forgot to write it. But that's not the story I see at 
all. Shy, friendless Ginny  never existed. She was a myth which
JKR  encouraged the reader to invent, (with a little help from 
Tom Riddle) but which all the time she intended to  show was, well, 
mythical. There are all these little touches here and there that would
make the myth untenable if you took them seriously,
but nothing so obvious that it couldn't be overlooked or dismissed as
bad writing --well, JKR needed Hermione to be at the world cup,
so that's why she was at the Weasleys, for example. 

> 
> Betsy Hp:
> So Hermione is unable to have any female friendships on page because 
> that would pull the focus off the story?  But she *is* allowed to 
> hang around Hagrid a lot.  I really don't get this.


Pippin:
She's allowed to hang around Hagrid being miserable.  But Ginny isn't
allowed to hang around Hermione being happy except for a few brief
scenes in each book, because JKR wanted to keep mythical Ginny alive
in our imaginations until she was good and ready to kill her off.


> Betsy Hp:
> It *is* a stretch, IMO, to take a girl with absolutely no interest 
> in hair, clothes, and makeup and have her show up looking as sleek 
> and sophisticated as, well, a 35 year old (thanks, Magpie!).  

Pippin:
Maybe Ginny helped! But I think that Hermione was never as geeky
as she seemed to be, just as Ginny was never really so shy. Hermione
was just dreadfully insecure and trying to impress everyone with how
smart she was. On the night of the Yule ball, she was dreadfully 
insecure and trying to impress everyone with how pretty she was.

 I don't really see her as *so* socially successful, though.

I don't think she did anything to land Viktor, I think he was taken 
with her because she was so different from the girls who were always
throwing himself in his path and gushing over Quidditch. He'd probably
never even realized there were girls who weren't like that. 

> Betsy Hp:
> Hee! I'm still at a point that I don't like not liking the main 
> characters anymore.  And I'm still hopeful that this a darkness JKR 
> wrote on purpose.  That she'll come sailing into the bar with book 7 
> and prove that our love is still true.  That the good guys are still 
> admirable and likable.  That the Potter books will stand the test of 
> time.  (It's getting late, but I'm not leaving.  They'll have to 
> throw my carcass out. <g>)
> 

Pippin:
Yeah, I wish they could have stayed the lovable teenyboppers 
from GoF for a few more years, too. So did Dumbledore. But
Voldemort took that away from them. You know, this realization is
the first thing that's ever made me really hate him...

Pippin