JKR and the boys (and girls)

[horridporrid03]

No: HPFGUIDX 162209

> >>Amiable Dorsai:
> <snip>
> Can you imagine Hermione (Hermione, now, not some other girl--I'm   
> talking about the girl who figured out that one her teachers was a 
> *werewolf* and didn't spill.) telling anybody who was not a close   
> friend these things?
> <snip>

Betsy Hp:
If it got her something she wanted? Yeah.  Hermione wanted 
(apparently) for Ginny and Harry to get together.  And to achieve 
that goal she had to get close enough to Ginny to give her dating 
advice.  So yeah, I do see her sharing something not all that 
important to her, that would *seem* important and thereby get Ginny 
sharing in return. (Cold?  Calculating? Cruel?  Sounds like our girl.)

But the fact that these two girls talk about nothing else, and the 
major fact that Ginny is not a part of the inner-circle, means that I 
really, really don't see them as an example of two close friends.  
Especially since, if they have a choice, they don't hang.

> >>Pippin:
> <snip>
> Ginny is excluded from Trio business in GoF explicity because the   
> kids need to talk about Sirius, and it isn't their secret to       
> reveal. In real life, people who do secret work can't share it with 
> their friends and families, but that doesn't mean those            
> relationships aren't as close as can be.

Betsy Hp:
But it does mean that Hermione's relationship with Ginny is not as 
close as it can be.  Because Ginny isn't just excluded in GoF.  She's 
excluded period.  She's on the level of Neville and Luna.  And just 
as Neville and Harry aren't close friends (or Luna and Ron for that 
matter), Hermione and Ginny aren't close friends.

> >>Amiable Dorsai:
> <snip>
> Uhm, Betsy, this *is* characterization.  Hermione is somewhat
> embarrassed about the "girly" side of her personality, but she     
> clearly has one.  She may, by her words, deprecate the ball, but her
> actions...  well, her actions tell a different story.
> <snip>

> >>Pippin:
> <snip>
> And I certainly didn't see Hermione of HPB as too perfect to be
> believed, not with that killer canary tantrum and her wrongheaded
> insistence that the HBP was a girl, not to mention that someone
> should inform her of LeGuin's dictum that heroes never say
> 'I told you so.'

Betsy Hp:
God, I *wish* I could read the books this way.  For a while, I did, I 
really did.  But now I'm to the point that I really dislike Hermione 
and Ginny (and I honestly have my doubts about JKR as a person).  I 
think OotP started it, but HBP and JKR's infamous "girl rant" turned 
the distaste to out and out dislike.

Before, I'd have agreed with you all that Hermione just researched 
her little heart out to look beautiful for her big day, and that her 
apparent disdain was a cover for the boys.  But now, with HBP 
Hermione's certainty that she's just a tiny bit better than God, and 
JKR's desire that all her little girl readers try and be just like 
Hermione, I feel like I'm supposed to assume that Hermione is just 
naturally and effortlessly beautiful and suave, but super-cool enough 
to raise above it.

I am hopeful the next book will fix the problems I'm having with the 
series so far.  Hermione may well end up with egg on her face and 
realize she has to come down a peg or five hundred.  But, given some 
of JKR's comments, I'm not holding my breath.

It's funny you bring up LeGuin, Pippin, because wasn't she the one 
who said the Potter books were a bit cruel, or mean, or something 
like that?  It was the sort of thing I scoffed at for a long while.  
At this point, I tend to agree.

I doubt I'll say more on this topic.  I'm confident my mind won't be 
changed, and I can also tell I'm not doing much to promote my view.  
Plus, it's encouraging me to dig deep into the non-character that is 
Ginny and the bitch that is Hermione.  I'm ceasing to enjoy myself.

(Not to throw a sour-grapes type wrench at all.  But I really do 
dislike JKR's take on women as women, or as friends, wives, or 
mothers.  All you all who disagree, please talk amongst yourselves.  
I'm going to just lie on the beach for a while.  Wait till the water 
gets a bit... warmer, I guess. <g>)

Betsy Hp