[HPforGrownups] Re: Harry's ...perform occlumency/Views of Hermione/Wizards... racists

[Magpie]

No: HPFGUIDX 160626

> bboyminn:
>
> Once again I will point out that Merietta has ZITS, true
> they are arranged a little more distinctly than the
> average teenage ZITS but they are none the less 'zits'.
> She was NOT mercilessly beat in the face with an Ugly
> Stick.

Magpie:
Yes, she was.  She has close-set oozing purple pustules.  How attractive 
does that sound to you?  Zits are clogged pores on the surface.  Cystic acne 
can be terribly disfiguring.  Calling this "zits" makes it seem like maybe 
you actually do have the same problem with them as others do, because if 
what Hermione did is no big deal why the need to replace her own hex with 
the friendlier zits?

Steve:
> As to the long term nature of those Zits, we have yet to
> see the long term nature, so Marietta hasn't been 'scarred'
> for life, at least not yet.

Magpie:
The author finds time to mention Marietta covering up her acne with heavy 
make up in the next book, doesn't she?  And then we never see her again so 
have every reason to think it still exists.  It seems pretty long-term to 
me.  And again, it's not so bad as long as you make it into the opposite of 
what's written.

Steve:
 Until we have the final book,
> I don't think we can condemn Hermione for what she did.
> I'm sure if she had been the evil vindictive shrew some
> are making her out to be, she could have done far far far
> worse than 'zits'.

Magpie:
Leaving aside that calling them "zits" is intentionally downplaying what 
they are when JKR is clear that it's not just a few zits, anything can 
happen in the seventh book to soften it.

But I agree with people who reject the rewrites to take care of the problem. 
They aren't zits, they're close-set oozing purple pustules that are horribly 
disfiguring.  They don't clear up on their own, because we get a nod to them 
in the next book.  I'm perfectly willing to give "poor Hermione" a chance in 
the next book, but at this point Hermione seems to have a pretty consistent 
pattern of doling out punishment and never looking back, not even to watch 
her own.

It's kind of ironic that we've got this major plotline where Sirius Black 
treats Snape badly and then years later could have used Snape's back up and 
can't get it because of that, yet Hermione's laughing off people looking at 
her with hatred because she's done something to them.

Kenneth Clark:
Wise up people!  Remember we are talking about wizards.  Remember Hagrid 
happily accepting that putting so many witches and wizards in one place is 
bound to be dangerous.  Remember a Triwizard tournament that regularly in 
the past produced fatalities and even today had a contest with a dragon for 
starters.

Magpie:
Our good guys have no problem being shocked and appalled by this kind of 
thing when it happens to themselves, so no, I don't think anybody's going 
overboard just because they aren't cheering at whatever they do. The jokey 
references to fatalities of past tournaments don't stop GoF from shocking us 
with the death of one of the contestants.

Not being on the "correct" side of an issue doesn't mean you're not looking 
at it from the pov of a Wizard.  Wizards don't all agree on all these 
issues.  And of course when it comes down to something like whether Molly 
Weasley's parenting style is so great, that's a human question, not a Wizard 
one.

These books seem to obviously encourage us to bring our own sense of right 
and wrong to them.  I don't think there's anything more imperialist in 
saying you think Hermione was a psycho in one scene than it is saying that 
Hermione acted like a good soldier.  We're all using our own pov and there's 
not a lot in the books so far that seem so foreign I can't draw my own 
conclusions.

-m