[HPforGrownups] Re: A Sense of Betrayal / Unforgiveables

[Irene Mikhlin]

No: HPFGUIDX 174262

Katie wrote:


All I can say is that I see it differently and that Hermione, to me, 
is one of the most brave and most loyal characters in the books. I 
know a lot of people have problems with the whole Marietta thing. I 
don't. I don't have a problem with her sending birds flying at Ron's 
face when she was jealous and angry, either, though I know some do. 
I like Hermione, and I think she was trying to protect her parents 
from harm, and I just don't have a problem with it. 

Maybe I'm morally lax or something (though I don't actually think 
so), but I seem to not have a problem with a lot of stuff in the 
books that other people do. I have no problem with the twins putting 
Montegue in the Vanishing Cabinet. I thought it was funny. I have no 
problem with Harry using Crucio or Imperio in a scary and exteme 
situation...although I do wish that Jo had done a better job at 
explaining why that was excusable in that particular situation. 

I like the good guys, and I don't really care too much what happens 
to the bad guys. If that makes me morally bereft...so be it. Katie

=====

Irene:

Katie, I don't think it makes you morally bereft. You just read the books the way JKR probably intended them to be read: with the "bad guys" being cardboards who we shouldn't care much about. There are good books written this way, good children books too - Roald Dahl is the first that comes to mind.

I don't mind that kind of book, generally speaking. I can read about James Bond killing a hundred "black hat" guys to get to the main villain - it's OK, he is *our* spy. I can enjoy it.
But what I mind about Deathly Hallows being that sort of book is the fact that I was misled. I didn't expect it. The first six books were misleading. DH didn't do what it said on the tin for me. Rowling didn't keep her villains and her background Slytherins cardboard enough, she made me care for some of them. And in the end she laughed at me: "gotcha!" 

So, nothing wrong with your morals, you are lucky to stick to the original authorial intent and not to be led astray by red herrings of complexity that just was never there.

Irene