Danger in designating an "Other" / Bad magic (wasRe: Deathly Hallows Reactio...)

[seanmulligan2000]

No: HPFGUIDX 174349

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Neri" <nkafkafi at ...> wrote:
> Neri:
> your analogy perhaps isn't very accurate. Being a Slytherin is not
> like being a German. No one is born a Slytherin, they choose to
> become one. Slytherin is an ideology, a racist ideology that is
> more analog of being Nazi, not of being German. The question that
> interests me isn't why after 19 years Slytherin still have a bad
> image (I doubt that 19 years after the WWII neo-Nazis in the USA or
>  Britain, not to mention in Israel, would have a better image). The
>  interesting question to me is why haven't all Wizard parents,
>  especially those who grew up in Slytherin House, told their
> children "blood purity is an evil ideology. It was responsible for
> many atrocities during the war.  When you go to Hogwarts to be
> sorted, you tell the Hat: don't put me in Slytherin. Not Slytherin,
> not Slytherin". After all, isn't this what Germans did after WWII?
> Didn't they renounce Nazism and racism?


Sean:
I don't think that choosing Slytherin is the same as choosing evil or
that Slytherin itself is a racist ideology.  I am disappointed that
Slytherins weren't shown united with the other houses at the Battle of
Hogwarts which would have continued the theme of unity that was
emphasized in the previous books. I was especially disappointed because I greatly enjoy reading the various Slytherin redemption fanfics on the web.  Rowling does not give very many detail about why Slytherin opposed the admission of Muggleborns and why he left Hogwarts.  The pureblood supremacy ideology of Voldemort and his Death Eaters may have been a distortion of Slytherin's teachings. Here is a link to an essay from this website where the author speculates on Salazar Slytherin.



http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/files/Essays/slytherin.doc