Disappointment and Responsibility (was Re: Requiescat in Pace: Unforgivables)

[lupinlore]

No: HPFGUIDX 174883

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "sistermagpie" 
<sistermagpie at ...> wrote:

> 
> Magpie:
> Speaking as somebody who fully admits to being wrong in this area, 
I 
> don't think that's quite what "we" (or I in this case) wanted. It 
> wasn't that characters like Snape and Draco would turn out to 
really 
> be nice--I for one always thought that they did hate Harry and 
never 
> considered any of their actions as a "cover" for really helping him 
> or anything like that. 

Well, there were and are many different approaches to the subject, 
:-).  Certainly what I've said doesn't create any sort of binary 
situation where you have to believe or advocate either this or that 
and nothing in-between.  Nevertheless, I stand by my statement that 
many people DID want just such revelations.  Many DID want for Harry 
to realize that he had been prejudiced against Snape and that Snape's 
cruelty and unfairness rested in Harry's mind.  Many DID want a 
revelation that Snape was using legitimate, if harsh, teaching 
techniques to make sure Harry and Neville learned what they needed to 
know to battle Voldemort, because he (backed by DD) really, deeply, 
ETHICALLY cared about their education and their future as the leaders 
of the Light.  Many, or at least some, DID advocate that Snape was 
largely acting when he was cruel to Harry and Neville -- acting 
because he had to keep up appearances with Voldemort and the 
Slytherins.

With regard to Draco, I don't think anyone regarded his attitude as 
an act or a cover for helping Harry.  But many did feel that Harry 
had been deeply, unfairly, prejudiced with regard to Draco.  Many did 
think that the problem with Draco was a schoolboy rivalry in which 
Harry was as much to blame as Mr. Malfoy.  Many did want a revelation 
in which it was revealed that Draco was a victim of his upbringing 
and the unfair prejudice of the trio, and that he really was a boy 
not very different from Harry who could have been a friend if Harry 
had just taken his hand when it was first offered.

As I say, the problem is that the evidence for all this was, to say 
the least, in the eye of the beholder.  And as it turned out, things 
didn't work out the way some wanted.  Snape did NOT really, deeply, 
ETHICALLY care about Harry and Neville's education.  He was a bitter 
and nasty many who was cruel to them because he felt a deep streak of 
hatred for them.  He wasn't acting, and his cruelty was real, not a 
result of Harry's unfair prejudice against him.  

Draco, I know, is a more complex, and in some ways a more 
controversial case.  Still, his hatred of Harry was quite a bit more 
real, and his moral flaws more genuine, than many wanted to be the 
case.



> 
> So yeah, I did think from the first book that Slytherin seemed like 
> the biggest conflict in the book and that would therefore mean the 
> drama would come from that reconciliation--even if it was the first 
> steps. (And no, I don't see that in DH--I don't consider the idea 
> that we're to presume that Slytherin went away to lick its wounds 
and 
> so was probably better in future to be any kind of step on the path 
> to reconciliation.) I was wrong--it turned out they were the house 
of 
> bad guys representing "people like that" that JKR feels we all have 
> to deal with (and just as in real life they pick on you in school 
and 
> pick on you as an adult and so anything done to them is obviously 
> just standing up for yourself and others). 
> 

Yes, and here is where JKR's arguable Ethical Calvinism comes into 
play.  As I have said, I do NOT absolve JKR of responsibility for 
these problems.  I do think she was often misleading, inconsistent, 
and disingenuous in both primary and secondary canon.  Still, I guess 
in the end it does come down to basic outlook.  Some will simply have 
a severe ethical problem with JKR here.  

I am reminded of her statement early on that she didn't care whether 
she only had seven readers in the end, because it represented what 
she believed.  I don't know if this is what she meant, but it might 
fit.

Sigh.  The only thing I can say is that, unpopular as her attitude 
may be, she isn't alone.  I remember that one of the speakers to 
address our senior class in High School said "I'll tell you something 
that you don't want to hear.  The world of high school is divided 
into snots and good guys.  The world of adults is too, except that 
male adult snots are your SOB's and female adult snots are your old 
bags.  And a snot in High School will still be a snot at your 25 year 
reunion."  He was right, we didn't want to hear it.


Lupinlore