Social Correlates of Hogwarts Houses
colebiancardi
muellem at bc.edu
Thu Aug 9 21:37:20 UTC 2007
No: HPFGUIDX 174960
>Lupinlore wrote:
<snipping most>
> GRYFFINDOR: But when the great darkness is
> abroad, they are the ones to whom you must turn.
colebiancardi: hmmmm. ok.
>
> HUFFLEPUFF: <snip> They are stolid and a little dull,
> and sometimes can be stupid and easily fooled. <snip> They can
occasionally produce a surprising, if
> slightly shallow, prodigy like Cedric Diggory. Overall, they are
> loyal, hardworking, and kind, if not particularly bright or
> accomplished. They tend to get along very well with the heros, and
> when the darkness is abroad, a large number of them will pick up
their weapons and get down in the trenches.
colebiancardi:
I totally disagree with this - where are hufflepuffs *stolid & a
little dull* ? And Cedric was shallow, even if you softened it with
"slightly"? What about Amelia Bones? She seemed pretty darn bright
to me.
>
> RAVENCLAW: <snip> Too often they can be shallow and histrionic,
like Cho, or selfish and weak, like Marietta.
colebiancardi:
again, where is Cho being shallow & histronic? She was loyal to her
friend, Marietta. That is a Gyff trait.
>
> SLYTHERIN: The politicians and power-brokers, slick media barons,
> avid government drones, CEOs, and old families. These folks are
> selfish and arrogant, ultimately concerned with their own advancement
> and the maintenance of their wealth, power, and the class privileges
> that allow them to view everyone else with scorn. Mostly they will
> leave others to fight darkness, and of all the groups they are the
> ones who provide the dark with most of its soldiers and leaders.
> Their subjects are the Dark Arts, per se, and also Potions with its
> overtones of poison. Some will end up aiding the light, but usually
> for supremely personal reasons, like Snape, out of fear like
Slughorn, or out of cowardice and calculation, like the Malfoys. They
are an inevitable part of any society, embodying the morally sordid,
hypocritical, and ignoble aspect of the human condition that comes
from a fallen world.
>
colebiancardi:
so totally disagree on the Slytherin commentary. Voldemort was
responsible for making it a dark house - but it seems that Slytherins
were not always like that. To damn a whole house like that, after
1000 years of coexisting with the other 3, is like damning Germany for
what happened in WWII and never letting go.
I really hope that this is NOT what JKR did with the Houses - because
then magpie and others(like me) who had hoped for a reconcilation with
the Houses are correct - that you are damned at age 11 if you get
sorted into Slytherin.
What does the Hat have to say about the 4 houses:
from PS/SS
"You might belong in Gryffindor, where dwell the brave at heart, their
daring, nerve and chivalry set Gryffindors apart;
You might belong in Hufflepuff, where they are just and loyal, those
patient Hufflepuffs are true and unafraid of toil;
Or yet in wise old Ravenclaw, if you've a ready mind, where those of
wite and learning will always find their kind;
Or perhaps in Slytherin, you'll make your real friends, those cunning
folk use any means to achieve their ends"
In fact,nothing in the sorting hat's song about the four houses called
any of the houses dull or shallow.
And Harry became a Slytherin in the end, didn't he? He used certain
magics (UC) to achieve his goal. So, I guess JKR does believe that
the end DOES justify the means. Totally different from the way she
wrote the first 6 books, imho.
colebiancardi
(all of the students in Hogwarts have all of the characteristics you
put in the separate houses. I don't view Gryffindor any better or any
worse that the other three. That type of thinking DOES led to the
rise of a dicatorship)
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