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

[sistermagpie]

No: HPFGUIDX 175134

> Pippin:
> I was kind of hoping, and I think this is where a lot of
disillusionment
> comes from, that JKR would try to finesse this inconvenient
> truth. Slytherin would be completely rehabilitated, or else the
other
> houses would discover that it didn't need rehabilitation after all.
Just
> like The Little White Horse. But JKR is too honest a writer for
that,
> IMO.

> Debbie:
> I do agree here that the complete and immediate rehabilitation of
Slytherin
> house would have been highly implausible and incredibly
saccharine. It's a
> slow process that can be fully accomplished by building up a new
generation
> that wasn't raised on the old prejudices, for while Harry
intellectually
> understands this, so that he can endorse Slytherin house as an
appropriate
> house for his son, his relationship with Slytherins of his own
generation
> will never be more than formally cordial; there's too much water
under the
> bridge. It's up to the Albus/Rose/Scorpius generation to do that,
and the
> epilogue contains just enough hints to allow us to believe, if we
choose,
> that this can be accomplished.
>
> But only if the Hat doesn't subvert the whole thing.

Magpie:
Well, of course we could imagine that. People have been imagining
something similar for Harry's generation in fanfic for years. But
what I don't see is any reason to think that the end of the book is
coded to say this is in any way what's about to happen. The epilogue
just doesn't seem any more focused on that then the rest of the story
to me.

It seems like saying rehabilitation of Slytherin is unrealistic
within the bounds of the story but after Slytherin isn't
rehabilitated and our heroes aren't shown to have been mistaken (in
even far less extreme ways than the idea that it was all a complete
misunderstanding which never seemed a possibility to me)...19 years
later we're on our way to Slytherin being rehabilitated and our
heroes getting over their mistaken impression.

But Harry Potter could have become friends with a Slytherin just as
easily as his son could have. He didn't have to worry about his
father not supporting him or loving him if he did that. It feels like
a problem created retroactively to solve it in the epilogue. Harry
and Ron aren't Blacks who blast people off their family trees. The
series seems to indicate, in fact, that they weren't prejudice
against the house at all, just seeing the people in it for what they
were (they just had to learn that some overcame it or were not so
bad)--so why should they be needing to intellectually understand this
19 years later?

Harry's elder son teases the younger one with the fear of being in
Slytherin, giving Albus something like Harry's own vague fear of it
as the bad house (the one still associated with Dark Magic). Albus
mentions it, and Harry replies: If you were in Slytherin, it would be
great for Slytherin. Your mother and I don't care what house you're
in. But if it really bothers you (as I know it does because that's
what we're talking about), I can also assuage your fear by telling
you you don't go into any house you really don't want to be in--
that's not how it works.

A nice sentiment, and one I can very easily imagine Arthur Weasley
giving to his own children years before. Harry's one addition is that
he tells Albus that he was named for a Slytherin who was very brave--
which is significant, though of course is still the trait that
Gryffindor Sorts for, so he's saying that hey, even if you're not in
the brave house you can still be brave rather than praising what's
great about Slytherin (which would be a lot harder). Of course,
little Albus is also named for a Gryffindor.

I see Harry being mature about Slytherin and praising Snape, and
that's a change from the 11-year-old who probably would never be able
to think of a kind thing to say about any Slytherin. I just don't see
it as significant as it seems to be being made, especially when the
story didn't seem so interested in this idea to begin with. It's like
a contradiction even to talk about it, with it stressed how
unrealistic it would be to show that Slytherin was misunderstood or
to show a step towards rehabilitation and connection...but in the
epilogue Slytherin's bad reputation is kind of misunderstood and
they're moving towards rehabilitation and connection. If it's
supposed to work like the equally unrealistic total overhaul of the
MoM by a few teenagers, it's not presented as that either.

To me it just seems a lot less Slytherin-centered at all--just like
the rest of the story. Slytherin is still there, it still has its
flaws, but people can still deal with those flaws. Iow, to me it
seems like the world is very much back to the way Harry walked into
it with the one change that the threat of Voldemort (a threat which
spilled over into making things like Slytherin and Malfoys more
dangerous and menacing) is gone.

I also don't see why Elizabeth Goudge (iirc, the author of The Little
White Horse) is labelled as less honest than JKR for writing about
different people in her book where there actually was a
misunderstanding. I don't even get how the way JKR's story is
supposed to be working in this area makes so much more honest. Goudge
made the split between the two groups a central issue and healing the
split was earned in the story. Why is it more honest to just leave
everything as is and then say that 19 years later it took care of
itself? To me it seems like the two authors are the same in this--the
improvement comes from the thing that was actually dealt within the
story. In HP, that means Voldemort was taken care of, and the affect
on Slytherin that that action would have. Harry did change in his
feelings about Slytherin and certain Slytherins in particular--to a
realistic degree given the real characters of those people. I find it
hard to believe that any young reader reading the story would want to
be a Slytherin any more at the end of the book than at the beginning.

In fact, I think it's a bit silly to use "it's unrealistic" for just 
about any argument about what JKR can or can't do (like having a 
reconciliation with Slytherin that's too "Hallmark"), because she's 
not an author hemmed in by strict realism. This is the person who has 
the international sportstar comes to the school and dismiss hoards of 
girls to make bookish Hermione Cinderella at a ball, and has her 11-
year-old protagonist become an overnight sports hero on a team of a 
sport he's never played where he's sharing the field with kids 13-17. 
I don't think we should confuse "stuff JKR was interested in" 
with "the only way to be honest about how things work in real life." 

-m