[HPforGrownups] Re: Of Sorting and Snape

[Irene Mikhlin]

No: HPFGUIDX 175564

Sydney wrote:



I totally wanted to fall into sentimental goo and instead I just found
myself in this big bucket of bile. "Aren't those people awful? Aren't
I great person for hating those awful people?  I'm soooo much better
than.... a cross between Charles Manson and Adolf Hitler!  Go Me!" 
*backslaps!*


Irene:

I know that you are talking about Harry in the above, but it also rings true for me about Dumbledore. I was completely disgusted about him in the King's Cross chapter. All he cared about was to get reassurance from Harry (a child! That he is sent out to die!) that he is better than Voldemort. OK, Albus, you are. And Stalin was better than Hitler. Sleep well, Albus.

And BTW, Harry was very quick to absolve Albus of any blame in his parents' death. I'm not so quick. These two people are hiding from the most horrible wizard ever, they need all the protection they can get. And Dumbledore takes away the invisibility cloak, to play with it. "My precious". Harry reassures him that it didn't matter, that Voldemort could see through it. First of all, it's not true - Nagini could, but we don't know that about Voldemort. And most important - even if Voldie could see through it, Dumbledore didn't know it at the time!
The only thing that makes his part in Potters death quite small after all is that James was too careless to use the cloak when he went to open the door.


> houyhnhnm
> > I, too, am made uncomfortable by the imagery of the 
> > small maimed, creature, trembling under the chair.  
> > It reminds me a little too much of the child in the 
> > closet in Ursula LeGuin's short story, "The Ones Who 
> > Walk Away From Omelas".

Sydney:

I would like to take this opportunity to apologize to Ursula LeGuin,
who muttered something in an interview a while back about being happy
about their success but thinking the HP series was a bit
mean-spirited.  I was like, 'No, no!  She's going to turn it around! 
Just wait!'.  Sorry Ursula.  You were right, I was wrong. 

Irene: Yes to both. I thought immediately about Omelas, and recently I've remebered that quote from LeGuin and thought - well done, you've recognised that mean streak that we were all deluded about.

Irene