Appeal of the story to the reader/ some stuff from A Few Good Men

[nitalynx]

No: HPFGUIDX 175605

Alla wrote:

<snip discussion of justice vs meanness>
> It is like, I do not know, reading fairy tales. I never expected evil 
> to feel remorse in them. I always knew that Kotchey Besmertniy or 
> Baba Yaga would die, for example (russian fairy tale villain) and was 
> all the happiest for it.


Nita replies:

I'd like to linger on this point a bit (probably just because I like
fairy tales).

Summary of an example tale for the non-Russian-cultured:

There's this evil immortal guy, and the hero has to kill him to free
his beloved or whatever. During his long journey, the hero gets
hungry. He sees an animal (alternatively: a mother animal with babies)
every once in a while and wants to shoot it, but every one of them
asks for mercy, and he spares the animal every time (note: this means
starving!). In the end, the hero wins only due to getting help from
the grateful animals.

( http://feb-web.ru/feb/skazki/texts/af0/af2/af2-264-.htm )

Here, I can clearly see why the hero is Good: his acts of kindness
cost him comfort and precious energy, but he keeps doing them anyway.
The poor guy just can't shut down his compassion.

In Potterverse, things are the other way around. Either it's just OK
to shut down compassion (Ginny is so much better than Cho because she
doesn't cry! Let's double-cross the goblin! Crucio!), or even it's The
Right Thing To Do (ignoring the baby-soul, gloating over various stuff).

Oh, and in the fairy tale, the hag - Baba Yaga - helps :) And the
hero's beloved happens to be the villain's daughter he'd turned into a
frog out of jealousy. It's a lovely story! :)

Another thing I like about such fairy tales is that the awesomeness is
usually divided between the Pretty and Clever, yet vulnerable Witch
and the Brave and Kind, yet sometimes blundering Hero. Yeah, the
gender roles are old and rigid (and, curiously, not that different
from JKR's), but at least there's some balance.


> But like even with Snape, whom I totally wanted to be punished, I 
> enjoyed his end when I thought about it, but I find his death to be 
> well, rather gruesome upon reread and do not find compelled to reread 
> it, you know?
> 
> I meant I did not cheer when Nagini bite him. Again, found his end to 
> be satisfying, but not felt joy of Snape hurting, if that makes sense.


Well, thanks for that. I hope JKR really didn't intend any gloating there.


> I mean to me saying that story appeals to the mean in people is like 
> comparing it with the appeal of horror movies, I guess.
> 
> I do not watch them, period and not planning to after watching one or 
> two in my life, hehe.


Wow, I've never even considered the possibility of watching horror
movies for the sake of gloating... That's an interesting idea. I don't
watch them either, but I've always thought that people watch them to
a) get scared, b) laugh at the plot, c) yell at the protagonists not
to do whatever they're going to do.


<snip mention of "A Few Good Men">
> Just as Voldemort does not get it or does not want to get what Harry 
> is telling him. IMO.


Well, I don't know. We've practically seen Voldie grow up. We've
concluded that he's probably a sociopath (i.e., not right in the head,
incapable of empathy or remorse). We've been told by DD to pity him.
And then we should enjoy taunting him, that emotionally stunted
wretch? It didn't work for me :/


> I do not think that makes me a mean person or that story appeals to 
> the mean in me, I think it appeals **among other things already 
> listed** to my sense of justice.
> 
> Opinions can differ of course.


I suppose you read it as a different kind of story. As houyhnhnm said,
one is free to pick and choose in this series :)


Nita