Of Sorting and Snape

[houyhnhnm102]

No: HPFGUIDX 175611

Jen: 

> What do you mean here, houhnhnm? I'm intepreting it 
> as a pretty negative message about readers who like 
> the story but don't want to go any further if I'm 
> misinterpreting or reading more into it than you intended.

houyhnhnm:

I'm simply astonished, Jen, that you took my remarks 
personally.  My comment was not directed at anyone 
personally.  I didn't even realize I was casting an 
aspersion, merely stating a fact.

Look, not at this discussion group, but at the billions 
of words that have been written by fans about the Harry 
Potter series (not to mention fanfiction).  Can anyone 
deny that a great part of the appeal of these books is 
the enjoyment of violence, punishment, revenge, inflicting 
pain, watching other people suffer?  Of course it's on 
bad guys.  Those who are on the receiving end of vengeance 
are always "the bad guys".  I find it disturbing.

I'm not interested in debating whether or not vengeance 
is really a good thing.  To me it is not.  Between "an eye 
for an eye, a tooth for a tooth" and "an eye for an eye 
makes the whole world blind" there is no common ground.

What is worth debating, in my opinion, is whether or not 
this really is the message of the books and if not, why 
are these elements in there.  I don't know what to think 
of these stories.  The conflicting messages are downright 
weird, as someone else said.

There were a lot of things I liked about DH.  I really 
liked Harry, better than in any book since CoS.  I liked 
the backstories on Snape and Dumbledore.  I liked the 
reprochment between Harry and Kreacher.

But some other things, I just don't know what to make of 
them.  Like the miserable creature in the train station 
and the injunction not to pity or comfort it.  Repeated 
over and over.  Once might not have been so bad, but it 
was just hammered in. I've been bothered by the mean-spirited 
undercurrent in the books all the way along, the Appeal 
to the Crowd, and trying to deny to myself that I see 
what I see.  Learning that an author I really admire  
(who's worth twelve of Rowling) had come right out and  
said it was kind of a tipping point.