Of Sorting and Snape

[lizzyben04]

No: HPFGUIDX 175702

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, Bart Lidofsky <bartl at ...> wrote:
>
> lizzyben:
> >Yes, love & compassion are useless. LV is beyond help, and no one 
> >should even try. 
> 
> Bart:
> I know what you are trying to say, here, but you do bring up an
interesting point. Because Morty IS beyond help, at least practical
help (if he were a normal human, he COULD be sent to an institution
where they MIGHT be able to help him, but the question comes of how
many lives should be destroyed to save him). But that does not mean
that Harry shouldn't have tried, if not for Morty's sake, for Harry's
own sake. Looking at what happened: Harry tried to convince Morty that
he is doomed unless he repents, Morty fails to listen and casts the
YAAK at Harry, who acts, not to harm Morty, but to keep Morty from
doing harm. After seeing what will happen to Morty, Harry can go on,
knowing that he did everything in his power to keep that from
happening. There are no wuddacuddashuddas here. And, who knows? A
miracle MIGHT have happened. 

lizzyben: 

If it wasn't a taunt, it was good that Harry at least tried to ask LV
to feel remorse. I liked that. He tries even after DD keeps insisting
it is impossible. Like you say, maybe a miracle could happen.

 Bart:
I think that, by trying to save Morty, even though he knows it's not
going to work, Harry is showing compassion. While almost everybody is
born with some degree of compassion, a good chunk of it is learned.
Some people are born without it; unfortunately Morty falls into that
category. 

lizzyben:

Dumbledore too, for the most part. My biggest problem isn't how Harry
treats the live LV, but how DD & Harry treat the baby in King's Cross
chapter. It showed a total lack of compassion on DD's part - and he
eventually convinces Harry to ignore & suppress any sense of empathy
as well. I have always considered DD to be one of the most heartless,
cold characters in the series - and even after death he still seems
the same. DD didn't really have to learn or change either.

In looking for a happy Snape ending, I came across one fan story w/a
much more satisfying ending to "King's Cross". After Harry leaves the
station, DD is left behind in the station with the crying, suffering
baby. He ignores it & sits somewhere else, watching many many people
pass through the station. They all get onto the train, but DD cannot &
he doesn't understand why. He waits for years & years, & it becomes
more & more difficult for him to ignore the baby's cries. Finally, he
picks up the baby, and comforts it, and takes it onto the train with
him. He had to show compassion in order to finally get on the train.
This little story was so much more satisfying than the end of DH. 

Bart:
> Final comment, without quoting from you: JKR is self-admittedly
unfamiliar with RW occultism, so it is wrong to assume that errors
that she makes involving those are through anything other than ignorance.
> 
> Bart
>

lizzyben:

Except she's basically working off of alchemy in how she constructs
her world. Anyway, the classical "four humours" don't come from the
occult, but Greek philosophy. JKR, as a classics major, would
certainly be aware of them. And she more or less gets the temperaments
right - Gryffindor fire w/courage, Ravenclaw air w/intellect,
Hufflepuff earth w/loyalty. It just goes totally wrong w/Slytherin
water, which just becomes the depository for everything evil instead.
And maybe this has something to with the way the wizarding world in
general seems to lack the positive "water" qualities - kindness,
empathy, healing. If Slytherin House were redeemed, that'd go a long
way towards healing this world, which is why that redemption seemed so
necessary for a final resolution of the conflict. Oh, well.