Of Sorting and Snape/ some Tehanu SPOILERS

[rowena_grunnionffitch]

No: HPFGUIDX 176410

   Dana:

I personally do not think you can blame Harry for believing Snape was
DD's killer and hating Snape for it and neither was it Snape's fault.
That blame lies with DD and DD alone (and the idea still makes me
sick to my stomach that the author wants me to accept this as
something good but never mind).
It was not unjustified for Harry to hate Snape for it because he
simply did not know and it is pretty hard to deny what you saw with
your own eyes.


  Rowena:

  Snape *WAS* DD's kiler, but not his murderer if you follow the
distinction. And in all fairness to DD he never meant for Harry to
witness his death but as events unfolded he was unable to prevent it.
Nor do I think it was entirely out of line for him to make the
request of Severus given that they both knew he was doomed, whether
from Draco or other enemy action or the curse. And SS did agree,
possibly for both DD and Draco's sakes.

> houyhnhnm:
>
> I haven't read _Tehanu_.  I'm not a big fan of the Earthsea
> stories in general; I prefer the Hainish cycle.  In what way
> is the author's tone mean-spirited?  I get the impression it's
> written from kind of a feminist point of view.

   Rowena: Now there's an understatement of cosmic proportions! I'd go
so far as to call it a polemic.

houyhnhnm:
   Are readers
> encouraged to laugh at the female characters, gloat over
> their inferior status, enjoy a sense of superiority at their
> expense?  See that's what I would call mean spirited in an
> author--

   Rowena: Of course not - as you said it is a feminist tract. However
one *IS* subjected to agonizing accounts of nasty males abusing
innocent and helpless females, (which *REALLY* turned me off) And one
is indeed encouraged to enjoy a sense of superiority over males. So I
guess you would consider Tehanu 'Mean spirited'.

houyhnhnm:
showing characters in pain or fear (having their
> tongues magically enlarged until they almost choke, faces
> covered with pustules, painted gold and stuck on top of a
> Christmas tree and so on and on) and encouraging the reader to
> find it funny or satisfying.

   Rowena: The female characters' pain and fear is not suspposed to be
funny but it does seem intended to satisfy a rather masochistic
impulse towards gender victimhood, (a common theme in modern
Feminism).

houyhnhnm:
> That seems a very different
> thing to me from merely creating a world that manifests
> reactionary values (which I think is probably a characteristic
> of the fantasy genre as a whole and may be the reason I've
> never cared for it very much).

   Rowena: Women are not equals in the Earthsea cycle proper - for
example they cannot become mages. However on the other hand they are
normally treated with respect and cruelty towards them is clearly
*NOT* condoned. 'Tehanu' on the other hand seems to glory in
spiritually crippled men tormenting inherently wise and enlightened
women which I call 'mean spirited' also nasty. Possibly this is not
the impression Le Guin meant to convey but it's the one I got.

ELFY NOTE:

If somebody wishes to discuss Ursula Le Guin books without connecting them to Potterverse, please reply on OTC. Thanks guys :)