Harry's "friend," the HBP (Was: Freud and JKR / Id vs. Superego )

[horridporrid03]

No: HPFGUIDX 165368

> >>Betsy Hp:
> > <snip>
> > I think the Prince started out as basically a good kid. He had a 
> > slightly dark sense of humor (like Harry), but wasn't seething   
> > with anger. But that changed, and I think Harry, going through    
> > similar emotions (it's interesting to track his evolving view
> > of Snape through the books), easily follows the Prince's slide.  
> > <snip>

> >>Carol:
> Well, yes and no. I don't see any "slide." The hexes and spells    
> other than Sectumsempra are no worse than the hexes that the       
> students routinely throw at each other.
> <snip>

Betsy Hp:
Oh, you're correct of course.  There's nothing specifically within 
the Prince's book to suggest it was more a slide than a fall (at 
least from what we've seen).  I was going more by what I've picked up 
regarding Snape's character and from the little glimpses we've gotten 
here and there of his past.  Though again, there's nothing to 
definitively say "slide" or "fall".  It's more my personal 
interpertation. <g>

Regardless, the Prince reached a dark place that Harry responded to.  
So rather than providing a different way to go, the book sort of 
echoed Harry's feelings back to him.

> >>Betsy Hp:
> > <snip>
> > I really got the sense that this wasn't just a neat instruction   
> > book Harry stumbled across, this was someone who Harry was able   
> > to personally relate to. Which is why he was so painfully eager   
> > for the Prince to actually be his father.

> >>Carol:
> And yet there's nothing in the book, so far as we know, except     
> Potions hints and notes for spells. I like the fact that he        
> considered the Prince his friend and teacher, and the irony that   
> the friend and teacher was Snape, but what is the basis for that    
> connection?
> <snip>

> >>Betsy Hp:
> > <snip>
> > There was enough there for Harry to personally identify with the 
> > Prince. The book was not just an instruction manual.

> >>Carol:
> Canon, please? We don't have *anything* except the Bezoar line,
> potions hints, and spells being worked out in the margins, and the
> "notation "for enemies."
> <snip>

Betsy Hp:
There's nothing specific as to what's *written* in the Prince's book 
that connects to Harry so. But JKR *does* make clear, IMO, that such 
a connection is made. 

First she establishes that the books is *covered* with notes:

"Harry wondered vaguely who the Half-Blood Prince had been.  Although 
the amount of homework they'd been given prevented him from reading 
the whole of his copy of Advanced Potion-Making, he had skimmed 
through it sufficiently to see that there was barely a page on which 
the Prince had not made additional notes..." [HBP scholastic p.194-5]

So there's enough there that we as readers know we're not going to 
see everything.  But we also know that there's enough there for Harry 
to get an idea of this person's personality (sense of humor, what he 
sees as important, way of thinking, etc.).

Then she shows how much Harry enjoys reading those notes:

"Harry woke early on the morning of the trip, which was proving 
stormy, and whiled away the time until breakfast by reading his copy 
of Advanced Potion-Making.  He did not usually lie in bed reading his 
textbooks; that sort of behavior, as Ron rightly said, was indecent 
in anybody except Hermione, who was simply weird that way.  Harry 
felt, however, that the Half-Blood Prince's copy of Advanced Potion-
Making hardly qualified as a textbook. [ibid p.237-238]

Yes, Harry is very interested in the "imaginative little jinxes and 
hexes" contained therein, but JKR is also telling us that Harry 
spends a great deal of time pouring over the Prince's book.  Only 
some of the spells get used, but he's enjoying the process because 
he's enjoying the author.

And finally, JKR reveals that Harry secretly hopes the Prince is his 
father:

"Harry, meanwhile, felt a rush of excitement: This last mention of 
his father had reminded him that there was something he had been 
looking forward to asking Lupin.
"Have you ever heard of someone called the Half-Blood Prince?"
[...]
"He tried to sound casual, as though this was a throwaway comment of 
no real importance, but he was not sure he had achieved the right 
affect; Lupin's smile was a little too understanding.
[...]
"James was a pureblood, Harry, and I promise you, he never asked us 
to call him 'Prince'."
"Abandoning pretense, Harry said, "And it wasn't Sirius? Or you?" 
[ibid p. 335-336]

Harry sees something in the notes he's spent so much time pouring 
over that he's "excited" about learning that this is something of his 
father's, or Sirius's, or even Lupin's.  That, to me, suggests that 
Harry's made an emotional connection of some sort.

Of course, from what we've seen, young Snape did not treat this book 
as a personal diary.  We don't have any pining over girls or agnst 
over family issues or anything of that sort.  But we do know that his 
personality is still in there; we've been allowed to see a bit of 
it.  Harry, with so many written notes to pour over as JKR makes 
clear, would have experienced even more of it.  

[FYI, I pulled this next bit out of the above, because I think it's a 
slightly different topic.]

> >>Carol:
> > (He can tell that the Prince is a boy, probably because more boys
> > than girls are interested in hexes...

> >>Betsy Hp:
> > I seriously doubt Harry's understanding that the Prince was a boy
> > was based on such reasoning. He does know Ginny after all. <g>

> >>Carol:
> I forgot about Ginny. But she's not typical.
> <snip>
> And if that's not the reason Harry thought (knew) the HBP was a     
> boy, what do you think it could have been? The Bezoar crack is the 
> only hint of boyish humor in the book. And, of course, there's the 
> fact that the HBP called himself the Half-Blood *Prince.*

Betsy Hp:
Frankly, I don't think JKR would use a "girls don't throw hexes" 
reasoning to suggest the Prince is a boy, nor would she let Harry use 
same. And yes, Harry himself, suggests that "Prince" is more of a 
boy's name.  But honestly, I think it really does come down to the 
tenor of the notes.  I think they strike Harry as more "boy-like", 
which I think translates to "more like me".  Not in content (Harry 
not being a potions man) but in style. Just another way for JKR to 
show the connection Harry is making with this character.

Betsy Hp