On Children and the "Other" (was:Re: On the perfection of moral virtues)

[sylviampj]

No: HPFGUIDX 169693

> Betsy Hp:
 Harry and co. treat those who disagree with them on however a
> trivial level (quidditch; politics) in a way I'm only comfortable
> with in a fictional world.  IOWs, they treat those around them
> as "other" or less than human.  And they do it often enough, and
> without any sort of twinge of conscience, that it does come across
> as wrong to me.>>>>

I get the impression that JKR deliberately cuts down on the
interaction with other students outside the Trio - for two possible
reasons. It might be that she's not sufficiently skilled as a writer
to juggle a variety of interactions with other characters but a more
probable explanation is that 'the plot's the thing' and that she
deliberately minimises the Trio's contact with others to keep up the
tempo of her story. This does create situations where characters pop
in and out of the story almost as plot devices. One example of this
is Cormac Mclaggen who appears for the first time in HBP as reserve
Quidditch keeper to create a Ron-Hermione-Cormac triangle. Cormac is
a year older than Harry and we read in a description of the
Quidditch trials' the latter [group] included a large, wiry-haired
boy Harry recognised immediately from the Hogwarts Express.
McLaggen was one of the select group invited to Slughorn's
compartment, apparently because of his family connections with the
ministry. In the train Harry and Neville greet him as though they
hardly know him or don't know him at all. To my mind this is
ridiculous. I actually went to a traditional British boarding
school, divided into four houses. As in Hogwarts you spent your
leisure time mainly in the company of your housemates, in the common
room or dormitories. There is no doubt that you got to know people
in your house very well, especially those in your own year or
slightly older or younger. Whether you liked them or not, you would
certainly have spent a lot of time with them by the sixth year and
would hardly greet them as if you hardly knew them. Because of the
way JKR writes H, H and R often appear to be cut off from other
students in a sort of bubble.

Sylvia