Ender vs. Harry SPOILERS for Ender's Game (WAS Re: JKR's Intent)

[horridporrid03]

No: HPFGUIDX 178876

> >>Betsy Hp:
> > <snip>
> > As to Ender killing where Harry didn't: the stakes were much, 
> > much higher.  And *very* unlike Harry, Ender noticed, worried 
> > about, and then did his best to heal his equivelent of the       
> > screaming and flayed baby.

> >>zgirnius:
> Ender's equivalent of the flayed baby was a very different         
> creature. She/her people felt remorse for their terrible crime of   
> murder long before anybody asked them to, and in fact understood   
> the desire on the part of humanity to wipe them out because of how 
> seriously they took what they had done (once they knew it).         
> Further, she/they reached out to Ender, *not* the other way around. 
> 
> Would Harry have responded as Ender did, had someone reached out to 
> him? Heck yes, he would, in my opinion, but it was not a story in 
> which the villains, or 'villains', did much of that.
> <snip>

Betsy Hp:
It's probably kind of telling (and not so much a surprise <g>), but I 
saw Draco as reaching out to Harry for at least a good three books.  
I think it's only by OotP that Draco finally gave up.  (Though I've 
had to conclude that this was all stuff JKR stuck in by mistake.  She 
didn't *mean* to make Draco that deep.)

But in the end, yes, the bad guys in Potterverse were no good to the 
bone, and in Enderverse there weren't really any "bad guys" after 
all.  Which is funny because OSC was writing such a militant book 
about war and the waging thereof, while JKR was trying to say 
something about... I don't know... life, or something?  Anyway, I got 
the sense she thought she was saying something vital and deep.

And that comes down to the authors, IMO.  OSC created these 
perfect "bad guys" but then couldn't leave it at that.  He had to 
figure out the whys and wherefores and, in the end, so did his 
protagonist.  JKR created these "bad guys" and seemed to give them 
depth and heart, but then in the end, figuring out the whys and 
wherefores was silly (or unrealistic, I guess?) and her protagonist 
just... won.

In the end, one sort of story touched me deeply, and the other I 
found quite repulsive.  The bizarre thing? One featured genocide and 
the other domestic bliss, but my reactions don't play that out.


> >>BetsyHP:
> > Oh!  Another difference: The ending of Ender's Game does push    
> > Ender into adulthood and show some of the stuff he accomplished.  
> > That's how I know that he did follow through on what he'd learned 
> > as a boy.  Harry...had two kids.

> >>zgirnius:
> To the extent that Slytherin is Harry's Other as the buggers were 
> Ender's, the Epilogue does show this as well. Albus *Severus*, as 
> people keep pointing out, together with his assertion that he would 
> be in no way displeased, were his son to be a Slytherin. (And,      
> three kids, right? Ron had two).

Betsy Hp:
Oops, yes.  I forgot about Lily. <g>  But no, a middle name after a 
guy his kid's never heard of, and an assurance that little Al can 
*choose* his house isn't my idea of Harry delving deep into the 
Slytherin mind, seeing they're not that alien after all, and sharing 
that news with his people.  The Slytherins are still weird, their 
designated attributes still not seen as virtues (Severus was 
*brave*), and they're still not worthy to breed with (as per Ron).  

> >>Betsy Hp:
> > <snip>
> > And now we're just supposed to guess that the vision of domestic 
> > bliss (circa 1950) includes dramatic political change? 

> >>zgirnius:
> I see nothing in that scene to differentiate my domestic bliss from 
> that of Ron and Hermione. I work full time, have two young kids,    
> and am not married to their father, and the year is 2007. Totally   
> not 1950's. You insist on dating it to 1950 and making Hermione a   
> stay-at-home mom, but there is no more evidence of that view than   
> there is of mine.
> <snip>

Betsy Hp:
I agree that we can see whatever we want in that scene as far as what 
everyone's doing with their lives.  (Which is why I cannot accept 
Hermione's mere presence as proof of social justice for all. <g>)  
And Carol did a good job enumerating the reasons for a working!
Hermione theory.

I date the scene to the 1950's though, because we've got two couples 
made up of high-school sweethearts, and at least one where the girl 
set her cap for her mate back when she was 10 (or 9, even). And I 
also tend to chuckle at the idea of JKR as a feminist when I think 
she's anything but.  So that's me expressing myself. <g>  

Betsy Hp (behind but not wanting to miss this one)