Gryffindor & Slytherin roles (was Villain!Dumbledore)

[Mike]

No: HPFGUIDX 177738

> lizzyben:
> 
> It is a lie in what it tells us about human nature. Writers have 
> one fundamental responsibility, and that is to tell us what it 
> means to be human. JKR's story lies about humanity, lies about  
> good & evil, & lies about herself.


Mike:
Single point response because I have problem with this paragraph.

For me, fiction writers only have one responsibilty: to entertain me. 
I want to be transported into the world they have created and enjoy 
reading about it. I read fiction because I like the genre, or because 
it's funny in the case of comedic works. If the story isn't 
believable, I won't have an enjoyable read and probably won't 
continue reading that author.

But I never, EVER, take my moral cues from works of fiction. If I 
want to read something that speaks to humanity, morals, ethics, or 
just generally the human condition, well, that's a whole other 
section of the library or Barnes & Noble.

JKR created her world and the way things work in that world. Yes, she 
rather simplistically put all the bad guys (or almost all) into 
Slytherin and imbued them with the more sinister qualities. That's 
the way things are in this world. I'd hardly call that a statement on 
humanity, I'd call it how the witches and wizards are identified. 
Note, **witches and wizards** not our world human beings.

That works for me. No matter how ambiguous or even good some of the 
individual members may be, I know that Slytherin is the house of bad. 
I want bad guys for the good guys to oppose, especially in a fantasy 
series. My good guys can have their faults, but they better not be as 
bad as the bad guy faults. And in this world they're not, imo.

JKR said early on that she wasn't going for a C.S.Lewis type 
moralistic work. So, I've taken her at her word and not tried to read 
too much into this series in terms of defining the quality of it's 
moral underpinnings. She wrote a fantasy about wizards, for crying 
out loud. She stayed assiduously away from defining what is morally 
right in her world, imo. I see no need to call her onto the carpet 
for what she wasn't trying to do in the first place.

Mike