Dark Magic (ignoring Dumbledore's age/ Goblin's view on propert

[juli17 at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 176624

 
Adam wrote:
Its place is in a different post, but I have to agree with JKR  when
she is dumfounded by people who identify with Slytherin.  I can  easily
understand identifying with NONE of the houses, but… there was a  post
that I still have not gotten to respond to in which it was asked  what
could have redeemed, or made equal, Slytherin in our eyes.   Well,
among other things… a sorting hat song that didn't make them out to  be
so bad.  That gave them something resembling a worthwhile  trait,
something one might actually want to have as a part of  themselves.  It
must have been done many times before this book, but I  think looking
at what the hat actually says is a reality check for what  Slytherin
truly is.  And sure, the hat could be lying (it WAS  griffindor's!),
but when everything good about something has to be made up by  the
reader, it's just trying too hard.  What I would've liked is a  song
that showed how maybe slytherin house wasn't the breeding ground  for
the scum of the earth.




Julie:
My guess is that people who "identify" with Slytherin House  are identifying
with certain qualities bestowed upon Slytherins by  the time Harry comes to
Hogwarts (even if these qualities were "earned" by the House's  predecessors).
More specifically that Slytherins are rejected by the other  Houses and are 
the
outsiders of the school. Many people who have felt the sting  of rejection, 
and
who have been on the outside looking in, especially when they  were in school
(at an age where rejection and labels like "loser" or  "outsider" sting 
deeply)
still have that rejection seared on their souls, and can't  help but 
sympathize 
with the Slytherins. *Within the Hogwarts school* Slytherins  ARE the 
underdogs,
the rejects, the losers who can only hang with each other. 
 
Again this status may be deserved based on the actions of  their predecessors,
and eventually their own actions as they are integrated as  eleven-year-old 
inductees into the Slytherin culture and mindset. 
 
I personally don't identify with Slytherin so much as I  deeply sympathize 
with
Slytherins. Mostly because I'll never accept it as in any  manner reflective 
of
a decent society to dump eleven year old children into this  House steeped in
the prejudices of its predecessors, this House that  shouldn't even exist, 
and  
abandon them with not a single effort by any adult  to offer them other 
options
or to convince them that there is a better mindset, with  either words *or* 
with
actions.
 
Adam also wrote:
 Slytherins are the feeble straw men to
Griffindor's  mighty heroes - to us, the reader.  In the world of the
book slytherins  aren't sad little whippingboys who get blamed for
everything.  They are,  more often than not (from what is shown in
canon) rich, powerful, evil,  nasty, cruel - killing, terrorizing the
world.  They're equivalent to  racists and genocidists, and to feel
sorry for them is to feel sorry that JKR  has created a group of people
so morally bankrupt that they have almost no  hope for salvation.  but
it doesn't change what they are in the world  itself.  To criticize
harry for not giving slytherin a chance is (no  matter how trite the
example) to criticize a more enlightened person for not  giving a nazi
a chance.  maybe he's a nice nazi, but i wouldn't bet on  it.  jkr
didn't give them a chance long before harry  didn't.

Julie:
But the ones we have been discussing *at  Hogwarts* are CHILDREN.
Yes they have racist attitudes, but no they do NOT kill and  terrorize the
WW. At least NOT YET. This concept of eleven year old children  who are
already so morally bankrupt they have "almost no hope for  salvation" is
absolutely horrifying to me. And in your example of not giving  a Nazi a
chance, this really translates to condemning the children of  Nazis, who
were after all indoctrinated at home to share their parents'  views. I don't 
recall this happening, as I believe they were given the  encouragement to 
adopt new and more enlightened views, and presumably most of  them did
so and became productive members of society. And there is  the difference.
JKR's message seems to be that Slytherin children are beyond  this type of
assistance, as no one puts in even the smallest effort into  turning them away
from their destructive path. I must say this is a message  I absolutely 
detest,
even if it references a fictional world.  

Julie, who places plenty of blame on the adult  teachers and the headmaster
of Hogwarts for the condition and  mindset of Slytherin House, because they
*are* the adults and they allow the situation persist.  They are the "good men
who do nothing."



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