Liking the Bad (was:Re: Dark Magic (+ a little Marietta)/Karma and the Twins

[horridporrid03]

No: HPFGUIDX 176884

> >>Magpie:
> <snip>
> Like, I blame the author for the general dislike I have of the      
> whole storyline as a whole. I can agree that Draco is completely    
> wrong in the way he responds to his screw up in class, imo. I just 
> don't identify with the characters' own anger about it. So the     
> author's failed to get me enjoying the story.
> <snip>

Betsy Hp:
Ooh, this is an interesting statement.  Because as I've skimmed 
through various posts, something that's been bugging me a bit is that 
I *did* identify more with the Slytherins as a reader, I *did* like 
Draco's character better than the Trio.  So I was wondering, "My 
goodness, am I a closet bigot and/or evil and didn't even realize?"  
Then I figured out that no, I just dislike JKR's take on the world as 
expressed in the Potter series.  So naturally I gravitated towards 
those she was setting us up to hate.  Which on the one level, "whew!" 
and on the other level, so where did JKR go wrong for me?

The Hagrid/Draco showdown is an excellent example of JKR turning me 
off.  While Draco overtly calls Buckbeak a brute, Hagrid insidiously 
places Buckbeak into a situation where disaster is sure to strike.  
So while JKR is bullying me towards disliking Draco because he's mean 
to animals, I can't help but twist around to look at Hagrid and 
think, yes, but Hagrid's more of a danger to the animals he professes 
to love than Draco could hope to be.  So if you're trying to 
manipulate me with Buckbeak's big puppy eyes, it's working in a way 
I'm not sure you're meaning it to work.

And since there was a big movement towards JKR being a master of 
subtlety (major, massive, lie, IMO as per DH) I thought for a while 
there, the subtle view might even be the correct one.

> >>Magpie:
> <snipped and ripped out of order>
> (Luckily, to give JKR credit, the kids in canon actually don't seem 
> to side with Hagrid on this kind of thing in later years, however 
> much of a great time you feel they were having.)

Betsy Hp:
Yes, exactly.  We're told *and shown* time and again that Hagrid as a 
teacher is the big suck.  So again, I thought this was an example of 
JKR being subtle and having an overlying obvious interpertation that 
would get thrown over in the end by the more subtle interpertation.  

(When in DH Harry decided that if Hagrid caused MadEye's death whilst 
in the throes of a drunken stupor, well that'd be okay then, I 
started to realize I was very possibly, horribly, horribly wrong.)

> >>Prep0strus:
> > I guess that's your perogotive, but it still seems strange to me 
> > to not be bothered by someone simply because you know you're     
> > supposed to be bothered by someone.  It doesn't make his actions 
> > any more sypathetic or admirable.

> >>Magpie:
> I can't explain it, but that was my honest reaction to the book--  
> and I'm not alone. Draco's my favorite character in the series even 
> though he turned out to be a dud imo. I've read plenty of books    
> where I disliked a character because I felt like the author wanted 
> me to like them--or at least, that exacerbated my dislike. That     
> happens all the time when people read. I did a thing once where I   
> asked people to list the characters they hated most in fiction and 
> most of them had some element of the author presenting the         
> character as an obviously admirable person. The same works in      
> reverse--have you really never had that experience? Draco was like 
> the Wile E. Coyote of the Potterverse for so long I totally rooted 
> for him. (Also I love him in most CoMC classes.)

Betsy Hp:
For myself, since I started out liking Draco from his very first 
scene (much as I liked Snape from his very first scene) it wasn't so 
much a knee-jerk, JKR wants me to hate these guys so I will 
stubbornly decide to like them.  It was more, again, I go for subtle 
readings.  And while both Draco and Snape wore their faults on their 
sleeves, I assumed that because those faults were there to be seen, 
they'd also be dealt with.  And alongside those faults were some 
rather charming (IMO) characteristics.  The sort of stuff that 
automatically gets me liking a character.  I thought JKR put that 
stuff there for a purpose as well.  (Now I suspect that stuff I find 
charming, JKR finds either distasteful or suspect.)

I also assumed that the faults I saw in the Gryffindors in general 
and the Trio in particular, though not acknowledge as faults by the 
characters, were acknowledged as such by JKR, and would be dealt with 
as well.  And I thought, being the hereos, they'd have a greater 
struggle in the end, and therefore, the greater triumph.  And again, 
the Trio's faults struck me as more insidious and dangerous than 
Draco's faults.  (If Slytherins were the Nazis, than Gryffindors were 
the SS, if that makes sense.)  Mainly because no one was telling the 
Trio that they *had* faults.  So they thought their bad behavior was 
actually good.

And, in what I considered an odd and distasteful move, the Trio's 
unrecognized faults turned out to not be faults at all.  Apparently 
they really *could* judge whether someone was good or bad on sight.  
And their violent bullying of others was, I guess showing spirit, or 
something?

Which means I *especially* left the series feeling that anyone JKR 
listed as "good" was more or less bad, and those she labled "bad" 
were either probably pretty good or not as bad as those 
labled "good".  Mainly because I decided that her judgement was 
competely wonky. <g>  So any reading I do will naturally be 
subversive.  IOWs, "The smurfs are totally under that mushroom, 
Gargamel!  No, no, the *other* mushroom!"  <beg>

Betsy Hp