Dark Book

[Jen Reese]

No: HPFGUIDX 177040

> Nita: 
> Ohh, that's interesting. I hadn't even considered not seeing the
> Decent People vs Pansy (+ the Slyths) angle as important, and now I
> wonder why. Perhaps just because it's such a powerful visual that
> somehow reminds me of impending mob justice?

Jen:  Yeah...but even reading the scene emphasizing a different angle 
didn't keep me from noticing JKR's choice there.  I have a very 
distinct memory of being thrown out of the story in my first read-
through of the Great Hall scene - 'Really?  *None* of the Slytherins 
stood up?  Why did JKR write the moment like that?'  

Mob violence wasn't a thought that occurred to me until reading the 
idea here, but I didn't/don't understand JKR's choice of having every 
Slytherin remain seated.  Was it a character development problem 
since she mainly presented characters connected to DEs?  Trouble 
conveying the idea via Harry?  She honestly didn't think her 
Slytherin characters would fight Voldemort - why?  That it would 
appear tokenish?  (I rejected that one because there are other token-
type characters on the good side who represent groups opposed to 
Voldemort, like Lupin, Hagrid and Grawp, Dobby, etc.)
 
Nita:
> But still, JKR's choice to demonstrate the good kids' willingness to
> fight Voldemort using Pansy as a catalyst and symbol disturbs me.
> Like Lizzyben said, in real life such situations often end very 
> badly, even if the people involved are perfectly decent. And the 
> frightening potential of the scene goes completely unacknowledged,
> as usual...

Jen: This is where McGonagall plugged into the scene for me, the 
acknowledgement that a bunch of kids standing around with wands in 
their hands in a tense situation wasn't a good idea.  I realize 
others don't read it this way, but I honestly thought she was using 
pretty good conflict management skills when she told Pansy and the 
Slytherins to leave first. 

Nita: 
> I mean, I don't demand sociopsychological realism from every fantasy
> coming-of-age story, but the HP books *do* touch real social issues,
> don't they? The Nazi allusions were rather blatant, I'd say. But
> sometimes it seems like they were just a convenient shorthand for
> extreme badness in a wish-fulfilment story.

Jen: I've read 'wish-fulfillment story' before and don't really 
understand what it refers to re: HP?