Dark Book - Blood and Cruelty/ Draco

[horridporrid03]

No: HPFGUIDX 177312

> >>Alla:
> Notoriety, I think? Harry is well known, yes, but to me popular 
> means **likable** all the time... <snip>

Betsy Hp:
Ah.  That's the mistake then.  No, "popular" does *not* 
mean "likable".  Actually, sometimes popular people are very much not 
likable (though sometimes they are).  Which is probably why there's 
such a resistence to linking Harry with being a BMOC or popular.  But 
*all* it takes to be considered popular or a BMOC is to be have the 
student body all know you, all have an opinion on you, and to have a 
certain amount of celebrity.  All of this Harry has.  

Notoriety is actually a part of being popular or the BMOC.  As I said 
previously.

> >>Betsy Hp:
> > <snip>
> > And when you look at what he actually experiences at school,     
> > Harry is treated like a BMOC.  <SNIP>

> >>Alla:
> It is only your opinion Betsy.

Betsy Hp:
Taking into consideration the information above I think it's not 
really an opinion.  Harry is a BMOC and that's a fact backed by his 
experiences at Hogwarts.  Do newspaper articles get written about 
him?  Does the student body have an opinon on Harry, do they know who 
he is?  Is Harry considered a good athlete?  Are students interested 
in what he gets up to?  When there's a social event, are girls 
interested in being his date?

The answer to all the above is yes.  Ergo, Harry is a BMOC.  It's as 
much a fact as his wearing glasses.

> >>Alla:
> I would like to ask you to please respect mine enough without      
> implying that JKR manipulates me.
> <snip>

Betsy Hp:
Oh, I'm not implying. <bg>  Seriously, the fact is Harry is a BMOC 
but *Harry* doesn't see himself that way.  It's not a position he's 
interested in having.  Therefore he doesn't think himself as BMOC, 
therefore readers can fool themselves into thinking he's not a BMOC.  
But he is.  Therefore the idea that he's not a BMOC is the result of 
JKR manipulating her readers into seeing him as not a BMOC.

It's the way she has us on the edge of our seats at the climax of the 
books: will Harry survive?  Well, of course he will, he's the hero of 
the series, he's not going to get killed off in the graveyard in 
GoF.  That Harry is the hero is a fact.  But for the scene we 
believe, with Harry, that he's just a scared kid in the hands of of 
evil wizards.  Because JKR manipulates us to see him as such.  

> >>Alla:
> I mean, she is manipulating me but in a different sense that I 
> understood you to imply. She manipulates me in a sense that I      
> follow her story, that I enjoy it, etc, but it is not a            
> manipulation really, it is a good solid writing I love.
> <snip>

Betsy Hp:
That's exactly the sort of manipulation I'm talking about.  Just as 
it'd be boring for us to read about a "story-book hero" facing peril 
we know he's going to get out of (as he's the hero), it's boring 
watching the BMOC smear a regular guy.  So JKR gets us to forget that 
Harry is better liked than Draco, that whenever they clash Harry 
wins, and that Harry has more people backing him up.  That way we get 
that viseral "Yay!" when Harry beats Draco down.  It's good writing 
on JKR's part, and that's the manipulation I'm talking about.

(Of course, it didn't work on me, but I'm not saying it's because I'm 
smarter or anything.  The Draco vs. Harry thing is more personal 
taste, I suspect.  I know JKR meant for us to be turned off Draco in 
his first scene, but Draco pinged things I like.  Which means my 
interpertation is subversive.  Deeply subversive as of DH. <g>)


> >>Betsy Hp:
> > <snip>
> > Draco is an underdog by virtue of being a Slytherin.  He's a 
> > jewish boy in 1930's Germany.  A black boy in 1830's USA.  He's   
> > the outsider and the scapegoat of his world and that gets        
> > demonstrated to him (and us) by his being beat-down time and     
> > again.
> > <snip>
> > The above is my opinion of course.  It's why I think these books 
> > are evil.

> >>Alla:
> Really? Okay, mine he is a hitler youth in fascist Hermany in      
> 1930s, somebody who was taught to hate jews and **others" since he 
> was a kid and went happily went on to try to implement what he was 
> taught when he was a kid, but when he got a taste of murder, he    
> realised that he just cannot swallow it.

Betsy Hp:
Frankly, the DA group echoed so much about the Hitler Youth to me it 
was a little bit scary.  It's why I was hoping DH would redeem 
Hermione, for me.  Unfortunately, it didn't.

> >>Alla:
> So, that is why I think those books are not evil among other        
> things, because anything to show how wrong what he stands for is, I 
> will applaud for.

Betsy Hp:
JKR did tie the Death Eaters to Nazis.  And yes, Nazis are bad.  
Thanks for the reminder, Jo!  But as far as the underlying *cause* to 
the rise of Nazism?  She wrote us up a perfect little blueprint, 
IMO.  Labeling a group as lesser than and evil and "bad guys" is the 
first step, and that's what the Slytherins are in the WW.  It's 
vicious, ugly and evil, IMO. 

> >>Alla:
> As I mentioned before, I knew quite a few little antisemits in my 
> youth, I hope that they all learned some lessons of how bad it is   
> to hate the people just because they are of different ethnicity,    
> but I am not holding my breath too much.
> <snip>

Betsy Hp:
Just as the WW didn't learn to not judge a child at age eleven. 
Because in that universe, there is a group of people that are bad and 
evil and lesser than.  Being an anti-Slytherin-ite is a good thing in 
Jo's world.  Which is evil, IMO.  Especially as this is something 
that apparently runs in families.  That's "in the blood" as it were.

Betsy Hp