Slytherin House - LONG

[Katie]

No: HPFGUIDX 177515

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "lizzyben04" <lizzyben04 at ...> 
wrote:
> Katie:
>  "A rift began to grow between Slytherin and the others. Slytherin 
wanted to be more *selective* about the students admitted to 
Hogwarts. He believed that magical learning should be kept within all-
magic families...Slytherin, according to the legend, sealed the 
Chamber of Secrets so that none would be able to open it until his 
own true heir arrived at the school. The heir alone would be able to 
unseal the Chamber of Secrets, unleash the horror within, and use it 
to purge the school of all who were unworthy to study magic."
> 
> lizzyben:
> 
> And at the end of DH, the same situation happens, in the reverse. 
> the Chosen One re-enters the school, the Chamber of Secrets is re-
> opened, and the school is purged of all who were unworthy to study 
> magic (the Slytherins). YAY! Ethnic cleansing!
> 
> Katie:
> > I was surprised to find such strong language and history against 
> > Slytherin House...I hadn't really noticed it before. I know that 
> > sounds ridiculous, but in my own mind, there was an ambiguity 
> about Slytherin House that allowed me to see these events in a more 
> > sympathetic light. Now, I see that any ambiguity was really only 
> in my own mind, and JKR meant for the Slytherins to be evil from 
day one. 
> <snip> I also have to reiterate that I find it strange for 
Slytherin House to even be a part of the school at all, seeing them 
in the light of DH and the new slant I have on them. Why not get rid 
of the House after Slytherin departed?
> 
> lizzyben:
> 
> Exactly, they have no right to exist. The House should be purged 
> from the school because they are unworthy to become wizards. They 
> have "bad blood", which makes them evil since birth, and they are 
> inferior to the superior worthy Houses. Howarts should be more 
> *selective* in who it allows to enter - the unworthy should be 
> excluded. All this is bad enough, but then DH invokes the heavy 
Nazi imagery to make it even worse. It's downright evil.

***Katie again:

I don't really agree with this part. If the Slytherins are intended 
to be the evil, bad guys (which I have to say, JKR didn't do very 
well, since we all felt they had the possibility for change, at least 
before DH), which I definitely believe they are...well, then don't 
they deserve to be expunged from the school where the good guys are? 
I mean, do we talk about being prejudiced against Nazis or the KKK? 
NO. Because Nazis and the KKK are evil groups that espouse racial 
hierarchy and genocide. They're bad, nasty people, and so of course 
normal, decent people hate them. There's nothing wrong with wanting 
bad, evil people out of your school. My problem, plotwise, is WHY 
were the Slytherins still there, if it was so evident from the 
beginning that they were racist bad guys? Doesn't make sense.

Since JKR obviously intended the Slytherins to represent racial 
groups like the KKK and the Nazis (I am including modern Nazi groups 
here, too, not just the historical political construct), then there 
is absolutely nothing wrong with feeling hate towards them. They're 
espousing hate and racism, and so of course, decent people would find 
them despicible. That's not "prejudice" on the part of the decent 
people...is it "prejudice" to hate Nazis? I don't think so.

The problem, as I see it, is that JKR, as storyteller and a writer, 
left way too much room for ambiguity. While it is obvious, with a 
completed canon, that the Slytherins were basically unredeemable, 
that was not at all obvious before DH. So, in this, I agree with 
those people that have been saying that DH is a huge departure...at 
least for US. I don't think it was for JKR. She never saw the 
ambiguity in the Slytherin House that we all saw - she was just 
unable to express concretely her true vision of them. Is that a moral 
weakness, or a writing weakness? I think it's a writing weakness. 

I don't see that her morality suffered in DH. I see that her editors 
were terrified to tell her that there were loose ends and mistakes, 
and I see that many of her weaknesses as a writer were much more 
glaring. However, I do not see that the ethical and moral points of 
the story failed. I still see the main themes as choice and love, 
both of which had a lot to do with Harry's ending and the ending of 
Slytherin House, as well. The Slytherins *chose* to be on the 
opposite side from the rest of the school, to stand with the DE's and 
LV...now, we can argue *why* they chose to do that (JKR would 
probably say it's because they're evil through and through), but the 
choice was there. 

DH did not ruin the series for me...but I do believe it is the most 
seriously flawed of the series and I do believe that her editors did 
an incredibly poor job of reining her in and making sure all the 
pieces fit together properly. And I do believe that it highlights 
some of JKR's most serious writing weaknesses, one of them being 
hints and plots that go nowhere - and Slytherin's ability to become 
good was something I felt was hinted at through 6 books and then 
completely fell apart in DH. I do wish that had been different. But 
since I can now see what JKR's intent was - I definitely do not feel 
unjustified in disliking the Slytherins as a group. They're Nazis. 
They're the KKK. And while *we*, as readers,  saw room for growth and 
change in them, JKR definitely never did. Unfortunately, because of 
her sometimes weak writing, that wasn't obvious until now. KATIE