Mediocre and letters and Re: Hmmm. What's your favorite *now*?

[potioncat]

No: HPFGUIDX 183113

Potioncat:
I'm responding to these noted posts, and to others in the thread all 
lumped together, but not as neatly as Catlady does it. I've cut and 
pasted to word and back. I hope we don't get odd little fairy marks.

>Post 183075 Magpie:
Me neither. I don't know who said that line that you quoted as me,
but it wasn't me.:-)
snip
Though I would read about a mediocre kid. I like reading about
mediocre people who rise to be something special. Harry, however, is
the Chosen One who discovers more super powers as he goes.

Potioncat:
That would be me. And I used mediocre sort of tongue in cheek because 
that's the word Snape uses. Mediocre has two meanings according to my 
Websters. The first is "neither good nor bad, OK." The second 
is "inferior."  From a Snapish point of view, Harry fits both 
definitions. I'm sure Snape sees him as inferior. I see Harry as OK. 
He has certain areas that he does better in, but for the part he's 
average. I don't see Harry has having super powers at any point of 
the story. 


>Post 183075 Carol:
Snip
 We're supposed to see Harry as small, skinny, outnumbered,
bullied, and essentially helpless, but not desperate enough to call up
the accidental magic he doesn't know he possesses. 

Potioncat:
Exactly! I've gone back and re-read the first 3 chapters. We may know 
that there's something special about Harry as he's left on the 
doorstep, but we find a fairly ordinary boy 11 years later. Yes, we 
learn about some strange things that have happened. But Harry didn't 
know he had made them happen. We'll learn later that accidental magic 
is very normal for wizarding children.  Nothing special so far. If 
anything, the reader might be surprised that the baby everyone was 
talking about has grown into a skinny kid with glasses.

Now, had Harry been extraordinary, we might have seen some 
intentional magic---his mother could work wandless magic at his age. 
We might have seen him overcoming the bullying, or finding other 
sources of food.  


>Post 183082Magpie:
Yes, But we were talking about whether the whole thing with the
letters is about showing us that Harry is an ordinary boy, which is a
very specific thing. And I'm saying that the book doesn't start
with "Meet Harry Potter, ordinary boy." 


Potioncat:
Well, all of us knew he was going to be hero; his name is part of the 
title. Depending on when a reader/kid started reading, they might 
know just how much Harry would accomplish. But he is ordinary. Isn't 
that just like JKR to turn things around? 

She gives us a wizard in a regular neighborhood, and yet he's the 
powerless one. She sends him off to Wizarding School and he doesn't 
pick everything up right away. He just like the other new students--
only some of them can already work magic. Yet he's the hero of the 
story.

We find out later that some characters thought he would be a powerful 
dark wizard. Yet he's just a kid like all the others. I think that's 
part of the appeal to the Harry Potter story. He's just like everyone 
else. When the time comes, he will show extraordinary courage and 
extraordinary love, but till that point, he's a regular Joe. 


>Post 183080 Magpie:
 I realize that *Harry* doesn't know who he is yet, but
every kid reading the book knows, just as I did, that he's not
ordinary, just as they can see that his situation isn't ordinary with
Uncle Vernon etc. I know it's supposed to be comic, I just find it
tedious. Sometimes you enjoy watching the person find out something
you already know, but the chapter full of "Here's a letter. Psych!
Can't read it!" drove me nuts.

Potioncat:
Yes, back to the letters:

I was reminded as I re-read, how much this book reminded me of Roald 
Dahl's style when I first read it. Vernon is over the top with the 
letters, the amount of letters is over the top. Certainly Harry's 
treatment by the Dursleys is farfetched.

If I made it this far on my first read, and I'm not sure I did, I 
probably quit here. As I was re-reading the chapters  this time I 
kept thinking, "This is so cool!" and "This is going to come back 
later." and also, "Get on with it, pick up the pace!"

But something did jump out at me, with my DH-eye sight. On the very 
first page is the word "secret"
..for what it's worth.