Coolness // Portraits

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 182825

> > Pippin
> > thinking that vanity is a major theme of HBP, and that Romilda was
indeed vain and silly  not to recognize that Neville and Luna were
cool even by her unenlightened standards.
> >
 > 
> Montavilla47 (again):
> Yes, I get that, but I think the message would have been stronger
had the person urging Harry to ditch his "uncool" friends had actually
> been someone Harry would have thought in a million years *was*
> cool, rather than someone in his house that Harry had never noticed
> before.

Pippin:
If you got the message, why would you think it needed to be stronger?
Especially right at the beginning of the book? Themes usually develop
over the course of the work -- if they're elaborated at the beginning
the author has no place to go. 

Harry found it easy to reject vanity when Romilda appeared like a
character in a morality play, obvious and unattractive. But when the
vanity of coolness tempted him in the form of the Prince's book, he
did indeed ditch his friends for it, and deny its more unattractive side. 

When it turned out to be dangerous, he felt as if "a beloved pet had
suddenly turned savage" (quoting from memory) --

and  we understand not only that Harry has fallen victim to vanity,
but also how James and Sirius could have been so blind to Peter's
faults. He flattered their vanity, made them feel clever and important
and the height of cool, just as the Prince's book did for Harry.

As a side note, over the series there are other students Harry looked
up to besides The Prince: the three other tri-wizard champions and
Percy. Fleur, Percy, and Krum are all shown to be more or less vain;
only Cedric is disarmingly modest. 

Montavilla:
> It's a little like that moment when Ron has supposedly changed 
> his views on elf-slavery and yet he's essentially taking the 
> same attitude he's had all along:  that elves should be respected
> and allowed to make their own decisions, even if that decision
> is to clean up after humans.

Pippin:
Sure, that's what he believed in theory. But in practice he thought
Hermione was mad to demand respect  for Kreacher.

  JKR uses this technique a lot: she has her heroes make a correct but
easy decision to illustrate a principle, then throws them a curve
later on. For example, in PS/SS Harry has no problem seeing that Ron
is a better sort than Draco but chooses wrongly between Quirrell and
Snape. 

Pippin