Hmmm. What's your favorite *now*?

[sistermagpie]

No: HPFGUIDX 183080

> > Magpie:
> > Me neither. <snip> We know from the beginning of the book that 
Harry
> *isn't* ordinary, so there's no point in ever pretending he is. He's
> not even mediocre at the Dursleys, he's living in this exaggerated
> world where he's the worst thing ever. That's why I find all the
> business with the letters frustrating, because maybe Harry is 
confused
> and excited by them, but I'm two steps ahead of him.
> > 
> > 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.
> 
> Carol responds:
> 
> Ah, well. This idea of Harry's being in some respects ordinary or
> average and in others extraordinary is one that people will never
> agree on.

Magpie:
Oh, well, sure in some ways he's ordinary. So's Superman. I'm not 
saying he's special in every way--he gets tongue tied around girls, 
he can be lazy and not do his homework, he can be snarky etc.

But here I'm talking about the fact that he is the Chosen One. We 
start the book with a whole chapter about this Important Baby, so of 
course it's not a surprise when in the second chapter he turns out to 
be somebody special. I've already been told he's not just any kid in 
the suburbs. 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.

Within this universe Harry is one of these most special people ever, 
hands down. He's never just been ordinary. He doesn't relate to that 
particular perspective of Ron's. He is defininitely not ordinary from 
a Muggle or a Wizard perspective. (And the book opens with Wizards 
discussing just that.) That these things sometimes lead to bad things 
for Harry is not the same as them making Harry ordinary. He still 
retains aspects of his personality that are like any other boy/man, 
of course. There's plenty of ways where he is unexceptional and 
mediocre. It depends on what you're talking about. But in the 
beginning of PS we're told he's somehow special, then wait while he 
finds it out. Sometimes that's fun, like with the snake at the zoo, 
because Harry's doing something. But when it's just a letter giving 
him information and the cartoon mean dad is refusing to let him read 
it over and over, I started skimming. 

As an adult he seems pretty uninteresting (though if you listen to 
interviews his career is extraordinary). He's certainly ordinary 
enough that we can empathize with him, but in the context of the 
opening chapters, I stand by him not being ordinary and the extended 
run from the letters being too long.

-m