Hmmm. What's your favorite *now*?

[sistermagpie]

No: HPFGUIDX 183082

> Carol responds:
> Harry's *fate* and *destiny* are not ordinary, nor are the unique
> events that led to his becoming the Chosen One. But none of that has
> to do with Harry himself; it's more what happened to him. 

Magpie:
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." It starts with a chapter 
where there's magical people talking about this baby like he's 
something really special--whether through circumstances or ability 
doesn't really matter. Unlike most babies, he's already got some 
important destiny. So when we then meet Vernon and hear about the kid 
in the cupboard, we already know that about him. He thinks 
he's...well, not ordinary because ordinary boys aren't treated like 
pariahs...but he certainly doesn't think he's a wizard or has any 
special destiny except being crapped on by the Dursleys. But we 
readers know that he is more than that because we were told in the 
first chapter. So we're waiting for him to catch up to us. 
Personality-wise everybody's ordinary on some level if they're at all 
human.

King Arthur is perfectly ordinary as far as he knows before he pulls 
the sword out of the stone, but it's a different story depending on 
whether you start with Merlin arranging for Uther to sleep with 
Ygrain and then placing Arthur with his adopted family, or start with 
Wart trailing after his much flashier brother. In the latter story 
we're meeting an ordinary boy and then being surprised when we find 
out the truth. In the first version we're waiting for him to find out 
who he really is.

-m