Right vs. Easy (Ron WAS: Re: DH reread CH 4-5)

[sistermagpie]

No: HPFGUIDX 186341

> Zara:
> Here's one: Stay at home, bored, your brilliance and your youth wasted, with your invalid little sister, or spend more time, perhaps even travel to see the world and seek fantastic artifsacts out of legend, with a handsome, amusing, intelligent companion. Notice he has a rather dark side, or ignore it. Consequence of choosing "easy": dead sister, guilt that lasts the rest of your very long life.

Magpie:
That's choosing the life you want over the life you don't want. Living for what you want for yourself rather than sacrificing for others. It wasn't going to be easy to find the hallows or subjugate all those Muggles. The challenge was part of the appeal.

Zara:
> 
> Another: Reject the overtures of a band of future terrorists because they'd call your best friend a Mudblood and your mother a blood traitor...or, finally enjoy the acceptance you were hoping to find when you came to Hogwarts. Consequence of choosing "easy": it's the first step along a path that will lead foirst to the loss, and later to the death, of that same best friend, now also the woman you love.

Magpie:
Snape didn't become a DE because it was too hard to say no to his friends. He became a DE because it offered power and validation. According to JKR he even thought that by becoming a DE (a hard thing to do--you had to work to be in that elite group) he would impress Lily and win her hand. He had to work for it.

Zara: 
> Another: Ignore the bad behavior of your friends towards others, because you don't believe anyone else will like someone with your condition. Let them in on your potentially deadly secret, or suffer your monthly transformations alone. Consequence of choosing "easy": the worst enemy of you and your friends learns your secret.

Magpie:
That one's a lot closer. And Lupin does seem to regret it because it was wrong. Though Snape's learning Lupin's secret had no bad consequences for Lupin since Lupin wasn't outed and his friends didn't get in trouble. However, I would still more naturally chalk this up to an example of *cowardice* rather than easy. Which I think the books are far more interested in thematically anyway.

Zara: 
> Another: Make an honest effort to learn a skill from a teacher you hate, or blow him off. Consequence of choosing "easy": You enable a chain of events that leads to the death of your beloved godfather.

Magpie:
Harry certainly not try at Occlumency, but I wouldn't describe him as "blowing it off" as if it's just too much trouble and he can get away with it. He wants to see what's in the MoM and doesn't realize why he shouldn't know.

Zara: 
> But I also find that the definition of "easy" in this discussion is being formulated in what I find a very unconventional manner. I don't think we are supposed to consider risking death, torture, the loss of all we hold dear, etc. "easy" just because we would feel guilty or remorseful for choosing something different, because we have principles and want to do what is right.  By that definition, no prncipled person ever makes a choice of right vs. easy. 

Magpie:
I haven't said any of those things are easy at all. And I disagree that no principled person ever makes a choice of right vs. easy. I tihnk they do. I just think it's a very specific thing to lay out in a story. If somebody tells me the premise they're putting across is right vs. easy, you bet I'm going to define those things clearly and expect the person to show that and not something else that could maybe fit under the umbrella. You really do have to work hard to make sure there's an "easy" in there that goes beyond "not as hard as" or "less appealing than" imo. The books even come up with certain situation that I think fit--it just often ends with the person choosing easy with no bad consequences, because I just don't really think JKR is all that focused on this choice.

Because it's not like the books lose anything if I don't see these choices as right vs. easy. Just because Dumbledore said something in a speech and it sounds good doesn't mean the story fails if it's not illustrating that exact speech. It even takes place in a book that's got all this stuff about different countries coming together and that doesn't play out really either. It's not that I think the books are bad for not setting up a bit right vs. easy theme, I just think there's way better ways to describe most of the big choices that have teaching consequences in the books.

Zara:
(As, any choice but the "right" one is suddenly judged easy by virtue of the person's inclination towards pricipled actions, or by virtue of their friends/family having such inclinations). 

Magpie:
I didn't at all say that the "right" choice was judged easy by virtue of the inclination. I said that for a choice to be easy it really had to be tempting because it's so easy. It's not about claiming these characters aren't making difficult or virtuous choices, it's analyzing what the choice is to me. If Ron is faced with letting Harry down vs. facing something that he fears, I just don't see why I'd describe that as a choice of right vs. easy. Same with Dumbledore going to Hogwarts--of course it was a difficult choice. Of course he made the selfish choice. But I still think it's more accurate to explain the situation by saying Dumbledore is choosing between having the life he wants and sacrificing that life for the good of his sister. I think that description is not only a more accurate description of what Dumbledore is choosing, but it's more thematically resonant as well. Harry is gearing up for a sacrifice.

Zara: 
>  So I would say both Hermione and Ron *are* making a difficult choice to join Harry. Snape is (having previously made easy ones) now making a difficult choice to live and die as Dumbledore's spy. Harry makes a difficult choice when he goes into the Forest (he, arguably, does have a far stronger pragmatic reason to seek the destruction of Voldemort than anyone else, as Voldemort is certainly seeking the destruction of Harry over all else).

Magpie:
Yes, they are. I've never denied they're making hard choices. I said a choice being right and hard doesn't mean they have to have chosen between that and wrong and easy.

-m