Draco and Intent: Re: Snape and Harry’s Sadism (was: Lack of re-examination)

[jkoney65]

No: HPFGUIDX 186789

I hate when your post gets lost b/c I'm sure I don't remember everything I wrote the first time.

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Carol" <justcarol67 at ...> wrote:
>
> jkoney wrote:
> > Um, wasn't my original point that people didn't intrepret what she wrote correctly? 
> 
> Carol responds:
> 
> The problem is, there's no "right" reading, including JKR's own, which is often inconsistent with or unsupported by canon. She remembers her own books incorrectly, whether it's the Slytherins returning with Slughorn (maybe they did, but Harry didn't see them and so the narrator didn't report them) or Draco's already having a hand of Glory and Ron's knowing about it or skulls in the Slytherin Common Room.

jkoney:
I disagree. I think the author has a much better idea of the character, their backround, and the plot compared to any of us. I think some things may have been edited out and a consistancy check wasn't done well or I believe the author has the idea in their notes and believes they have written it (otherwise things wouldn't make sense) in some fashion. So when they get questioned they like of course the Slytherins returned....

If the author is alive and has just recently finished the book I believe we can rely on their memory for what they were writing. As time goes on, I believe they can be believed if they have looked through their notes.


> Carol
> Any reading, whether it matches JKR's stated intentions or not, is a "right" reading as long as it can be supported by the text. It's only "wrong" when the next book reveals it as wrong (as Betsy's reading of Draco as Harry's future best friend turned out to be). Until DH came out, both DDM!Snape and ESE!Snape were valid readings because the evidence for both was in the text. We just didn't know which were clues and which were red herrings till we found out in "The Prince's Tale."

jkoney:
But in this case their is a straightforward right way of reading the interactions of Harry and Draco. By the time the scene on the train is over, if you still believe they are going to be friends then you aren't actually reading the story as it is written. Just because something happened in another book doesn't mean it is going to happen in this one. That is adding things that don't exist to this story.

By the time those first two Harry Draco scenes are over, Harry knows more than enough about Draco: bully, arrogant, etc. that he isn't going to be friends with him. He just left the Dursley's why would he want to hang around with the same type of person?



> Carol
> But there are still many matters for which we have no official canon explanation, or for which the canon explanation is unclear or incomplete (the Elder Wand, for example, or the whole concept of "the Master of Death"). We're still debating character's motivations (and whether there's a rule against hair clips shaped like butterflies!).

jkoney:
I agree their are a few things like the elder wand that I would like to have more details on. On others I believe JKR thought we would use some common sense and know that wizards went to the toilet, showered, shaved, etc. 

She would think that we would understand that Hogwarts was based on the British boarding school ideas and that they had dress codes. She doesn't go into detail but she gives us a uniform list. From their she expects us to extrapolate to a dress code that these schools would have, such as rules for clothes, shoes, hair, nails and jewelry. All things dress codes normally have. 

That line was an unforgettable one to me. It never occurred to me that McGonegall was doing anything but enforcing (IMO, the obvious) the dress code during a high profile school event. I remember teachers being stressed at these type of events and enforcing every little rule. (I had to dry shave because my cheezy little mustache was showing and it was seen before one event)

> Carol
> There is not and can never be a single "right" reading of the books. If there were, this list would not exist.
> 
>jkoney
Well I still think Harry is the hero of the book even though I've had people tell me he's not.