DH reread CH 21-22

[dumbledore11214]

No: HPFGUIDX 186791

So these two chapters left me with the wierd feeling all over again and this time of the good variety wierd feeling.

I mean, believe me I had been rereading the books I like more than once during my life and as some of you know I read a lot. And I certainly reread all HP books but OOP several times. I guess third time is a charm for DH, because I feel as if I am getting some answers to the questions that I still had and I do not feel that those questions were just about the details.

For example, for quite some time I had been wondering what the hell was the point of introducing Luna in the series if there was any point besides just introducing her for the sake of introducing new character.

I mean, I get that her eccentricities can be funny (I for the most part find them annoying), and certainly I get the point of looking beneath the surface and for Harry to learn that she is a nice sweet person, etc.

I also remember JKR saying something along the lines that Luna was meant to be an opposite to Hermione, logic to faith, etc. But the thing is while I very often accept the interviews, I still take them as statement of intent only when I see at least some support for it in the book. And I did not quite see it, I mean, I certainly saw Hermione arguing and contradicting what Luna is saying, etc, I just did not see Luna as faith if that makes sense. Yes, I know the whole point of faith is that you have to take something **on faith**, but to me in the book I would have thought that we should have seen support for some of Luna's claims that what she claims existed, exists, no matter how improbable it seemed initially for Hermione and everybody else.

And here we have these chapters about Hallows history, real and imaginary and I am thinking is it that simple? Was the whole reason of introducing Luna to make a point about Hallows and how Hermione cannot accept their existance on faith and Harry does? And while Luna is not here, I am thinking probably the point is that she influenced him to a degree to accept improbable?

"Luna has told me all about you, young lady," said Xenophilius, you are, I gather, not unintelligent, but painfully limited. Narrow. Close-minded." - p.333

Alla:

I mean, I get that this is exactly what Lovegoods would have thought about Hermione, but in a sense to me this is the first time when I cans ee some support not for her being stupid of course, but for being close-minded in a real way?


"But that's - I"m sorry, but that's completely ridiculous! how can I possibly prove it doesn't exist? Do you expect me to hold of - of all pebbles of the world, and test them? I mean, you could claim that anything's real if the only basis for believing in it is that nobody's proved it doesn't exist!' - p.334

Alla:

HAHA. Beatiful, Hermione for all her intelligence, for all her pointing the biblical quotes to Harry on his parents' stone cannot make the leap to faith, to believe when it really counts.

And that leads me to another shocking revelation of the sorts. And it IS shocking to me, because it is not like I forgot the events of these chapters, but why did I not realise that while I was getting annoyed that Hermione never learned the humility and the possibility that she can be wrong in spectacular way, she just may have been learning a lesson in non-spectacular way in this chapters about being wrong?

Interesting.

Alla