Bigotry in the Potterverse

[sistermagpie at earthlink.net]

No: HPFGUIDX 188070

Rick:
> A little geeky here, but JKR switches back and forth between Harry's 1st 
> person narrative and a wonky kind of 3rd person limited-omniscience 
> POV--like watching a movie shot by a tipsy elf with a camcorder perched 
> on Harry's shoulder--so we seldom know much more than what Harry can do, 
> see, think, or feel or, more accurately sometimes, what Harry THINKS he 
> does, sees, thinks or feels.   So there is no real reason to muddy the 
> narrative with Hg's routine dorm room social life. 

Magpie:
She doesn't really flip back and forth and we're never in a first person narration. She uses third person limited narration, where we basically see things from Harry's perspective but we are not in his perspective. So we can know things he doesn't remember or notice, for instance.

Occasionally there are chapters that are out of his perspective, like the opening chapters of GoF, HBP and DH, but we're never in first person and never entirely in Harry's pov.

Rick:
> I just don't see the traditional sexism in the books. I do see 
> differentiation, but JKR's got to tell a story and it's the differences 
> that propel the characters. 

Magpie:
Really? I think there's tons of standard tradional male/female role behavior reinforced throughout the books. Hermione might be smarter than Ron or Harry, but where you say she "quietly backs a bag," she actually packs their bags, and seems to do most of the domestic work on their camping trip as well. (And most of the romance follows set patterns of male/female as well.) 

-m