JKR/Oprah interview

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 189651



-Potioncat:
> At one point JKR was recalling how she described her ideal man before she met her current husband.
> 
> << I remember speaking to a very good friend and she said what would you like in a man?  And I said I would need to be with someone intelligent, because I just value it.  I would really like for him to have his own carrer... I really thought these were basic things.  Integrity as very important>>
<snip> 
> << and kindness, and a strong sense of who he was... These were things that were all very important>>
> 
> Potioncat:
> That kindness requirement knocked Snape right out of the running.
> Not that there's any reason to think JKR would put that ideal man into her book for any reason---but the only person in HP who fits the description (imo) is Harry. (He may be a tad weak in intelligence, but he has his own sort.)
> 

Pippin:
Sounds like JKR took some of her ideal qualities and divided them among the Houses: Ravenclaws are smart, Hufflepuffs are kind, and Slytherins have a strong sense of who they are.    Voldemort, in his disembodied state, is a sense of self and nothing else. 

It struck me as odd that JKR didn't put courage anywhere in her list -- but maybe that's what she herself would bring to the relationship table. 

I think to create Harry, JKR had to take her ideals and dial them back except for raw courage. Otherwise there wouldn't be room for Harry to grow, and he wouldn't have needed Hermione so much. (Ron, OTOH, is a sort of a yardstick -- we can measure Harry's progress against him.) I think Harry is kind, for the most part, but what he had to learn was that kindness can coexist with cruelty, and, except for a few individuals at the far ends of the spectrum, it usually does. 

He also had to learn that doing what is right rather than what is easy sometimes means being harsh when you would rather be kind, and being kind when you would rather be cruel. I think we can see him struggling with this in his final encounter with Voldemort. He wants to taunt, but he still tries to get Voldemort to see that there's a chance for him to escape the fate that awaits him. 

Pippin