Chapter Discussion: Goblet of Fire Ch. 4: Back to the Burrow

[sigurd at eclipse.net]

No: HPFGUIDX 191466

Dear Pippin

Saw this post and couldn't refrain from commenting.

You say "It's not just Gryffindors, is it? IMO, everyone  in canon has an unconscious tendency to minimize the transgressions of people they like and trust (including themselves), while construing those of outsiders and enemies  as evidence of  dangerous moral decay."

I agree with you.

This is part of the "house" system which is a model of the English Prep school system which divides people by "class and origin" assuming that people will "be happier with their own kind" but at the same time that leads to the attitude of "What can you expect, they're not our kind dear." That is-- you could make a broad generalization that Slytherin represent the old feudal aristocracy of blood, Gryffindor the aristocracy of wealth and Ravenclaw the "new intellectual"aristocracy o f the digital age. Hufflepuffs in the book seem to be made up of highly likeable and charming plumbers and tradesman who are useful but whom for all "are not our kind dear."  Such clannishness is a part of our world in all lands and countries, some more stratified than others. However when it is part of the English ecumene it really means that it doesn't matter if you're an axe-murderer, so long as you have good manners, don't scare the horses, and make sure you don't do it to your own class- then -- well "we can attribute it to a youthful high-spirits or individual eccentricities.  I remember being shocked at the end of movie 1 (this was before I read the books) when Dumbledore was awarding Gryffindor a huge amount of points to bring them out on top. I and another person were shocked. This is clearly subverting his own system and making a mockery of the rules. When "the rules" can be set aside or so easily circumvented then it makes a mockery of the system. Being American I cherish our illusions of equality before the law.

That explained a lot to me how underneath all the school colors, the ties, the robes, the quaint feasts and common rooms, there was a murderous competition that was going to doom the whole system.  The rules, the laws, I felt had become a sham-- which later on when Slytherin was in power with their Inquisitors squad, pretty much discredited the whole thing.

This gets to the whole idea of collective guilt and collective reward. Granted, Harry may have saved the Philosophers stone, but it was balanced by his and Ron's shenanigans with the flying car and the whomping willow. But does his excellence transfer to the least worthy Gryffindor? Or-- in another way, If I am of German ancestry do I deserve any credit because of Mozart or Moltke?

I also suspect that this whole "Quidditch" thing is a Gryffindor/Slytherin fetish. I really think Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw can barely work up the enthusiasm for it. I wondered if it might not be better just to line up Gryffindor and Slytherin, give them all bats, put the balls away and let them have at it and work it out of their system. That's what they REALLY want to do, send each others heads through the goals.


Otto