[HPforGrownups] Re: Chapter Discussion: Goblet of Fire Ch. 4: Back to the Burrow

[dorothy dankanyin]

No: HPFGUIDX 191467

Otto,
  Remember in the books that Dumbledoor wanted them all to work together 
regarless of house and/or status.  And in the end most of them did.
  Dorothy

From: <sigurd at eclipse.net>
Sent: Monday, December 12, 2011 3:09 PM
> 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