Amateur HP Psychology

[sistermagpie]

I am not getting any e-mail and I don't know why. They just started coming, but anything from today before the last ten minutes seems to be gone.

I've been reading this book on the Shadow as in Jung (kind of a theme lately) and I'm reading about how the Shadow is all the things you repress in yourself, so you're enraged when you see them in other people. So somebody else could be a terrible person but wouldn't bother you as much because you're not repressing those kinds of things too much. What's horrible about it is I'm reading and knowing that my shadow…

Is post-GoF Ginny Weasley.

She's not the only one, obviously, but oh my god she so is my shadow. When I hear anyone defending her--even reasonably--I am filled with rage. Of course, being who I am (what I repress) I have to try to listen objectively and even admit when the person has a point, because I always want to be accurate and blah blah. Sometimes even I have to defend her because something's off. But what I really want to do is hex the person so that they shut up. Or say something mean that's probably like, "Don't start talking about Quidditch, you'll only embarrass yourself." Or run into the person and put them in the infirmary. This is why it's so strange when people say one must hate Ginny because one wants Harry for herself, because when Harry is liking Ginny it's hard for me to just not see him as a jerk. Like I picture them in their 30s as some dreadful couple I'd avoid. Unfortunately this isn't exactly objective canon analysis, so I can't usually just say that.

The one good thing about this is Lupin is a lot like me in this way--I mean, the kind of stuff he swallows--so maybe he hates her too. I believe when Ginny is throwing her temper tantrum in OotP Lupin quietly shuts the door. For Lupin that's probably the equivalent of smacking her in the face. Poor guy has to live with her.

Oh, the other thing I just read in one essay in the book that we tend to notice and react to Shadow things more in our own gender than the opposite gender--we can ignore stuff when it's in the other gender. I guess that's where fandom's OMG U R JUS JELLUS AND U DON'T LIKE GIRLZ!!1!!1

I was thinking about this in my ballet class, mostly because I have another Shadow problem there, or maybe it's just a pet peeve. Okay, in a dance class you often split into groups to do combinations. There is this woman who always GOES WITH ALL THE GROUPS! In this case there's just the two groups, but it drives me up a tree. The point is to split up so there's room. Yes, she's just one more person, but why the hell does she get to decide that she's the person who gets to dance whenever she wants because everyone else is only going once? What if everybody just decided to do that? (And btw, we're talking about somebody who's in class with some professional dancers--not me--and is herself not even really on the level the class is at. Every time I see her doing it I start stewing. Also she always winds up standing near me so I'm wishing there wasn't somebody so close to me because I don't like people behind me and look--it's her!

Comments

[slinkhard.livejournal.com]

See, that part makes me dislike Harry as much as anyone.
(In fact, I can't name a person in that after scene that I found remotely likeable. Ron's apathetic, Hermione's concerned more about being right than about Harry nearly killing someone, Harry's still in the kiddy faze of 'OMG, you're not taking my side, what if I get in big trouble about this?' and Ginny's all about her boyfriend.)

[kaskait.livejournal.com]

You just posted the issue that I have been avoiding for months. Noone in HBP was likeable. In fact none of these characters have been likeable since GOF.

I stood behind Hermione during this book because I have the most symphathy for her character. But it is very sad when you don't give a fig about what happens to the lead.

Right now, I am under the happy delusion that Harry is under some spell induced dementia or is being drugged. But I am fully prepared for that not to be the case and Harry is just a jacka$$.

JKR really has some messed up sensibilities if the Sectumsempra deal is not addressed in book 7. If that incident is okay by her, well then what was the point of the series beside making loads of money?

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

Yes--I think I started having that problem in OotP, that no one was likable, but in HBP it was worse because all in all "our kids" had a pretty normal year, and you saw that when things were going well for them they were just nasty. Imagine how awful they would have been throughout the series without Voldemort and Malfoy to make them look good by comparison!

[slinkhard.livejournal.com]

Yes, I recall after OotP a lot of people were saying 'Harry/Hermione/The Twins have suddenly become OOC and nasty!' but to defend Rowling (first and last time for everything, I'm sure) I think the threads for their more overt behaviour was pretty well foreshadowed/present even in the earlier books, it was just subtler.
Only Ginny can really be said to have changed drastically for the worse, imho.

[strangemuses.livejournal.com]

What I like about that scene is that they are all uniformly, believably horrible. I really have decided that JKR is playing a very sly game with her readers by writing her 'heroes' as being flawed (often to the point of being horrible). I don't think that she means us to automatically excuse (or approve) the crappy behavior that her 'good' characters indulge in. I think she means for her readers to approve of the ultimate good that these flawed, horrid little kids may achieve, while at the same time realizing that they are all just a bunch of obnoxious kids.

That's just my take on it, because I cannot comprehend that JKR (or anyone) would actually justify (or approve) the day-to-day behavior of any of these characters.