but the fact is that I don't see it as a moral issue of the sort that separates Boys from Men or Gryffindors from Slytherins, in that it's very personal, and personal codes cross Houses.
Where does it say that any Slytherin character wouldn't do his best friend's girlfriend? I can't see it, also because one point is that the Slytherins in HBP are not the focus of a narrative about teenage romance and dealing with this sort of mundane things, but being players in the larger narrative of evil vs good and starring in life-changing scenes where they are under the weight of overwhelming emotion. It's not that the Slytherin plots are better, but they feel different, and it's no wonder some readers are associating a more dramatic quality to it.
I don't know if it's a question of greater levels of dedication/obsession so much as a greater... weakness of psyche, much as I hate to say it. It's not (I believe) that they're more intense as it's more common for them to break, either morally (Voldy) or emotionally (Mrs Black). Gryffs like Sirius-- who I think went through equivalent stresses to his Slyth cousin what with Azkaban-- are just... er... inherently stronger, morally, personally, internally.
Are these readings really mutually exclusive? Even pushing that Gryffindors are stronger (and the weakest character in the books (Pettigrew) was a Gryffindor, and Remus's not the strongest character either) that wouldn't still exclude for Slytherin to possess an obsession of a certain quality, a passion of a certain quality that's being identified here. Passion and its cause are two different things.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2007-07-02 11:14 pm (UTC)Where does it say that any Slytherin character wouldn't do his best friend's girlfriend?
I can't see it, also because one point is that the Slytherins in HBP are not the focus of a narrative about teenage romance and dealing with this sort of mundane things, but being players in the larger narrative of evil vs good and starring in life-changing scenes where they are under the weight of overwhelming emotion. It's not that the Slytherin plots are better, but they feel different, and it's no wonder some readers are associating a more dramatic quality to it.
I don't know if it's a question of greater levels of dedication/obsession so much as a greater... weakness of psyche, much as I hate to say it. It's not (I believe) that they're more intense as it's more common for them to break, either morally (Voldy) or emotionally (Mrs Black). Gryffs like Sirius-- who I think went through equivalent stresses to his Slyth cousin what with Azkaban-- are just... er... inherently stronger, morally, personally, internally.
Are these readings really mutually exclusive? Even pushing that Gryffindors are stronger (and the weakest character in the books (Pettigrew) was a Gryffindor, and Remus's not the strongest character either) that wouldn't still exclude for Slytherin to possess an obsession of a certain quality, a passion of a certain quality that's being identified here. Passion and its cause are two different things.