I agree with most of the comments here. I was rather irritated to discover that JKR had outed DD the way that she did, as she obviously didn't have the courage to write it into her very moral books. But I think the thing that gets me the most is that DD keeps talking about what's right and what's easy, and he has that lovely little speech about how it's our choices that make us who we are. And then she goes and totally contradicts all of that. DD was temporarily labotomized by GG. Snape was bullied as a kid, so it's only understandable (and not a choice on his part) that he bullies his students. There's a prophecy, so Harry's got no choice but to be a hero. And Voldemort is the worst case. He didn't have loving parents growing up, so he *couldn't* know love. So basically, he had no choice but to be a psychopathic murderer, which means that love is the anti-choice. As was said above, that'd be a great and interesting theme for a very dark book, but it's just painful in what's meant to be a moral and optimistic series.
I also agree that what she writes and the lens that she tries to force her stories through are two very different things. Her ideas seem to be fine until she tries to rationalize them, codify, quantify, and explain them based on a moral structure that, when you actually think about it *at all* doesn't make sense. She's just swinging with the times right now. Homosexuality is a hot issue, so it's grafted onto the series--but it's not important. Girls and women are allowed more freedom to express their sexuatlity--but if they have more than a couple partners *ever*, they're sluts. She's become a walking daytime talk show from the States, I swear.
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Date: 2008-03-10 11:08 am (UTC)I agree with most of the comments here. I was rather irritated to discover that JKR had outed DD the way that she did, as she obviously didn't have the courage to write it into her very moral books. But I think the thing that gets me the most is that DD keeps talking about what's right and what's easy, and he has that lovely little speech about how it's our choices that make us who we are. And then she goes and totally contradicts all of that. DD was temporarily labotomized by GG. Snape was bullied as a kid, so it's only understandable (and not a choice on his part) that he bullies his students. There's a prophecy, so Harry's got no choice but to be a hero. And Voldemort is the worst case. He didn't have loving parents growing up, so he *couldn't* know love. So basically, he had no choice but to be a psychopathic murderer, which means that love is the anti-choice. As was said above, that'd be a great and interesting theme for a very dark book, but it's just painful in what's meant to be a moral and optimistic series.
I also agree that what she writes and the lens that she tries to force her stories through are two very different things. Her ideas seem to be fine until she tries to rationalize them, codify, quantify, and explain them based on a moral structure that, when you actually think about it *at all* doesn't make sense. She's just swinging with the times right now. Homosexuality is a hot issue, so it's grafted onto the series--but it's not important. Girls and women are allowed more freedom to express their sexuatlity--but if they have more than a couple partners *ever*, they're sluts. She's become a walking daytime talk show from the States, I swear.