Oooh, that was great stuff! At this point I think Hermione might be more someone the occasional reader wants to see in this role more than she is really used that way in canon. But Scully was exactly that by the end of the series-and I'm glad you brought up a good example of a non-female character who fills the role. Of course Jim is male but also a minority and so subject to all the convenient projections the white male character wants to put on him!

The moral periphery is where people have adventures, and when you're out to have adventures it's awfully convenient to have your moral center located elsewhere, where she can do little more than give wholesome advice.

LOL! Yes, that's exactly what I think of whenever I hear the term. It's like those stories where the troll hides his soul in an egg or something-he can't be killed as long as it's way off hidden in the egg somewhere.