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I dreamed last night I went to Bristol. And I was staying with the Stantons (as in Will's family from TDiR). In the dream Will's village was just a different part of the city from where the University was, and though I was supposed to be leaving soon I was about to walk the straight line from the large cathedral which was apparently near the Stanton's farm, straight down to the Christmas Steps. I think I was kicking myself for not going there more often when I lived there--before I woke up and remembered where Will actually lived in the book. Anyway, it was nice to be in Bristol again-wonder how it's changed since I was there.
I went to see Barbara Cook on Friday night. It's sad that I will never be as cool as this woman is in her 70s. She talked about being part of the "Golden Age of Musicals" and wondered if we were in a Golden Age now--because hey, she didn't know then. Maybe we are! She also told some great Elaine Stritch stories. Mostly she just sang incredibly well. Oh, and she did one song from Fiorello where she explained that she'd had to contact the lyricist and ask he write new lyrics because she didn't think the old ones would go over well. She shared the old lyrics afterwards, though:
"And if he likes me
What does it matter if he strikes me?
I'll fetch him his slippers with my arm in a sling
Just for the privilege of wearing his ring."
Yeah, it was probably good he changed them. The two of them were both just sort of horrified at how clever those lyrics seemed when they first heard them. I find people like Barbara Cook just make me incredibly jealous over their lives and the way they spend their time and who they know and what they create.
Also there are some great discussions of showing vs. telling, and it's led me to think about the way the Slytherins are presented--yes, I know everyone is shocked. You were all expecting yet another long treatise on Fudge, no doubt. This is kind of a sum up of things I've said recently in other places, so it's probably repetitive, but I figured I'd put it out there under this one point.
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ajhalluk points out how telling is an important part of mysteries, particularly when there's a difference between what we're told and what we're shown. I do agree that HP seems to be a mystery and work by those rules. JKR, to me, seems very precise about how she gives information, and knowing how readers are likely to respond to information given in a certain way. This is why, to me, it just seems like it can't be a mistake that some pivotal scenes involving Slytherins don't jibe with Harry's view of them, even though Harry's view is adopted by most readers. I once did a post called "Whatever Happened to Baby Draco?" and while I can't completely remember how I was comparing that character to Jane Hudson (from Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?) I think JKR shares the writer of that book/screenplay's knowledge that people see what they want to see, and it can be used against them. There's an X-files episode that uses this wonderfully too--Signs and Wonders, from Season 7. After that episode I remember having huge arguments on atxfa because people just refused to believe that the guy who was superficially repulsive because he was sexist and ignorant could be the victim while the guy who was literally Satan was the reasonable fellow who spouted all the things they believe in.
Harry obviously has a hard time being objective when it comes to Draco or Snape. I mean, at the end of OotP he's absolutely livid at Snape, despite the fact that objectively, Snape's been, imo, his best ally. He wanted Harry told the information Harry should have known, he picked up on Harry's need for help and went right off to actively stop Sirius getting killed. Not only does Harry miss that Snape is taking care of things (which it seemed obvious he was doing), he blames him for being involved in something he was actively trying to stop. Granted one could say that Snape's taunting Sirius for not doing anything earlier contributed to Sirius' frustration at being shut up in the house, but Snape's actions are completely beyond reproach at the end-yet he's still the one Harry focuses his anger on. So that's a scene where we're told flat-out that Harry can see guilt in Snape when he knows he's innocent.
With Malfoy two scenes that come to mind are the Buckbeak scene and the B&B scene. It just strikes me as interesting how these scenes are so misrepresented by fans, despite their having read the actual scene. In people's memories, or at least in their descriptions, Draco's actions become far more aggressive, Hagrid's warnings far more clear. It becomes about Malfoy frightening an animal and getting hurt when the animal lashes out. The thing is, I've no doubt JKR would be quite capable of writing that scene. But she didn't write it. Instead what *she* has Malfoy do is approach cautiously, pet the animal and then say the wrong thing and get attacked. That fact quickly gets lost in the anger over whether Buckbeak should be executed for what happened, just as Hagrid's irresponsible teaching gets lost in the sympathy for him losing his pet and Malfoy's cocky blunder gets blown up into wild misbehavior in his vindictive glee at seeing Buckbeak executed for it. This is part of what makes me so uncomfortable reading PoA, is that it feels like a real nasty thing happening to a kid gets swept aside in favor of sympathetic cooing over a man and his big feathered dog. I don't agree Buckbeak should be executed, but it's still weird to me that the entire book turns on defending a principle that's based on a misrepresentation of the facts.
In the B&B scene I was recently going through it based on the very common description of that scene as Lucius the somewhat indulgent father who gets tired of his son constantly whining about Harry and Hermione and demanding things. Again, JKR would have no trouble writing this scene. We see Dudley play the part of the whining kid demanding presents very well, and Vernon, though indulgent, can lose his temper with anyone. The main proof that Draco enjoys the same power Dudley does at home is his early line at Madam Malkin's: He says he's going to bully his parents into buying him a broom. For some reason Malfoy, who's usually considered a completely unreliable source of information, is telling the truth about that, despite the fact that the very first thing that happens in the B&B scene is that statement is proven to be a lie. Draco comes into the store and reaches for something, Lucius orders him to "touch nothing" and Draco...obeys.
In fact, Draco obeys throughout the scene. He's mostly silent-especially when Lucius starts talking. His line, "I thought you were going to buy me a present," is in response to Lucius telling him not to touch anything-i.e., "Why can't I touch anything?" When Lucius says he will only buy him the broom Draco doesn't argue the point--even though he seemed to have honestly thought Lucius said otherwise. Most kids, even a non-bratty kid, might have argued that. Anyway, he does go off on a rant about Potter, but he's looking at skulls as he says it--iow, he's not throwing a tantrum or demanding more from Lucius, he's just jabbering to himself. Lucius tells him he's heard it before, quells him with a look, and suggests it's imprudent to act like you hate Harry. Draco again does not argue, does not whine in his defense. He's not being a wonderful child, but so far he hasn't surpassed any of our main characters for whining ability. He remains quiet throughout Lucius' talk with Mr. B.
He speaks next after Lucius is finished when he asks Mr. B (it seems), "Can I have that?" pointing to the Hand of Glory. This is the one moment where Draco literally asks for something in the store, though he may just be asking to see it since he seems to be talking to Mr. B and not Lucius, who doesn't respond. (He is disobeying his order not to touch anything.) This is where the grade issue comes in--NOT in response to Draco's whining about Potter, which stopped long ago, but to Mr. Borgin's fawning over Draco. The first part is for Mr. B, telling him his attempt at flattery has failed, then he takes a shot at Draco. Draco begins to sulkily defend himself, but gets only so far as, "It's not my fault. All the teachers have favorites. That Hermione Granger..." before Lucius stops him with the withering, "I'd have thought you'd be ashamed to have a Muggleborn girl beat you in every exam." Draco looks "abashed and angry" and says not a word for the rest of the scene. Now, if Lucius is indeed sickened by Draco's attempts to blame others for his troubles, that would be ironic, as he himself as complaining about Arthur Weasley and speaking with Mr. B about the exact same problem with the Wizarding World Draco complains about--the wrong people in power, blood counting for nothing.
So looking at the scene objectively, say if you were Mr. Borgin, you'd have a kid come into your store--a store chock full of things that would appeal to 12-year-old boys. Dudley Dursley would probably have walked out with half the merchandise. This kid walks in, starts to pick up an object, is ordered to stop and does, albeit with the comment that he thought he was allowed to get something. He starts to mutter about some kid in his class he's jealous of and his father cuts him off. You speak with his father. Afterwards, the kid asks to see something. You show it to him, his father is displeased and insults the kid's grades. The kid blames his grades (whatever they are) on teacher favoritism and starts to bring up another kid he seems envious of, and his father shuts him up again by reminding him that by adding the racist factor, the kid's got even more of a loser. Then the kid stays quiet and doesn't touch anything while you haggle with his father. They both leave.
So again I just have to ask--if surely JKR would have been capable of Draco demanding everything in the store, and Lucius getting it for him, and being generally being very badly behaved, why does she instead merely show us his anger and jealousy at Harry and Hermione, his failure to live up to the standards set by his father, and leave him perfectly well-behaved beyond that? Really his worst crime in the scene is looking sullen and bad-tempered. Draco's Mudblood comment to Hermione seems to naturally come out of this scene, but it surprises me that people also assume that Hermione's comment that Draco's daddy bought his way onto the team must also be obviously true, when didn't we just have a scene of Lucius appearing, to me at least, to enjoy Draco's failures? I'm not saying he couldn't have rigged the team selection, he certainly could have, and he did obviously buy the brooms. But the B&B scene would be the perfect place to set up Lucius being more like the Dursleys in being eager to give Draco any advantage he could because he deserved it, and instead it shows us a father who takes no notice of his son's claims of bias. Plus, it even has Lucius say flat out what he is going to buy: a racing broom. Why doesn't he say something like, "I said I would buy racing brooms for your team." Okay, you wouldn't want to give that away and ruin the later surprise, but he could have left the "present" Draco refers to as more ambiguous by having Lucius say he is getting Draco a present, it's just not something found in B&B (hint hint: it's a position as Seeker!). Instead he specifically says he's getting him a broom, period, and nothing more. What the scene does set up is Draco's react to Hermione, and Lucius' hatred of Arthur.
It's just really, isn't this scene a bit of a let-down given what we've been given to believe about Malfoy? Shouldn't he be throwing far more fabulous tantrums and laughing with the old man about killing people? Shouldn't Lucius be agreeing with Draco that it's grossly unfair that Harry gets this treatment and teachers have unworthy favorites? Is it really just for plot purposes that Draco, who taunted Harry for not having a family to go home to first year, winds up staying at Hogwarts for Xmas, thus denying yet another image of himself Malfoy put out? I don't know, to me this seems like it must be there for a reason, leading to some conclusion showing that true judgment is not based on superficial pleasantness, and that taking what people say, even about themselves, for granted is often a mistake.
I went to see Barbara Cook on Friday night. It's sad that I will never be as cool as this woman is in her 70s. She talked about being part of the "Golden Age of Musicals" and wondered if we were in a Golden Age now--because hey, she didn't know then. Maybe we are! She also told some great Elaine Stritch stories. Mostly she just sang incredibly well. Oh, and she did one song from Fiorello where she explained that she'd had to contact the lyricist and ask he write new lyrics because she didn't think the old ones would go over well. She shared the old lyrics afterwards, though:
"And if he likes me
What does it matter if he strikes me?
I'll fetch him his slippers with my arm in a sling
Just for the privilege of wearing his ring."
Yeah, it was probably good he changed them. The two of them were both just sort of horrified at how clever those lyrics seemed when they first heard them. I find people like Barbara Cook just make me incredibly jealous over their lives and the way they spend their time and who they know and what they create.
Also there are some great discussions of showing vs. telling, and it's led me to think about the way the Slytherins are presented--yes, I know everyone is shocked. You were all expecting yet another long treatise on Fudge, no doubt. This is kind of a sum up of things I've said recently in other places, so it's probably repetitive, but I figured I'd put it out there under this one point.
ajhalluk points out how telling is an important part of mysteries, particularly when there's a difference between what we're told and what we're shown. I do agree that HP seems to be a mystery and work by those rules. JKR, to me, seems very precise about how she gives information, and knowing how readers are likely to respond to information given in a certain way. This is why, to me, it just seems like it can't be a mistake that some pivotal scenes involving Slytherins don't jibe with Harry's view of them, even though Harry's view is adopted by most readers. I once did a post called "Whatever Happened to Baby Draco?" and while I can't completely remember how I was comparing that character to Jane Hudson (from Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?) I think JKR shares the writer of that book/screenplay's knowledge that people see what they want to see, and it can be used against them. There's an X-files episode that uses this wonderfully too--Signs and Wonders, from Season 7. After that episode I remember having huge arguments on atxfa because people just refused to believe that the guy who was superficially repulsive because he was sexist and ignorant could be the victim while the guy who was literally Satan was the reasonable fellow who spouted all the things they believe in. Harry obviously has a hard time being objective when it comes to Draco or Snape. I mean, at the end of OotP he's absolutely livid at Snape, despite the fact that objectively, Snape's been, imo, his best ally. He wanted Harry told the information Harry should have known, he picked up on Harry's need for help and went right off to actively stop Sirius getting killed. Not only does Harry miss that Snape is taking care of things (which it seemed obvious he was doing), he blames him for being involved in something he was actively trying to stop. Granted one could say that Snape's taunting Sirius for not doing anything earlier contributed to Sirius' frustration at being shut up in the house, but Snape's actions are completely beyond reproach at the end-yet he's still the one Harry focuses his anger on. So that's a scene where we're told flat-out that Harry can see guilt in Snape when he knows he's innocent.
With Malfoy two scenes that come to mind are the Buckbeak scene and the B&B scene. It just strikes me as interesting how these scenes are so misrepresented by fans, despite their having read the actual scene. In people's memories, or at least in their descriptions, Draco's actions become far more aggressive, Hagrid's warnings far more clear. It becomes about Malfoy frightening an animal and getting hurt when the animal lashes out. The thing is, I've no doubt JKR would be quite capable of writing that scene. But she didn't write it. Instead what *she* has Malfoy do is approach cautiously, pet the animal and then say the wrong thing and get attacked. That fact quickly gets lost in the anger over whether Buckbeak should be executed for what happened, just as Hagrid's irresponsible teaching gets lost in the sympathy for him losing his pet and Malfoy's cocky blunder gets blown up into wild misbehavior in his vindictive glee at seeing Buckbeak executed for it. This is part of what makes me so uncomfortable reading PoA, is that it feels like a real nasty thing happening to a kid gets swept aside in favor of sympathetic cooing over a man and his big feathered dog. I don't agree Buckbeak should be executed, but it's still weird to me that the entire book turns on defending a principle that's based on a misrepresentation of the facts.
In the B&B scene I was recently going through it based on the very common description of that scene as Lucius the somewhat indulgent father who gets tired of his son constantly whining about Harry and Hermione and demanding things. Again, JKR would have no trouble writing this scene. We see Dudley play the part of the whining kid demanding presents very well, and Vernon, though indulgent, can lose his temper with anyone. The main proof that Draco enjoys the same power Dudley does at home is his early line at Madam Malkin's: He says he's going to bully his parents into buying him a broom. For some reason Malfoy, who's usually considered a completely unreliable source of information, is telling the truth about that, despite the fact that the very first thing that happens in the B&B scene is that statement is proven to be a lie. Draco comes into the store and reaches for something, Lucius orders him to "touch nothing" and Draco...obeys.
In fact, Draco obeys throughout the scene. He's mostly silent-especially when Lucius starts talking. His line, "I thought you were going to buy me a present," is in response to Lucius telling him not to touch anything-i.e., "Why can't I touch anything?" When Lucius says he will only buy him the broom Draco doesn't argue the point--even though he seemed to have honestly thought Lucius said otherwise. Most kids, even a non-bratty kid, might have argued that. Anyway, he does go off on a rant about Potter, but he's looking at skulls as he says it--iow, he's not throwing a tantrum or demanding more from Lucius, he's just jabbering to himself. Lucius tells him he's heard it before, quells him with a look, and suggests it's imprudent to act like you hate Harry. Draco again does not argue, does not whine in his defense. He's not being a wonderful child, but so far he hasn't surpassed any of our main characters for whining ability. He remains quiet throughout Lucius' talk with Mr. B.
He speaks next after Lucius is finished when he asks Mr. B (it seems), "Can I have that?" pointing to the Hand of Glory. This is the one moment where Draco literally asks for something in the store, though he may just be asking to see it since he seems to be talking to Mr. B and not Lucius, who doesn't respond. (He is disobeying his order not to touch anything.) This is where the grade issue comes in--NOT in response to Draco's whining about Potter, which stopped long ago, but to Mr. Borgin's fawning over Draco. The first part is for Mr. B, telling him his attempt at flattery has failed, then he takes a shot at Draco. Draco begins to sulkily defend himself, but gets only so far as, "It's not my fault. All the teachers have favorites. That Hermione Granger..." before Lucius stops him with the withering, "I'd have thought you'd be ashamed to have a Muggleborn girl beat you in every exam." Draco looks "abashed and angry" and says not a word for the rest of the scene. Now, if Lucius is indeed sickened by Draco's attempts to blame others for his troubles, that would be ironic, as he himself as complaining about Arthur Weasley and speaking with Mr. B about the exact same problem with the Wizarding World Draco complains about--the wrong people in power, blood counting for nothing.
So looking at the scene objectively, say if you were Mr. Borgin, you'd have a kid come into your store--a store chock full of things that would appeal to 12-year-old boys. Dudley Dursley would probably have walked out with half the merchandise. This kid walks in, starts to pick up an object, is ordered to stop and does, albeit with the comment that he thought he was allowed to get something. He starts to mutter about some kid in his class he's jealous of and his father cuts him off. You speak with his father. Afterwards, the kid asks to see something. You show it to him, his father is displeased and insults the kid's grades. The kid blames his grades (whatever they are) on teacher favoritism and starts to bring up another kid he seems envious of, and his father shuts him up again by reminding him that by adding the racist factor, the kid's got even more of a loser. Then the kid stays quiet and doesn't touch anything while you haggle with his father. They both leave.
So again I just have to ask--if surely JKR would have been capable of Draco demanding everything in the store, and Lucius getting it for him, and being generally being very badly behaved, why does she instead merely show us his anger and jealousy at Harry and Hermione, his failure to live up to the standards set by his father, and leave him perfectly well-behaved beyond that? Really his worst crime in the scene is looking sullen and bad-tempered. Draco's Mudblood comment to Hermione seems to naturally come out of this scene, but it surprises me that people also assume that Hermione's comment that Draco's daddy bought his way onto the team must also be obviously true, when didn't we just have a scene of Lucius appearing, to me at least, to enjoy Draco's failures? I'm not saying he couldn't have rigged the team selection, he certainly could have, and he did obviously buy the brooms. But the B&B scene would be the perfect place to set up Lucius being more like the Dursleys in being eager to give Draco any advantage he could because he deserved it, and instead it shows us a father who takes no notice of his son's claims of bias. Plus, it even has Lucius say flat out what he is going to buy: a racing broom. Why doesn't he say something like, "I said I would buy racing brooms for your team." Okay, you wouldn't want to give that away and ruin the later surprise, but he could have left the "present" Draco refers to as more ambiguous by having Lucius say he is getting Draco a present, it's just not something found in B&B (hint hint: it's a position as Seeker!). Instead he specifically says he's getting him a broom, period, and nothing more. What the scene does set up is Draco's react to Hermione, and Lucius' hatred of Arthur.
It's just really, isn't this scene a bit of a let-down given what we've been given to believe about Malfoy? Shouldn't he be throwing far more fabulous tantrums and laughing with the old man about killing people? Shouldn't Lucius be agreeing with Draco that it's grossly unfair that Harry gets this treatment and teachers have unworthy favorites? Is it really just for plot purposes that Draco, who taunted Harry for not having a family to go home to first year, winds up staying at Hogwarts for Xmas, thus denying yet another image of himself Malfoy put out? I don't know, to me this seems like it must be there for a reason, leading to some conclusion showing that true judgment is not based on superficial pleasantness, and that taking what people say, even about themselves, for granted is often a mistake.
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But you're right, it's not viable, in fact, it could be seen as a violation of human rights. This is why I said "sometimes I think". It's because some things make me snap.