One for Sorrow

I had mentioned kayen's essay Agents of Narrative Desire earlier and still recommending it--it's long, but I really enjoyed it. So I feel a bit guilty having a response here that's sort of "Okay, now how can I make it all about Draco and H/D?" but hey, I wouldn't be me if I didn't do that. And besides I really love the assassination plot storyline in HBP and it doesn't get talked enough for me so--( Isn't it cool how that storyline is all about the H/D? )

Btw, best response to The Sopranos finale I've heard, from a radio caller this morning.

( Barely a spoiler, but just in case. )

I was on HP4GU today and realized there was an actual Draco-related issue in HBP that I hadn't written thousands of words about--and it relates to Snape too! Anyway, we were talking about Harry feeling remorse about Sectumsempra even though it was self-defense yadda yadda, and I realized there was something I was kind of dancing around in talking about the scene that seemed really obvious but I actually don't think I've ever read much about it from this angle. ( Draco crying in the bathroom. )

Btw, how much do I love Stephen Colbert for putting Gwyneth Paltrow's head on his shelf? It's still the best moment in her career, imo.

I was reading this thread today about the Most Complicated Life Debt Theory Ever, and I realized I never really put down my thoughts of how the Life Debt works or how it can be paid down anywhere. I blushingly confess that as usual I manage to bring this back to Draco, though it's really about Snape. ( Hey, I can't help it! The kid’s his biggest fan! )

None of which helps me pay my student loans.

Happy birthday westmoon!!

I've been following a rather long discussion about Harry's getting special treatment in the books, and have something to say about it (pause for expressions of shock). It has gotten into a good area, I think, which is the idea of people resenting special treatment regardless of the reason for it. Think, for instance, about children with serious diseases and their siblings. I believe it's generally understood that siblings can feel jealous of the attention paid to the sick child, and that these feelings should be addressed and not just dismissed by saying the child should feel lucky he doesn't have a disease. Of course the child doesn't want to feel sick; but the jealousy speaks to an anxiety about how he's felt about by his parents or whatever.

So that led me to realize the three characters in HP canon who get the most focused on Harry's special treatment are all characters with issues about themselves not being special--or worse. It's not about Harry, really--Harry could be carried to class by Veelas every day and it wouldn't bother them as much if they were happy in themselves, but as it is they just can't not let it bother them. If you look at what happens to these characters in canon their experience seem to all speak to this same issue. We're not inside their heads hearing about how this is an issue, but JKR is constantly thinking up new things to happen to them that play on it where they're not good enough or don't triumph. I think that's as close as she can come to telling us this is an issue.

( The characters I'm thinking of are Ron, Draco and Snape. )

Well, this is the thing about lists, you never know when I'm going to prattle on so much in a reply that it creates a post in itself. First Slughorn, now...this. But I thought it was interesting because recently I know I was talking to somebody about why Occlumency and throwing off Imperius were so different and why Harry sucks at one and is good at the other. I was reading a discussion about Harry's greatest strengths and weaknesses (does he need to learn to keeps his mind shut like Snape says?) and it got me around to seeing what may be the difference.

( Occlumency vs. Imperius, Slytherin vs. Gryffindor )

I just really wanted a subject line that was all letters.

But it is relevant. Oddly, I found myself thinking about the state of H/D post-HBP. I can't begin to cover all of it, but I was thinking about one of the ways in which HBP seemed so H/D-friendly. That is, not anything to do with sexual attraction, but just that of all the standard H/D ideas it picked up on, ( this was one of them. )

p.s. My allergies are driving me crazy.

p.p.s. Unrelated but also about HP, why does it seem like everyone is very quick to assume that the writing in the HBP book could be Lily's, because she was so great in Potions and was helping Snape? Couldn't the joke be that Lily was a Potions genius just like Harry was--because she was getting help from the HBP? Slughorn makes it clear that he's more apt to praise you if he likes you personally, for either personal or political reasons. Plus, does "Just shove a bezoar down his throat" sound more like Snape or Lily? And did Lily create Sectumsempra and write it in Snape's book with the direction "for enemies?"

I was thinking about essential choices today in HP...well, that and Peter Pettigrew and Draco. It all goes back to that line in CoS, ( It's our choices that show us who we are. Spoilers for HBP. )

I was making a comment on arwencordelia's essay about Dumbledore and went off on this slight tangent about ( Harry versus Neville, with other boys thrown in besides. )

Two posts ago we got into an exchange about an old thread on FAP entitled "HP Structure Demands More Draco," and it's made me think about how characters tend to work in the series and how that may or may not predict what they will do. ( If that made sense, come along with me! )

Um, I have no idea what happened to the beginning of this post. I brought up something in reenka's lj, and that led to the fact that I've been re-reading The Dark is Rising and loving it so much that when I get to the end I'll probably either cry or have to start over at the beginning.

Anyway, I'm currently just finished the second part of the second book (The Dark is Rising) and I suspect I'm going to wind up doing some big Merriman/Will post when I'm done with that book but in the meantime I'm ( thinking about boy wizards. )