Slytherin rant
Dec. 16th, 2003 07:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rynneOkay, I was just reading some of the posts on the SBRL list, and someone said that she thought all the Slytherins were going to fight for the dark side. But if that's true--none of the Slytherins fighting against the dark side--I will seriously consider JKR a failure as a writer. For that to happen would defeat one of the major themes in the book, that it's your choices that make you who you are. They are not their parents, remember. And if all the Slytherins remain evil bastards, then that will just validate the prejudice about them, which would work against another of JKR's major themes, that intolerance is bad. And I will just seriously be pissed at JKR, even more pissed than I would be if she introduced a goddamn long-lost girlfriend! You can see how seriously I hate that concept. What she's done to the Slytherins is one of the things that most pisses me off about the books, and if none of them go against the dark side, I will think of JKR as having failed in pursuing the very ideals that her books are most promoting.
Thing is, though, I wouldn't blame them if they did. Nothing's been done to ever endear them to the light, after all. In fact, I'd say events in all the books so far have done very well at pushing them towards the dark! Dumbledore himself is fucking things up, if he wants house unity. Even as early as PS/SS, he's been poisoning those kids against him. Leaving Feast, anyone? Where the Slytherins legitimately won the Cup, and then at the bloody last moment, Dumbledore humiliates them by awarding over a hundred bogus points (even if Harry did deserve something for what he did) to their archrival and snatching the Cup from right under their noses. Dumbledore humiliated them, on purpose.
I'm not surprised that Snape favors his House so much. I don't necessarily approve, but I understand it completely. He favors them because no one else will. Everyone else labels Slytherin as "evil". They're not. They're far from it. They're just...Machiavellian. They understand that sometimes you have to do what's necessary, and be damned to what's moral. And it's the Slytherins, with their Machiavellian principles, rather than the chivalrous Gryffindors, who are going to go places in the world. Because they're the ones who understand what they have to do. They're the ones who understand best what the real world is like, because it's reflected in their House. Climbing the social ladder, watching for the metaphorical wolves, currying favors--even if it's something distasteful, they know that that doesn't matter. The Slytherins are the ones with the truest knowledge of human nature in the books, and they're persecuted for it. *snort* Figures.
Plus, every. single. bloody. person. in that House is a child. They're at school. They are still deciding what they want to do with their lives. It's not right to persecute them for a choice they haven't even made yet. And if JKR continues doing exactly that, I will be pissed.
So that's my Slytherin rant. Maybe I'll do it again later, because no doubt I'll feel like ranting again sooner or later. It just pisses me off, what JKR's doing to people who could be among the most complex characters in the series, and shoving them all in a stereotype and a prejudice.
Thing is, though, I wouldn't blame them if they did. Nothing's been done to ever endear them to the light, after all. In fact, I'd say events in all the books so far have done very well at pushing them towards the dark! Dumbledore himself is fucking things up, if he wants house unity. Even as early as PS/SS, he's been poisoning those kids against him. Leaving Feast, anyone? Where the Slytherins legitimately won the Cup, and then at the bloody last moment, Dumbledore humiliates them by awarding over a hundred bogus points (even if Harry did deserve something for what he did) to their archrival and snatching the Cup from right under their noses. Dumbledore humiliated them, on purpose.
I'm not surprised that Snape favors his House so much. I don't necessarily approve, but I understand it completely. He favors them because no one else will. Everyone else labels Slytherin as "evil". They're not. They're far from it. They're just...Machiavellian. They understand that sometimes you have to do what's necessary, and be damned to what's moral. And it's the Slytherins, with their Machiavellian principles, rather than the chivalrous Gryffindors, who are going to go places in the world. Because they're the ones who understand what they have to do. They're the ones who understand best what the real world is like, because it's reflected in their House. Climbing the social ladder, watching for the metaphorical wolves, currying favors--even if it's something distasteful, they know that that doesn't matter. The Slytherins are the ones with the truest knowledge of human nature in the books, and they're persecuted for it. *snort* Figures.
Plus, every. single. bloody. person. in that House is a child. They're at school. They are still deciding what they want to do with their lives. It's not right to persecute them for a choice they haven't even made yet. And if JKR continues doing exactly that, I will be pissed.
So that's my Slytherin rant. Maybe I'll do it again later, because no doubt I'll feel like ranting again sooner or later. It just pisses me off, what JKR's doing to people who could be among the most complex characters in the series, and shoving them all in a stereotype and a prejudice.
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no subject
Date: 2003-12-17 01:07 am (UTC)And I have only one thing to say about it. I think JK didn't exactly think about it all when she started writing the books. I know she had everything planned in her head, but that doesn't include details, and I think she did what she did in the first one (the Leaving Feast) because it followed every children-books logic, which is to humiliate the evil guys, but right at the end so that you don't have to deal with the consequences (as in: uh, wasn't what they just did a tad bit mean, mommy?). I don't think she realized that by book five her readers would except more subtelty.
...Am I making sense?
...y'know, I think it's still a bit too early in the morning for me to discuss such serious thing. I'll come back later.
no subject
Date: 2003-12-17 01:13 pm (UTC)And if JKR continues doing exactly that, I will be pissed.
Sad thing is, I think she WILL continue to do that. Each character is a PERSON, and Rowling is continuing to push them all together in a mass generalization that is basically wrong.
However, regarding Snape: If you want to look at Dumbledore in a favorable light -- the reason he accepts Snape's favoritism of the Slytherins is because he knows that no one else will favor them.
Canon Slytherins have always been a mystery to me. I hope Rowling doesn't leave everyone in the dark the entire series.
no subject
Date: 2003-12-19 07:20 pm (UTC)