Happy Birthday Cathexys! and Sort Yourself
HAPPY BIRTHDAY CATHEYXS!!!!!!!! (for whom I have a teeny pressie but it's not finished yet.)
Have been intrigued by the "what HP character am I like meme," but I have a sneaky feeling we are most of us either Remus or Hermione here in this LJ-world, with perhaps the occasional Luna or Tonks. In lieu of that, here's another silly and highly ( Read more... )
Have been intrigued by the "what HP character am I like meme," but I have a sneaky feeling we are most of us either Remus or Hermione here in this LJ-world, with perhaps the occasional Luna or Tonks. In lieu of that, here's another silly and highly ( Read more... )
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Hmm, this may be true. It is really hard to tell with setups like Crabbe and Goyle, though IMO that one really does reek of necessity and little more. Someone primarily focused on personal loyalty might belong in Hufflepuff no matter how Dark the object of that loyalty. Which could mean Hufflepuff might produce a fair number of Dark wizards.
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The House system is one of the odder features of the Potterverse, though, isn't it? How do you end up with a more-or-less even number of each every year?
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The House system is one of the odder features of the Potterverse, though, isn't it? How do you end up with a more-or-less even number of each every year?
That one really puzzles me. All I can figure is that anyone who's at all on the border between two Houses gets sorted according to what House needs more students. Which kind of undermines the point of the whole thing, really.
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But if pressed, I would choose whatever House Filch sorted to, given that I (1) love cats, (2) hate students, and (3) am unable to practice magic. >:D Being filthy and cantankerous are also two big plusses, as far as I'm concerned.
Anyway, have you ever noticed how seriously some folks take their purported House-identification? To the point of saying things like, "Speaking as a Ravenclaw, ..." or "People have to stop bashing us Slytherins! We're so misunderstood!"?
Or people who combine affiliations. Like "Slytherclaw"?
This, frankly, alarms me.
-- S, proud to attend Stonewall High
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*g* at your Filchiness. Oh, and if I had to sort you, I actually would make you a Slytherclaw.
*smiles evilly but indulgently, and watches spare-change hiss and spit in a lovely catlike manner*
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Those are fighting words, woman!
Seriously, though ... haven't you noticed that people tend to pick the most self-aggrandizing reasons for the houses they think they sort to? When was the last time somebody said, "I pick Slytherin, because I'm nasty and hateful and racist," for example?
Anyway, the reason I picked my own crappy, seemingly Slytherin-lovin' handle ("Slytherlynx") was specifically out of the desire to pick as plebey and junior-high-school a name as possible. 'Cos I didn't want to stand out at ff.net.
And now I'm stuck with it. -_- That'll learn me!
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Heh, I wondered where that name came from. I got stuck with mine too, I wanted something fluffy and flirty to play speed scrabble with on Yahoo, and then I wound up stuck with it much as you did. I still mourn the nice dignified esoteric tall ship reference I'd have chosen otherwise.
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Also I have a Slytherin scarf. So, that's, like, official.
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Mindfucks rule. Not that I can pull them off. But I'll cheerfully jump off cliffs for those who can!
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The boy also has a scarf: Hufflepuff. He wishes he were Ravenclaw, though. (And *he* was the one who got the scarves. I guess he's resigned to it.)
As a pub game, we sometimes try to sort all the people in another TV show/movie/book. For example:
Anakin: Slytherin
Leia: Gryffindor, but a scary Gryffindor, like Percy or Harry
Han: Muggle. A really cool Muggle.
Qui-Gon: Slytherin
Chewbacca: Gryffindor
Obi-Wan: Ravenclaw. He's forced into a Gryffindor-type role and it really doesn't suit him.
Luke: Hufflepuff
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And fun pub game! *considers your SW sorting*
*g* at Leia, I agree totally. Scary Gryffindor ought to be an offical subcategory. And Luke, Obi-Wan, yep. But Han? *g* at Muggledom, but nope, I'd put him in Slytherin. Lands on his feet, has a sense for the direction of the prevailing wind, etc. Though he'd not be the smartest Slytherin ever to graduate.
Stargate... Jack's a Gryffindor, Daniel's a Ravenclaw if there ever was one, Teal'c has been forced by the scripting into Hufflepuff.
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First of all, the House system, the way it is executed, creates a lot of aggressions and antagonism between people who don't even know each other. (Fred and George hiss at first years who get sorted into Slytherin, I mean WTF?)
But even if it didn't, I don't like the idea of kids being sorted according to their chararacter traits, which are still in the middle of a development process. It is a self-fulfilling prophecy, of sorts, telling an 11-year-old that he/she is ambitious and cunning and put them in a House whose members have all been told they're ambitious and cunning. Of course they will try to live up to these expectations, plus, they will start to regard the other Houses' characteristics as not worth having. (The concept that members of different Houses insult each other by saying: 'How very Gryffindor/Slytherin of you' is often met all across fanfiction.) It reminds me a bit of the notorious Stanford Prison Experiment where ( ... )
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I was glad to see the Hat express doubts about the sorting in OotP. I hope JKR deals with that more.
On a side note, regarding the House rivalry: I found it rather poignant that in CoS, when Harry told Dumbledore about having almost been sorted into Slytherin, Dumbledore didn't try to explain that Slytherin is, just like Gryffindor, merely a House and not the Lair of Evil, but rather comforted Harry by saying that he decided to be sorted into Gryffindor, so there was not need to worry. A strange view to be taken by a headmaster.
I'd never thought about that before. Excellent point. One more reason to distrust Dumbledore, IMO.
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But dividing based on personality is just wrong.
Especially since it's personality in making.
All these points stated are a reason for me to wish James Potter & Co. weren't in Gryffindor. That would make Harry reconsider his concept of the Houses in general.
I'd never thought about that before. Excellent point. One more reason to distrust Dumbledore, IMO.
It only occured to me because I've been re-listening to the audiobook quite recently, trying to find clues Rowling said she had dropped in CoS. This passage struck me as quite interesting. Is it really Dumbledore's opinion or did he merely choose the easiest way to comfort Harry? I dearly hope it's not JKR's view on Slytherin she voices there via Dumbledore.
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Yes! Wonderful post.
The houses remind me of the old Soviet system, where kids were tracked at age 5 into various careers and assigned their fate in the world with no chance to vote otherwise. And I'm totally with you on the self-fulfilling prophecy.
I find the House system an interesting part of the Potterverse because it's not all positive by any means, and it has lasting effects on the students when they become adults. Your Dumbledore example illustrates this perfectly. His own knee jerk responses still hold even at *his* age.
Humans like to think in categories, and it's important to identify with one's peer group, but applying certain qualities in advance is a rather dangerous approach. Amen, amen. And, um, shall I note what a Ravenclawlike response this was to my questions? * ( ... )
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