Accio Stamp!
Muggle world
Name: Laura
Age: 19
Gender: Female
Location: Undisclosed. My privacy is paramount.
Likes: Feminist novels, modern experimental poetry, existentialism, impressionist paintings, Shakespearian tragedies, a good cup of coffee, symbolic dreams, candlelight, subtlety, sarcasm.
Dislikes: Insincerely effusive people, seeing anything bad happen to children, dogs, camp and kitsch, chauvinists, getting sloppy drunk, inauthenticity, ignorance.
Hobbies: Writing, singing, acting, reading, philosophizing.
Strengths: Intelligent, independent, inventive, self-actualized, near impossible to manipulate, dryly witty, extremely perceptive
Fears: Love, mediocrity, injustice, indignity, betraying my own integrity and expectations.
Weaknesses: Selfish, ambivalent, short fuse, impatient, antisocial, often caustic, elitist.
Favorite movies [no more than three]: Doubt, Smart People, Crash.
Favorite books [no more than three]: The Robber Bride, Empire Falls, Slaughterhouse Five.
Favorite singer/band: Regina Spektor.
Where did you hear about this community? Found it searching through livejournal in the throes of insomnia.
Wizards’ world
In which house do you think you belong? Why? Ravenclaw. I put the mind and the creative faculties above all else, sometimes even to the extent that I become distant and ethereal.
In which house do you think you don’t belong at all? Why? I honestly cannot see myself having any affinity for Gryffindor or Hufflepuff. Bravery and kindness are admirable qualities, don’t mistake my meaning, but with nothing else behind them, they are foolish enterprises. They can easily be manipulated by those who know how
In which class would you shine the most? Why? Transfiguration. The art of transforming something seamlessly into something else is what I already do as a pretentious little fledgling intellectual.
Write a short paragraph about each of the following families [just state your thoughts on each of them]:
Malfoy: I find myself pitying them a lot as the series goes on. They’re an exemplum of the fact that there are reasonably decent people on both sides of every issue, even in a fantasy world where good and evil is very clearly polarized and demarcated. Snobs and hypocrites, yes. Pure evil, not exactly. It was Draco’s ill fortune that he had such a loaded political birthright. Nasty arrogant kid, indisputably yes. Killer, certainly not.
Black: We don’t know much about them, but as much as I respect Sirius’s good qualities, it bothers me when he behaves too much like the dog he transforms into: wildly eager to be a friend above all else, particularly where Harry is concerned. It makes me hope that he is in on the Order’s side for the right reasons-for the morals and not for the affection-- although his commitment to the right actions renders his motives only secondarily important.
Potter: They appeared to be nice people. Hopefully, James Potter grew up after his rather foppish adolescence.
Weasley: Impossible not to like. They have their priorities very well in order and exude charming eccentricities.
Remember the pensieve incident from book five? [Chapter #28: Snape’s worst memory] What are your thoughts about it? If this book wasn’t marketed for a young audience, Snape’s worst memory would be much worse. This is war, and we’re talking about one confused and angry teenager turned volatile and dissatisfied man. The incident makes me curious about the volume of both perspectives of the conflict. We don’t know if the cruelty we see is mutual, and if so, how mutual. We don’t see the context. It’s difficult to judge. Regardless of this, however, cruelty is cruelty is cruelty, and I want to defy the laws of the pensieve and intervene. Despite his general greasiness, I’m inclined to like Snape. It’s the off-beat nerdy miniature of myself speaking, I suppose. I’m also highly suspicious of anyone who was too popular in school. There’s always some people-pleasing implicit in popularity, some insincerity afoot.
In these hard times with a new war ahead, where are your loyalties? With what I believe in. I refrain from subscribing wholesale to one side or another. If you agree with everything on any side of an issue, you’re not thinking but inscribing the appropriate opinions upon yourself.