Ride the Snake, Baby

[noblerot]

Done. Would this be a good time to quote from "The End" by the Doors? Nah. But it would have been fabulous if Harry had done so somewhere near the climax of Deathly Hallows. Just because Harry doing a Jim Morrison, in a heroin daze, shirtless and sweating in his leather pants, is too beautiful an image to waste

Comments

[gmth]

So what if women in the magical world are still primarily cooks and caretakers....

Eh, I think that's a pretty narrow reading of it, to be frank. I was more impressed with the women in this book than I have been in any of the others. They all took a whole bunch of risks and were in there pitching in just as much as the men were. I'm already getting pretty 0_o at the reaction of some women on my f-list as far as Hermione and Ginny and Tonks having children and how that somehow... I dunno... means they're weak or "only" mothers or whatever.

And the unresolved plot lines mean fandom still has something to play with.

[scarah2]

I hate that the epilogue only TELLS us who begat who. Equal opportunity; I'd like to know wtf else Harry and Ron ever did in the last 19 years, too.

[noblerot]

Fuck Harry and Ron! I wanna know what the hell Draco's been doing for 19, besides begetting kids with lame names and losing his hair, I mean.

[gmth]

Yeah, the epilogue is flawed in all kinds of ways. It only really tells us a few people had sex a few times. But at least it leaves things open for us to keep playing.

[darkrosetiger]

They all took a whole bunch of risks and were in there pitching in just as much as the men were.

I didn't see that, with the exception of Hermione. Tonks continued to lose the personality that made her so interesting in OotP, and was all "REMUSREMUSREMUSREMUS!!". Ginny was absent for most of the book except for Harry to yearn after, and with the constant references to Saint Lily, I was getting a really creepy feeling about Harry's obsession with a girl with long red hair. Overall, I came away with a sense that Rowling believes that being a mother is the most important and meaningful thing a woman can do.

[noblerot]

QFT. Especially Harry's obsession with a little red-headed girl. (Charlie Brown/Harry Potter 4EVA.)

[gmth]

Well except at the end, Tonks, Ginny, Molly, Minerva, Luna, and a bunch of minor female characters were in there fighting along with everyone else. The rest of the story was trio-based so it's not surprising that the other characters, male and female, were all relegated to the background.

[noblerot]

I see what you're saying, and I don't mean to villify motherhood (you're a mom and so is my best RL friend, and y'all are both fab

[tekalynn]

And what is up with *Minerva* using Unforgivables? Yikes. I know it's an emergency, but I thought she had more integrity than that.

[noblerot]

Shit, I can't believe I misspelled McGonagall's name. OOPS. I was ranting.

[cordelia_v]

Well, I tend to agree with the post. I think there is a LOT of meta to do here, with the gender roles we see in DH. I don't have any problem with the witches as mothers, obviously. But I did feel that JKR was clinging to a really rigid sexual division of labor throughout. I mean, just for one example, take the cozy marriage we see in Shell Cottage. Bill is unemployed, and they have quite a few houseguests. And yet Fleur is shown doing ALL the cooking, nursing, etc. No one seems to think that Bill might pitch in.

Almost, I think that JKR decided that gender roles HAD to be rigid. I mean, this can't be an unconscious decision. Maybe she thought their division of household labor and childcare was 19th century, like their clothes? Not sure. But she does a shitty job of thinking through how magic would affect the division of labor and power between witches and wizards, I agree.