Neville's Search for Cool
I thought I would just ask my readers their opinion of two statements JKR made about Neville:
1999 Interview, WBUR Radio
Neville Longbottom, who is a - who is a comic, but I - he's not a - wholly comic figure to me, Neville is actually quite a tragic figure to me as well because there's a lot of Neville in me - this feeling of just never being quite good enough . . .
2007, Carnegie Hall
Q: Did Neville ever find love?
Of course. ... To make him extra cool he marries the woman who becomes, eventually, the new landlady at The Leaky Cauldron, which I think would make him very cool among the students, that he lives above the pub. He marries Hannah Abbott.
Cut for my own thoughts:
I've been thinking about this in terms of JKR's own bad-boy syndrome. Someone is not "cool" unless they are somehow walking on the wild side - in this case, living over a pub, associated with drinking, socializing, and partying. Of course, the Leaky is also a hotel for those staying in Diagon Alley. It is hard to see why Neville would enjoy living there, introvert that he is. It seems to me it would be too noisy, and too people-intensive for someone who might want a quiet life.
However, it is something JKR would find "cool," since someone like Sirius Black would think a Pub would be the ideal place to live.
Killing the giant Snake-Crux Nagini and standing up bravely to Voldemort are not enough for Neville's students to find him "cool." Everything he did in the actual canon is not enough - JKR has to embellish Neville's accomplishments with the extra achievement of marrying a woman who owns a Pub - a little version of Madame Rosmerta, the hottie who runs the Three Broomsticks in Hogsmeade.
Rosmerta is the "older woman" who enjoys flirting with teenage boys, such as James and Sirius, who used to make her laugh (PoA) and Ron Weasley, who pouts when Madame R. doesn't laugh at his jokes. To me, JKR is implying that Neville also needs to flirt with women, though why Hufflepuff Hannah Abbott is the best choice, I have no idea. She seemed just as hapless as Neville through most of the books, and the only thing in her favor is that she would be impressed with Neville's bravery.
Hannah might be sensitive enough to see Neville as cool just for himself alone. And yet, she has to become "cooler" too by owning a pub. *eyeroll*
In conclusion, I just think JKR feels disastisfied with herself, as she said in that first statement - she was never good enough, or cool enough. To her, being "cool" and fitting in are the "height" of human existence, which is obviously why she can't understand Snape fandom - he was never cool, never married, and never lived above a pub.
What a loser!
1999 Interview, WBUR Radio
Neville Longbottom, who is a - who is a comic, but I - he's not a - wholly comic figure to me, Neville is actually quite a tragic figure to me as well because there's a lot of Neville in me - this feeling of just never being quite good enough . . .
2007, Carnegie Hall
Q: Did Neville ever find love?
Of course. ... To make him extra cool he marries the woman who becomes, eventually, the new landlady at The Leaky Cauldron, which I think would make him very cool among the students, that he lives above the pub. He marries Hannah Abbott.
Cut for my own thoughts:
I've been thinking about this in terms of JKR's own bad-boy syndrome. Someone is not "cool" unless they are somehow walking on the wild side - in this case, living over a pub, associated with drinking, socializing, and partying. Of course, the Leaky is also a hotel for those staying in Diagon Alley. It is hard to see why Neville would enjoy living there, introvert that he is. It seems to me it would be too noisy, and too people-intensive for someone who might want a quiet life.
However, it is something JKR would find "cool," since someone like Sirius Black would think a Pub would be the ideal place to live.
Killing the giant Snake-Crux Nagini and standing up bravely to Voldemort are not enough for Neville's students to find him "cool." Everything he did in the actual canon is not enough - JKR has to embellish Neville's accomplishments with the extra achievement of marrying a woman who owns a Pub - a little version of Madame Rosmerta, the hottie who runs the Three Broomsticks in Hogsmeade.
Rosmerta is the "older woman" who enjoys flirting with teenage boys, such as James and Sirius, who used to make her laugh (PoA) and Ron Weasley, who pouts when Madame R. doesn't laugh at his jokes. To me, JKR is implying that Neville also needs to flirt with women, though why Hufflepuff Hannah Abbott is the best choice, I have no idea. She seemed just as hapless as Neville through most of the books, and the only thing in her favor is that she would be impressed with Neville's bravery.
Hannah might be sensitive enough to see Neville as cool just for himself alone. And yet, she has to become "cooler" too by owning a pub. *eyeroll*
In conclusion, I just think JKR feels disastisfied with herself, as she said in that first statement - she was never good enough, or cool enough. To her, being "cool" and fitting in are the "height" of human existence, which is obviously why she can't understand Snape fandom - he was never cool, never married, and never lived above a pub.
What a loser!