Chapter Nineteen

[merrymelody]

The Lion and the Serpent

Useless Fact: This is the chapter I read first when I got my copy, purely on the basis of the title.

Comments

Re: Part two, because your summary is so huge!

[mariagoner]

It's the same with Luna, in a way, the way the book just assumes that of course she'd want to hang out with these kids even though they think she's as nuts as everyone else thinks she is.

I admit that even I (and I'm a huge, unabashed Luna fan who isn't even ashamed of it; look at my icon) was always put off by the way that Luna followed Harry and Co. around faithfully, though they were always put of by her. I just couldn't see Luna being with people who didn't like her as much as she'd like then.

But I just rationalized it by saying that:
a. Luna may have been more than a little blind to social cues, and probably thinks that the Golden Trio and their little sycophant Ginny might actually like her for herself, instead of keeping her around for her "comedy value";
b. The idea of learning about the Trio's adventures in Hogwarts might intrigue her to the point where she does anything to get next to them and learn something about them. Maybe she's hoping to get an exclusive story for the Quibbler. As indeed does happen!
c. If Luna around Harry, she wouldn't be in the narrative PERIOD.

Those reasons doesn't make the way Luna follows Harry and Co. around any more bearable... but it has helped me come to terms with it.

I think that's one of the weirdest things about the way N/L was sunk to me--maybe I'm remembering this wrong, but I got the impression that JKR thought that a) Neville should be even more put off by Luna's weirdness than a hero like Harry would be, despite being a nerd himself and b) that it was unhealthy for two outcasts to get together because that would imply they didn't mind being outcasts.

I definitely wouldn't agree with reason b, but I can come to terms with JKR's reason a. Neville has always struck me as a solidly British, middle-class, bourgeoisie boy. I just can't see him reacting to Luna's interests with anything more than skittish nervousness, which would probably be enough to destroy any attraction between them.

Re: Part two, because your summary is so huge!

[sistermagpie]

That's true about Neville, you know. You're right.

And Luna too. I mean, there are scenes where she stands up to the good guys because she doesn't care what they think. It just seems sort of like the reason she keeps following after them is because she's a character in this book so she's going to.

Re: Part two, because your summary is so huge!

[jollityfarm]

It does seem a little unnatural that even though Luna is supposed to be friends with Ginny and is such a character, nobody had thought to mention her before this book - and suddenly she's everywhere. Mind you, Harry doesn't seem to know the names of people in his year - and these are people he has lessons with, mind you, people whose names he would have heard on the register and connected to a face after five years at the school. I mean, even I managed that little. Even my own dear elder brother could probably manage that, and he's as dozy as hell half the time.

Re: Part two, because your summary is so huge!

[mariagoner]

Yeah, it's sad to know that we've been deprived of upwards of 3-4 years of Luna goodness because JKR didn't even think of Luna before Book 5... and decided to clumsily dump her into the HPverse when she did.

Re: Part two, because your summary is so huge!

[go_back_chief]

But I just rationalized it by saying that:
a. Luna may have been more than a little blind to social cues, and probably thinks that the Golden Trio and their little sycophant Ginny might actually like her for herself, instead of keeping her around for her "comedy value";
b. The idea of learning about the Trio's adventures in Hogwarts might intrigue her to the point where she does anything to get next to them and learn something about them. Maybe she's hoping to get an exclusive story for the Quibbler. As indeed does happen!
c. If Luna around Harry, she wouldn't be in the narrative PERIOD.

How about
d. She just doesn't care what other people think of her, and doesn't let it faze her in the slightest. So if someone does something that intrigues her (to go along with b too), she'll hang around and see how that turns out, and she doesn't care about what others might think of the fact that she does, because it's unimportant to her. In her own inner world she probably makes her internal jokes about them anyway. (Or maybe I'm just overidentifying.;-))

Re: Part two, because your summary is so huge!

[mariagoner]

I like that explanation as well! Even if the people she was around laughed at her, I can see her shrugging it off. Luna may be, like many great dreamers, more or less impervious to the opinions of others... which would only makes me like her that much more!