Harry's homework: the new Slytherin ethos in HBP (SPOILERS)

[fictualities]

There were many things I loved about the new HP book. My Inner Hufflepuff is beaming and baking cookies for everyone, my Inner Ravenclaw is contemplating an abstruse treatise on the nature of love, and my Inner Gryffindor is making the satisfied grunts by which it generally signifies contentment. But now that my initial period of incoherent

Comments

[fictualities]

if Salazar were practically another Voldemort, did the other three have anything to do with him? Clearly, he had to have some redeeming or useful qualities.

Redeeming, or useful, or possibly just deceptive and morally neutral. I'm not claiming Slytherins are good. Not entirely good OR bad. Just that they can be successful, and successful in ways that do not involve murder or crimes against fashion.

bad guys to shallow characters who only acted out of petty nastiness was pretty unrealistic and even irresponsible, especially as a model for children to relate to.

Well, yeah. If children go out into the world believing that the bad guys are easily identifiable as such, they'll be in for a big surprise!

[applegnat]

*decides to print this essay and put it up at new workplace as inspiration to cultivate inner Slytherin*

I'm enlightened and amused. This was awesome! Such a fantastic exploration of Harry's inner Slytherin that I was delighted to see surface in HBP. I particularly love the nature of ambition you've highlighted in the early part of the essay and how it functions differently among Slytherins.

I'm almost tempted to consider business school now, but maybe I should wait until my inner Ravenclaw has been soothed into hiding away?

[fictualities]

Hee, I'm glad you liked it.

I'm almost tempted to consider business school now

*chortles* Oh, god, don't put that on my conscience. You are a Ravenclaw from your head to your toes, and your inner Ravenclaw will never hide away, thank God.

[hybridutensil]

Brilliant! I love this! It's about time someone recognizes that "Slytherin" does not necessarily equal "baby-killing bully"!

Do you mind if I pimp this in my journal? It's too good not to share!

[fictualities]

I'm glad you liked it! Yeah, I think Rowling is showing at last that Slytherins are not cartoon villains. Snape was never a cartoon villain, of course -- we don't know everything about him yet, obviously, but I think he'll turn out to be the most interesting and morally complex character in the series. But Slughorn does seem to me to plot another, and very important, point on the chart of Slytherin personality types; it's interesting to see him in action. (And thanks for mentioning the essay in your LJ! :))

[mamadeb]

The other thing is what makes it also Gryffindor - the impression I've gotten from Gryffindor, especially from the twins, but from others, too - is that no one got hurt by what Harry did.

Hagrid had company for the funeral. Slughorn got Aragog's venom and such. The worst they had was a hangover, and while it was Harry who got them drunk, neither complained. And, it could be argued that Slughorn felt better having that secret come to light.

Aragog, who expected to be eaten by his own family anyway, was dead, and nothing could hurt him.

Harry got a vital memory which changed the course of the novels.

I don't mean that it's not Gryffindor to hurt someone. I mean that they act like everything's all right so long as no one gets hurt. So, by Gryffindor lights, Harry did nothing to be guilty about. It actually was very Slytherin, but he wouldn't want to hear that.

[fictualities]

no one got hurt by what Harry did.

Oh, yes, no one got hurt, and as you point out, just about everyone involved in the transaction actually benefits. I do see your point about this making the episode acceptable in Gryffindor eyes, but I also think that kind of exchange of benefits is the heart of Slughorn's approach, and that's what makes people like him so very difficult to deal with IRL. He manipulates people by benefiting them, and those benefits are very real. In general people emerge quite happy -- except, Slughorn is usually the happiest of all, and his fount of benevolence runs dry when he doesn't stand to gain anything.

Sometimes the line between Gryffindor and Slytherin seems to me more a line between us and them than anything else. The twins are exhibit A. ajhalluk has a wonderful essay on that subject.

[elycia]

Wow. This is a fascinating bit of thought-fodder. I hope you know you impress the hell out of me whenever you offer up one of these brain-teasers. I rarely put that much effort into analyzing anything, but I sure appreciate it when somebody else does, and then goes to the trouble to put it out there for the rest of us to consider

[fictualities]

To me, "Slytherin" = "utterly selfish" = "remorseless user of others." But you paint an interesting picture of a Slytherin mindset that allows for the "used" to benefit as well from the "using," in a somewhat bizarre symbiosis that permits mutual growth and gain.

Hmmm, well, this kind of symbiosis does not necessarily preclude remorselessness. It could just be remorselessness with another, more pleasant, face. This episode could be read in many ways. It could be that Slughorn does indeed have a good side -- his affection for Lily -- and that what Harry does in this episode is find the limit of Slughorn's selfishness. Or it could be that Slughorn is playing a very deep game indeed, or it could be that Slughorn's affection for Lily doesn't really do much to change the overall composition of an essentially exploitative personality. And you know, I LIKE that about this episode -- the fact that it's susceptible to so many readings. Rowling is painting quite a realistic portrait: in this episode, as in life, it is difficult if not