Comments | fire_everything: Of Jo Rowling, Gryffindor tyranny, and Huffleclaw self-defense

fire_everything

Of Jo Rowling, Gryffindor tyranny, and Huffleclaw self-defense

Feb 14, 2010 16:54

Note: The previous entry’s warnings about offensive house generalizations and rank self-justification go double here. Also, I've probably been more American-centric than is seemly; sorry 'bout that, but the U.S. is the only country I know well enough to feel comfortable making offensive generalizations about.

One of the things I found most ( Read more... )

luna lovegood, rubeus hagrid, some of my best friends are gryffindors, slytherin solidarity!, the 1st/last time i'll ever tag flitwick, a plague on all your houses, ravenclaws represent!, defense against the dominant houses, bitter much veronica?, cho chang, jeremiah wright, dick cheney, tonks, gryffindor tyranny, barack obama, it's only a theory, hufflepuffs holla!, cedric diggory, sarah palin, offensive generalizations, yeah i said it, ravenclaw introversion, michael jackson, gilderoy lockhart, jo rowling, stephen colbert, george w. bush, fucked-up and self-justifying, severus snape, my man ollivander

Comments 9

anonymous February 18 2010, 03:03:37 UTC

Just so you know, I enjoyed this post. It was entertaining and maybe insightful, I'm tired so its difficult to say.

fire_everything February 18 2010, 15:01:46 UTC

I'm happy to hear that all the angst and grandiose theorizing in this post didn't completely destroy its entertainment value. Glad you liked, and thanks!

driftingquill February 22 2010, 22:29:17 UTC

Oh, huzzah.

I had never considered the issues of female-founded houses-- but yeah, that's a serious problem. Tonks was a Hufflepuff? She got a weird run in the books, and not just because her whole relationship with Lupin was cobbled together from a fanfic Rowling saw online. Had she remained the pink-hair face morphing Order member, with more independent personality, Jo might have treated her, and the Hufflepuffs of the world, more fairly.

Bush as Imperiused Hufflepuff with a sinister Slytherin Cheney holding the wand = pure genius. Do you think Cheney's a Parsletongue? Has a horcrux stashed away somewhere (Iraq?) to defeat all his heart failures?

As the books came out, teenage me always dumbly assumed "Ravenclaw, 'cause I like to read 'n stuff." But maybe my Hufflepuffian plodding qualities have won out in the end. It's all about flying under the radar... until it's too late.

-fictitious

fire_everything February 23 2010, 23:19:24 UTC

Yeah, Tonks/Lupin - what was up with that? I always thought JKR was fond of Lupin and at least had nothing against Tonks, so the slapdash way she pushed them together and then killed them off was confusing to me. Did she do it just so that Teddy Lupin could exist and be orphaned, but orphaned in a new-school, well-loved, non-Harry way, which seems to have been really important to her? Was she uncomfortable writing a sexual relationship between two desirable/relatable adults in their prime? Whatever it was, the treatment of them was so tacked-on that it probably served more to vindicate than dissuade the large chunk of fandom that had already decided that Lupin was, like, totally gay. Are there hints in Order of the Phoenix that T & L had a thing going on all along? They’re REALLY well hidden, if so ( ... )

Oh, snap, friended! driftingquill February 24 2010, 06:23:35 UTC

I once derailed an entire lecture by Henry Jenkins, one of the experts in participatory/online culture, by asking him about JKR and fanfic. He spent twenty minutes explaining how she was the first author to embrace fanfic, and then drastically change her mind against it. How her fears of losing control of her characters led her to make plot decisions outside the original plans. How the Dumbledore is Gay revelation was a way to remind fans she could still dictate fandom even after her books were over.

Ugh, I still feel that the last book was slapdash and confusing, and the sixth was one long "Let's Kill Dumbledore/Make Sure Draco's Irredeemable" exercise. In my old(er) age, I prefer to think of Draco as a drawling, snide, changeable fellow with a secret love for HP.

Re: Oh, snap, friended! fire_everything February 24 2010, 21:00:12 UTC

Oh, this is fascinating. The last I’d heard, Jo was on record as being OK with, even supportive of, fanfic, but that might’ve been a pretty long time ago, in a different era for both fanfic and the Internet. Has she explicitly said anything against it recently, or was that Jenkins’ inference based on the weirdness of book seven and Jo’s extratextual revelations, which do have an element of authorial acting-out to them? I must look into this. Must look into Jenkins, too - after a quick Google I’m already intrigued. Wish I’d been at that lecture! Thanks for putting me on to him ( ... )

shyfoxling April 5 2010, 08:19:54 UTC

Oh, Stephen! Could you be one of my people?

( ... )

fire_everything April 5 2010, 23:46:29 UTC

That's what I'm sayin'! (The Weird Al link did work, as you can see.) I am especially proud to claim Colbert because, like Jane Austen, he constantly brings the Ravenclaw wit in both senses of the word.

I'm pretty sure, though, that in spite of his obviously comparable intellect, Jon Stewart is a Gryffindor.

Jo Suddenly Changed Her Plot From the One She Had All Along?! joy2687 July 21 2011, 22:02:25 UTC

Where did you hear or read about Jo changing her plot from the original one she had in mind, driftingquill? I've never heard of this, but it sounds extremely interesting! I'm intrigued by this essay, because I've taken Sorting Hat quizzes and have gotten Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Gryphondore, depending on which quiz I take. I get Hufflepuff or Ravenclaw the most, but sometimes wonder which house I'd be placed in, or are there houses designed for students who fit into both houses?