The Fall of the House of ______

[sistermagpie]

This thread turned out to be so interesting, it's gotten me thinking even more about incest in literature and what it stands for. Unfortunately I really haven't read any lit crit on the subject. I have a feeling I'll be surfing around today looking for some. The weird thing, too, is that the subject seems to tie in with other recent subjects on

Comments

[ceris]

I think it's clear that the whole Pureblood thing, as well as obviously showing racism, is a reference to our declining British aristocracy (and Royal Family), which has often inbred. But I find wizards as a whole believing themselves superior to we Muggles, although not in as obviously racist a way as the Purebloods are, although quite often we're represented (referred to) as stupid, if not downright nasty (Dursleys being the prime example of middle class Muggle snobbery and hysteria). And of course, with the Purebloods, narcissism must be a factor in their incestuous behaviour - no one else is 'good' enough to mate with them, and the smaller the gene pool becomes, the greater the narcissistic behaviour

[sistermagpie]

Thanks! And you're right, I think the whole crumbling house is usually supposed to reflect a corruption of the genetic stock--so you've got madness and violence and inbreeding as part of the whole picture. Though it's interesting to contrast that with the people of the current generations, as it would be depressing to think there's no hope at all

[ceris]

I think with Lucius' imprisonment, Draco will become more Pureblood-minded than ever. He is, I suppose, head of the Malfoy clan now (which seems to be a patriarchal institution to me). He might be dating Pansy but he might not be allowed to have a marriage with her if it came to that. There might be another cousin or something somewhere that the family have lined up for him. Narcissa seems to be every bit as brainwashed as the rest of them; call me pessimistic, but I can't see her being a saviour from her limited portrayal so far.

I really, really hope that JKR does something interesting with Draco though, instead of keeping him as he is, because he's just two dimensional for me. I'm hoping that the Lucius imprisonment thing will either bring him out as a villain with a motive, or that it will lead to some kind of redemption for him. Either way, I can see the bond of family becoming more important here.

[sistermagpie]

I agree-the family bond seems like it should become more important. His family's been threatened personally now.

I do hope there's something interesting done with him, though I'm not holding my breath. Obviously his family interests me so I'd like to see it standing strong (if battered) in the end, but that doesn't mean the author sees it that way.

[sistermagpie]

Thanks!

I'm such a packrat and have such trouble throwing things away I think I was naturally just thinking, "Gah! What are you doing???"

[musesfool]

I'm still processing all this, but this struck me:

I *am* disturbed at the idea of Sirius wanting to toss out everything in his house. The whole "cleaning" aspect of OotP seemed aggressive to me, knowing that we're not just getting rid of cobwebs but the things important to the family Sirius hated, mostly lumped together as "dark artifacts." (And don't the Weasley twins keep some of that for themselves? Hmm...) Sirius is openly trying to destroy his family, wipe it out.

I keep thinking Sirius=Quentin Compson, yet another literary participant in an incestuous relationship in The Sound and The Fury, and his desperate, "I don't hate the South, I don't" at the end of Absalom, Absalom (which also deals with race, incest and miscegenation and actually includes the line, "It wasn't the incest, it was the miscegenation" as a reason for Thomas Sutpen to disapprove of his daughter's marriage to Charles Bon).

Draco (the character so many people see as unimportant) seems to be the end of the line for both the Malfoys and the Blacks.How does

[sistermagpie]

Quentin Compson was definitely on my mind in writing this post--I love Quentin

[hesychasm]

Wow -- this is a really awesome take on the House concept. Just speaking personally, I wish I'd seen it before writing my latest fic, which has Draco not only leaving his family house after it's besieged and ransacked by Aurors, but also a disintegration of the Hogwarts houses, and at the end an implication that Hogwarts is decaying and losing its usefulness, that it must be left behind in order for a person to move on. Reading your thoughts sort of crystallizes the vague ideas and impressions I'd been operating on when I was writing. I think your take on it -- this tension where on the one hand you want to preserve all of that history and family and background, and on the other this sort of abandonment of self that happens when the house is crumbling and you just have to get out and start over again -- is really on the money.

Memorifying this post forthwith!

[sistermagpie]

Thanks! And yeah, it seems like these are all images that we sort of know and understand on some level without thinking about them.

That's fascinating to bring the Hogwarts houses into it too...in terms of moving on, it seems like it's sort of like integrating the self. Like the houses within the school are different aspects of the self and in order to grow up the barriers have to break down so they're all one house! your fic sounds excellent.:-)

[mizbean]

That was a really interesting read.

I wanted to add my two cents to a minor part of your post.

(Though I would say she's still obviously not considered family even as much as Harry is, especially by Molly, either because she is Muggleborn or perhaps because she is female.)

One thing Hermione has that Harry doesn't have is a parent. I think that I why Molly has pretty much adopted Harry. Even though Hermione spends a lot of time with the Weasleys, she still has family obligations of her own which I'm sure Molly recognizes.

I think the idea of a family name that means something strikes a chord in most humans. In HP, the Weasleys are just as clannish and recognizable as the Malfoys. Not only do the children all have red hair but the parents as well...the Weasleys have plenty of family narcissism, right down to turning their backs on the sibling who "betrayed" them (Percy).Interesting observation

[sistermagpie]

One thing Hermione has that Harry doesn't have is a parent. I think that I why Molly has pretty much adopted Harry. Even though Hermione spends a lot of time with the Weasleys, she still has family obligations of her own which I'm sure Molly recognizes.

Oh! Good point! That was really silly of me not even thinking about that! But yes, I think that's definitely part of it. Molly sees herself as a mother to Harry in ways she would never to Hermione, if only for the simple fact that Hermione has a mother!

I too was disturbed by Sirius's sacking of his family heirlooms. Maybe it was my antique-loving side of me coming out, but I couldn't understand why they had to throw away the family dishes and silver.I know! And I felt like that just played out in the end, where Sirius wound up vulnerable because he threw away so much. Symbolically, that is. I mean, it just seems like family is so important in this universe--when you think of the parents that are important it's almost always Purebloods because they are the ones that have a

[moojja]

What is interesting to me is that how easily people forget that Hermione has parentsm for a very good reason. They are barely mentioned in the books. as the books progress, we see less and less of them. Why is Hermione spenting so much time w/ the Weasely? She spents most of her time in boarding school, but she then spents the summer w/ another family? I think it is another way of showing how the muggleborn are intergrated into the wizard system. They don't seem to bring in a fresh infuse of culture, as much as shedding them at the door, and embracing the wizard culture (or having the wizard culture forced on them). In the interesting part, regarding Half-Blood is that you don't see and balance of muggle or wizard culture with muggle-borns. It is always the wizard culture

[sistermagpie]

I have definitely wondered that myself, particularly when I imagine a girl who spends nine months at a boarding school where her parents can't even phone her announcing she doesn't want to go on a ski vacation, but will spend Xmas at school or at the house of a school friend, oh, and she'll spend half the summer there too. I think this also helps to cover up the obvious real conflicts there would be between Muggleborns and Purebloods--it really wouldn't just be the Purebloods seemingly turning up their noses just to be mean. I can't imagine if I were in a place like that that I wouldn't have plenty of things I'd want to bring with me into this real world.

It's weird...with Harry's family it makes sense he doesn't see them because they hate his guts. Yet he sometimes seems to almost spend more time at home than Hermione does. He may not get along with the Dursleys but they do seem like family (a dysfunctional one). Hermione seems to deal with her parents like kindly landlords or something.