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Oct. 4th, 2005 03:37 pmThis one is pretty much a grab bag entry. Last week or so has been
rather quiet and not much getting done here. Pretty much the fall lull
... now if the weather would become properly fall like I would be much
happier. Had a high assed electric bill here. Roomie was unamused and I
can't blame him but when the outdoor temp is in 3 figures the air
conditioner will run and we have to run it for the computers comfort if
not our own. We are getting cooler weather this week and it is
definitely appreciated. Of course Roomie is not here to see it, he's
back in Houston again. Daughter starts a new job working for the State
of TX at the dept of Public Safety. She's definitely happy about that
as she has bills to pay and the money is better than her last job was.
Is it too early to make book 7 predictions for the last of the HP books? Yeah I know it's two yrs out from publication but there are some thoughts I have here about it. See, I think we are going to find out very early in book 7 if Snape is 'good' or not. I don't think JKR will let that one hang very long at all. She's going to answer it and do it most likely in the first 10 chapters. Then the rest of the book will be killing off Voldie. Now going from past examples, I suspect she will whiplash us with some out there revelation about Snape being 'good' and totally quash the ESE!Snape that seems to be out in the fandom. Snape is not a nice man but part of me is sure that Dumbledore was not mistaken in trusting him. And considering how she writes AD and how fast Harry seemed to get over the withholding of information that was so rife in book 5 when book 6 was on, I suspect she really does not want him to be mistaken either. Now I am not a fan of Dumbledore, never really saw him as the dotty old man with a tin of sherbet lemons ever ready to offer them to whoever happened to be closest. Nope, didn't see that man when I saw him in the books and never bought that facade. This is the man who defeated his own dark wizard, studied and quantified the 12 uses of dragon's blood and lead a losing war against Tom Riddle/Voldemort on the first go round. Dumbledore has always been more than that, and yes he has made mistakes. Part of me will say he had a major impact at Hogwarts on the composition of the DEs and pretty much left the Slytherins of that day out to dry. I believe he allowed an entire generation of students to be recruited because he could not get past the House rivalries in his own head and seemed to be doing the same with Harry's generation. Now, in his defense here he's had Slughorn as Head of House and Snape. For several reasons, neither of them would be effective in diverting Slytherins away from Tom Riddle's message and proselyising here.
Slughorn was a legacy of Dippet who actually taught Tom Riddle. Did he know that Voldemort was Riddle? In CoS we are lead to believe not many did know. And it is possible he didn't know. Was Slughorn and effective Head of House? Yes and no. I say this because I do think he was effective in his early yrs as Head. I do think he did have a habit of taking up with favorites and if you were one of them you were helped quite a bit by this man, if you were not, you were as we say here in the States: shit out of luck. Some Slytherins did not need his 'in' to get ahead and they were pretty much not part of the socalled SlugClub. People like Lucius Malfoy and a good percentage of the House did not need Horace Slughorn; he needed them. Chances are he fawned over them and invited them to his gatherings and they came or not as they wished but he had little effect on their lives. Others who probably did need him were not served by his game because they did not fall into his parameter of interesting people. I suspect Severus Snape was one of them. Of course Snape was not a favorite of Slughorn and it shows in certain things. Slughorn would've wanted his worst enemies(the Marauders) in the SlugClub. They were interesting and talented and in the case of Potter and Black, from weathy and well connected families. Snape had none of that. So I suspect Slughorn, like Dumbledore overlooked alot of their misbehavior. I also think Slughorn was not one who would stand up for the kids in his House. I wonder where he was when the Shrieking Shack thing occurred? I actually wonder more if any of the Heads were involved in settling that one out myself.
Snape also suffered as Head. He was effective and not effective at the same time. Here he was spy for Voldie and Dumbledore and he was supposed to sway loyalty to either side? He had enough to be getting on with treading that line himself! He has to make nice with the DE kids and still teach. How can he be expected to sway kids away from the man and cause that marked him? In one way I see him as much more effective than Slughorn, he knows those kids and he fights for them. I don't see him allowing the type of thing that happened to him, happening to a kid on his watch. While he may not be a warm and fuxxy type of guy, I don't doubt that his House knows he will go all out for them, otherwise they would not have had the House Cup of the Quidditch Cup for 7 yrs running.
Back to Dumbledore here. Did he throw away an entire House in two generations? Yes, I think he did. Which to me may well have been his biggest mistake. He did nothing to sway them away from the Dark Lord's message, and with certain behaviors may have swayed others over to him. I believe he let the Marauders get away with a lot of stuff because he saw them as Gryffindors and would not even begin to ascribe malice to their behavior when he would've with other students from other Houses. Does that make him an idiot? No, but it does underscore one of the biggest issues in the WW to me: prejudice. Every single person in the WW has some sort of prejudice going on. Every single one. LV uses the dislike and fear of muggles in his 'pureblood' supremacy rhetoric and captured the 'old' pureblood families with it. The ministry actively dislikes and fosters contempt for the nonhuman population, certain segments of that population return that contempt in spades. People like the Weasleys actively dislike people based on House affiliations and teach that thinking to their kids. The casual dismissal of all things muggle rankles a bit too. Yes the WW has some really neat things but they ignore the fact that the muggles have some technology that could seriously compete with magic for sheer entertainment value, nevermind the more lethal technologies the muggles have. For someone like Arthur Weasley who claims to be fascinated by muggles and their toys to be so ignorant of wha those toys actually do, is amazing to me.
To Dumbledore's credit he actually understands the issue of bigotry and it's effects. But, and this is the big but, he seems blind to his own bigotry. He made the comment in book 6 that his mistakes cost more than others and that has a lot to do with his standing and position in the WW so I can buy that. His mistakes are not simple ones. They are huge. But I do believe his trust in Severus Snape was not misplaced, even though he never did tell anyone why he trusted him. Whatever the reason was, I doubt it had anything to do with guilt on Snape's part over his part in the Potter's demise. I suspect there was something in the way of an Unbreakable Vow involved, a Wizard's Oath or Bond. I suspect whatever it was, was so personal that Dumbledore never felt it was his story to tell, and of course Snape wouldn't tell.
That said we will find out pretty early in book 7, from either the bonder of the Vow or a witness to the conversion. There is someone else who knows and that person will talk, if only to get the Order to trust the information Snape may be channeling to them from Voldie's side. Thoughts anyone?
Is it too early to make book 7 predictions for the last of the HP books? Yeah I know it's two yrs out from publication but there are some thoughts I have here about it. See, I think we are going to find out very early in book 7 if Snape is 'good' or not. I don't think JKR will let that one hang very long at all. She's going to answer it and do it most likely in the first 10 chapters. Then the rest of the book will be killing off Voldie. Now going from past examples, I suspect she will whiplash us with some out there revelation about Snape being 'good' and totally quash the ESE!Snape that seems to be out in the fandom. Snape is not a nice man but part of me is sure that Dumbledore was not mistaken in trusting him. And considering how she writes AD and how fast Harry seemed to get over the withholding of information that was so rife in book 5 when book 6 was on, I suspect she really does not want him to be mistaken either. Now I am not a fan of Dumbledore, never really saw him as the dotty old man with a tin of sherbet lemons ever ready to offer them to whoever happened to be closest. Nope, didn't see that man when I saw him in the books and never bought that facade. This is the man who defeated his own dark wizard, studied and quantified the 12 uses of dragon's blood and lead a losing war against Tom Riddle/Voldemort on the first go round. Dumbledore has always been more than that, and yes he has made mistakes. Part of me will say he had a major impact at Hogwarts on the composition of the DEs and pretty much left the Slytherins of that day out to dry. I believe he allowed an entire generation of students to be recruited because he could not get past the House rivalries in his own head and seemed to be doing the same with Harry's generation. Now, in his defense here he's had Slughorn as Head of House and Snape. For several reasons, neither of them would be effective in diverting Slytherins away from Tom Riddle's message and proselyising here.
Slughorn was a legacy of Dippet who actually taught Tom Riddle. Did he know that Voldemort was Riddle? In CoS we are lead to believe not many did know. And it is possible he didn't know. Was Slughorn and effective Head of House? Yes and no. I say this because I do think he was effective in his early yrs as Head. I do think he did have a habit of taking up with favorites and if you were one of them you were helped quite a bit by this man, if you were not, you were as we say here in the States: shit out of luck. Some Slytherins did not need his 'in' to get ahead and they were pretty much not part of the socalled SlugClub. People like Lucius Malfoy and a good percentage of the House did not need Horace Slughorn; he needed them. Chances are he fawned over them and invited them to his gatherings and they came or not as they wished but he had little effect on their lives. Others who probably did need him were not served by his game because they did not fall into his parameter of interesting people. I suspect Severus Snape was one of them. Of course Snape was not a favorite of Slughorn and it shows in certain things. Slughorn would've wanted his worst enemies(the Marauders) in the SlugClub. They were interesting and talented and in the case of Potter and Black, from weathy and well connected families. Snape had none of that. So I suspect Slughorn, like Dumbledore overlooked alot of their misbehavior. I also think Slughorn was not one who would stand up for the kids in his House. I wonder where he was when the Shrieking Shack thing occurred? I actually wonder more if any of the Heads were involved in settling that one out myself.
Snape also suffered as Head. He was effective and not effective at the same time. Here he was spy for Voldie and Dumbledore and he was supposed to sway loyalty to either side? He had enough to be getting on with treading that line himself! He has to make nice with the DE kids and still teach. How can he be expected to sway kids away from the man and cause that marked him? In one way I see him as much more effective than Slughorn, he knows those kids and he fights for them. I don't see him allowing the type of thing that happened to him, happening to a kid on his watch. While he may not be a warm and fuxxy type of guy, I don't doubt that his House knows he will go all out for them, otherwise they would not have had the House Cup of the Quidditch Cup for 7 yrs running.
Back to Dumbledore here. Did he throw away an entire House in two generations? Yes, I think he did. Which to me may well have been his biggest mistake. He did nothing to sway them away from the Dark Lord's message, and with certain behaviors may have swayed others over to him. I believe he let the Marauders get away with a lot of stuff because he saw them as Gryffindors and would not even begin to ascribe malice to their behavior when he would've with other students from other Houses. Does that make him an idiot? No, but it does underscore one of the biggest issues in the WW to me: prejudice. Every single person in the WW has some sort of prejudice going on. Every single one. LV uses the dislike and fear of muggles in his 'pureblood' supremacy rhetoric and captured the 'old' pureblood families with it. The ministry actively dislikes and fosters contempt for the nonhuman population, certain segments of that population return that contempt in spades. People like the Weasleys actively dislike people based on House affiliations and teach that thinking to their kids. The casual dismissal of all things muggle rankles a bit too. Yes the WW has some really neat things but they ignore the fact that the muggles have some technology that could seriously compete with magic for sheer entertainment value, nevermind the more lethal technologies the muggles have. For someone like Arthur Weasley who claims to be fascinated by muggles and their toys to be so ignorant of wha those toys actually do, is amazing to me.
To Dumbledore's credit he actually understands the issue of bigotry and it's effects. But, and this is the big but, he seems blind to his own bigotry. He made the comment in book 6 that his mistakes cost more than others and that has a lot to do with his standing and position in the WW so I can buy that. His mistakes are not simple ones. They are huge. But I do believe his trust in Severus Snape was not misplaced, even though he never did tell anyone why he trusted him. Whatever the reason was, I doubt it had anything to do with guilt on Snape's part over his part in the Potter's demise. I suspect there was something in the way of an Unbreakable Vow involved, a Wizard's Oath or Bond. I suspect whatever it was, was so personal that Dumbledore never felt it was his story to tell, and of course Snape wouldn't tell.
That said we will find out pretty early in book 7, from either the bonder of the Vow or a witness to the conversion. There is someone else who knows and that person will talk, if only to get the Order to trust the information Snape may be channeling to them from Voldie's side. Thoughts anyone?
