Of tower passwords, Luna Lovegood, and Ravenclaw ambivalence

[fire_everything]

Remember how, in Deathly Hallows, Harry paid a token visit to the Ravenclaw common room in search of information on the diadem Horcrux? We saw then the special torture honor that Hogwarts bestows on those students whose wit is their greatest treasure: a system for gaining common room entry that is unique among the houses. While Slytherins,

Comments

[kellychambliss]

Great post -- brilliant and hilarious and spot-on House and character analysis, and your theoretical doorknocker questions are things of beauty. And how much do I love the idea of students saying to Dumbledore, "WTF, sir?"

Also, I appreciate the warning about the Hotel Riverview (too bad -- it looks so nicely picturesque!) But roaches are one of my greatest terrors; just typing the word has made me all jumpy.

~~Kelly (one of those anger-inducing [if under-compensated] academics you mentioned, but I swear I'm only in it for the summers off)

[fire_everything]

Aw, thanks! I’m so pleased you enjoyed it. In spite of your being an evil academic and all, I do value your opinion. ;)

(To put my anti-academic screed in further perspective: my dad is one too. His experience has been rather brutal, which has added fuel to my cynicism about the academic world.)

it looks so nicely picturesque!

It does, doesn’t it? Like Hogwarts on the Hudson, kinda. The Riverview is a very New York kind of place - a mostly residential hotel with lots of artists, sort of a Chelsea Hotel South - and staying there was a classic twentysomething-in-NYC experience. Extremely stressful at the time, but now I can tell stories about it.

I did become - not blasé about the roaches, but quite businesslike at executing them. I woke up every day like the Dunkin’ Donuts guy: “Time to kill the roaches…” And at least they weren’t centipedes. Gah!

[shyfoxling]

Jo Rowling suggests that she likewise feels a certain contempt for those whose best energies manifest themselves in thought instead of action.

Re this and representatives of Ravenclaw: it is kind of unfortunate that we see the most of Luna. The other Ravenclaws that come to mind are Cho Chang, Marietta Edgecombe, Michael Corner (who I guess was at least "good enough" to go out with Ginny for a while?), Terry Boot, and Anthony Goldstein, and none of these have personalities to speak of (Marietta is of course the betrayer of the DA!). I suspect you are right and that we are seeing a little bit of a jab at intellectualism, that Jo sees it as head-in-the-clouds and quirky (to say the least) and ultimately not that important in life.

And anyway, I’ve never looked good in blue.But ugh, Hufflepuff? Yellow? That I can't wear. (Although Hogwarts robes are all black anyway.) Although that's probably the place I'd fit next best, too. Gryffindor is far too extroverted and "jockish" for me, and Slytherin, well, I'm too simple and above-board

[fire_everything]

The other Ravenclaws that come to mind are Cho Chang, Marietta Edgecombe, Michael Corner (who I guess was at least "good enough" to go out with Ginny for a while?), Terry Boot, and Anthony Goldstein, and none of these have personalities to speak of

I'm shocked, shocked that you left Penelope Clearwater out of the Ravenclaw Hall of Fame. I mean, she dated Percy Weasley, which must make her, I don't know, the Heidi Montag of Hogwarts or something, right? And if that's not something to aspire to, I don't know what is.

Between Penelope, Cho Chang and Michael Corner, one could construct a theory that Ravenclaw is the go-to house for presentable arm candy and transitional flings for Gryffindors. You wouldn't marry us or anything, but we look good on paper and are guaranteed to impress your parents.

But ugh, Hufflepuff? Yellow? That I can't wear.

I'm a dark-eyed redhead, so any of the other house colors would look less stupid on me than Ravenclaw blue. And c'mon, let's show a little love for the Hufflepuff aesthetic. That color is GOLD,

[shyfoxling]

(sorry about the deleted comment; wrong account.)

I'm shocked, shocked that you left Penelope Clearwater out of the Ravenclaw Hall of Fame. [...] presentable arm candy

Er. You're right. Well... she didn't come to mind? (I didn't go check a list or anything.) We also forgot Padma Patil (!), Mandy Brocklehurst, Lisa Turpin, and Roger Davies. I don't think we know much about what many of these people look like. Roger was quite to my taste in the GoF film, but that doesn't necessarily mean much.

I'm a dark-eyed redhead, so any of the other house colors would look less stupid on me than Ravenclaw blue.

I'm a sort of blue/gree/grey-eyed reddish-toned brunette, so I'd probably look best in the Slytherin green, but I can handle blue too. I can wear some shades of red but I usually don't (in fact I usually wear all black with the occasional spot of green or purple).

That color is GOLD, my friend! Kingly Hufflepuff GOLD!!Erm, no, black and yellow, as far as I know. (Their Quidditch robes are described as "canary-yellow", for instance.)

[fire_everything]

That Penelope Clearwater stuff was just me being facetious. She didn't come to mind because she's a complete cipher, like practically all the others of our house we could name from the books.

Roger was quite to my taste in the GoF film

I confess I don't know which one he is, but practically ALL the boys were to my taste in GoF, as I never miss an opportunity to proclaim. Long male hair FTW! I might need to, um, research this Roger Davies matter further at home tonight.

Their Quidditch robes are described as "canary-yellow"

Aw, come on, let me have a little poetic license and say GOLD! I'm just trying to uplift and glorify my poor Hufflepuff brethren a bit here. ;)

[kellychambliss]

I woke up every day like the Dunkin’ Donuts guy: “Time to kill the roaches…”

Hahaha! You're a better man than I am, Gunga Din.

I have such roach phobia that in your place, I wouldn't have been able to sleep for the entire month. I once left an already-paid-for room in a guest house when a roach (a large one, mind you) danced out from underneath the bed. (I should have been suspicious when the friend who recommended the place told me it was "quaint and untouched by time.")

And my partner's son and I once found a waterbug in the hallway of his apartment building. We had to go shrieking to the super, neither of us being capable of getting close enough to the thing to smash it. (The term "waterbug" is a misnomer, of course; call it what you will, but I know giant roaches when I see them.)

staying there was a classic twentysomething-in-NYC experience. Extremely stressful at the time, but now I can tell stories about it.Ha! Well, every cloud, I suppose. I'm glad you're out of it, though

[fire_everything]

To be strictly fair, academia is probably no more brutal an environment than, for instance, the corporate world or the arts. But it is more disingenuous than those other subcultures in the way it sells itself, I think. Academia still likes to present itself to the unwary as a refuge from capitalist values and a haven for idealists, and boy, is it ever not either of those things.

It's funny about roaches - I'm only able to kill them because the disgust they inspire in me is greater than the fear. With centipedes the reverse is true, and when I have one of those in my apartment all of life comes to a standstill while I dance and feint around the thing like a bullfighter in the ring. I spend ridiculous amounts of time waiting for them to get in positions where I can kill them with no danger of contact with their hideous bodies (shudder). On the floor and out in the open, where there's room to drop large heavy books on them, is the ideal. But once that's done I'm afraid to lift the book for fear that they've magically hidden themselves

[drinkingcocoa]

My reading of JKR's attitude toward Ravenclaw is that she was trying to re-set her own attitudes after her life broke down and she, the gifted intellectual who was supposedly destined for great things, wound up a refugee from a violent marriage as an unemployed single mom. If Ravenclaw is the House for students who both *are smart* and *value learning above all else*, perhaps she's exploring how someone like Hermione/her own younger self could go through school years developing other attributes to become a more balanced person, while exploring ways in which one could honor learning above all without being snobby or cutting oneself off from life wisdom

[fire_everything]

Your comment inspired such an excess of verbosity on my part that for the first time ever I got slapped on the wrist by the LJ character-limit police! I'll break this monster into two so you don't have to read it all in one go

[fire_everything]

Here's part two, with apologies for my long-windedness!

Another interesting case is Harry himself. Maybe it was just savvy audience strategy for Jo to place him where she did on the intelligence spectrum - relatably above-average but not brilliant, uneven academically rather than across-the-board mediocre like Ron. But I’ll bet he also reflects Jo’s own beliefs that 1)if you’ve got one thing you’re really good at, the rest doesn’t matter so much, and 2)ethics are huge. There’s a moment among Snape’s Pensieve memories that’s never followed up on, but which really caught my attention: when Snape is running down the 11-year-old Harry and Dumbledore counters him by describing Harry as “modest, likable and reasonably talented” (italics mine). He’s quoting other people’s opinions, but the fact that he doesn’t contradict this underwhelming assessment of Harry’s talent has always struck me. By the time of the King’s Cross chapter, Dumbledore’s opinion of Harry’s worth, as opposed to his likability, has obviously been revised more than a