The whole premise of Harry Potter, starting from book 1 chapter 1, is that most people are just Muggles, while some people are Wizards
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I think the focus on H/Hr as central characters overlooks the importance of wizard breeding that still underlies the 'verse. Harry is a full-blooded wizard, but he was raised among muggles and so isn't ready to fully establish a new wizarding dynasty without a wizard-raised wife. Hermione, likewise, needs a to marry into an established wizard family
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That's all fine, if repellant - I never thought of it as a *marriage* narrative, and the whole property/breeding thing just strikes me as gross. I don't have anything against Ron/Hr, though. It's fine, if incredibly uninteresting to me. My point is that this particular criticism, this hatred of H/Hr, based on a rejection the belief in the superiority of some types of people over others (which was a widely made argument at the time of the meltdown), is at odds with the central premise of the book.
I confess to knowing next to nothing about the meltdown or kerfuffle or whatever it was, so I can't comment about how that philosophy was used. And I'd hardly say that Harry is the Mr. Darcy who rescues the Weasleys from genteel obscurity. But marriage is one natural conclusion of a classical story arc -- they all live happily ever after, etc. -- so it's not a trivial consideration.
What's not a trivial consideration? Marriage? I don't think I said it was, and I'm sorry if it sounded that way, but I don't really think that marriage is an obvious component of teen stories or of the kind of magical-adventure narrative in HP. She chose to have a million weddings at the end, but I don't think there was any generic consideration that required her to.
For me, Ron/Hermione is like Sense and Sensibility, wherein Col. Brandon really belongs with Elinor, because of how well they work together, but it was her first novel and she had planned out how he would go with Marianne and stuck with that. (At least, that how it's always read to me.)
From her comments, JKR had always planned Ron/Hermione, for whatever reason, and so it never dawned on her that she was writing a couple--in Harry/Hermione--would would absolutely get together if this were a later Austen novel.
While I'm thankful we weren't subjected to a Twilight-ish love triangle, I'm a little irked at her dismissal of me as a reader who saw H/H all over the place.
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From her comments, JKR had always planned Ron/Hermione, for whatever reason, and so it never dawned on her that she was writing a couple--in Harry/Hermione--would would absolutely get together if this were a later Austen novel.
While I'm thankful we weren't subjected to a Twilight-ish love triangle, I'm a little irked at her dismissal of me as a reader who saw H/H all over the place.
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