I'm woefully behind on reading your HP meme posts, but I just had to tell you that I went to a panel yesterday with a paper on motherhood in HP, and you would've loved it - during Q&A we had this whole discussion on Molly Weasley and the textual tension between domesticity and violence. Super fascinating.
And I totally agree with you about Lupin - I was always such a big fan of his, and then that whole shirking of responsibility thing really soured me.
Well, the paper (and forgive me if this is incoherent; I'm sick with the flu and all medicated right now) was the beginnings of a theologist reading of HP through the lens of the holy trinity: Dumbledore as the Father, Harry as the Son and Lily Potter as the Holy Spirit - and so this particular paper was the part that focused on Lily's function in the text as the "absent center" - the canonized figure that doesn't get to be dimensional or fully human (unlike James, who's shown to be a total prat). But the speaker talked a lot about other mothers as well, especially Molly, as being part of a continuum that disrupts the critique of Rowling's characterization as binaried (good or bad) - my favorite part was her analysis of the similarities between Molly and Mrs. Black's snarling and shrieking - she had a couple of quotes I can't remember now from both of them that were remarkably similar in tone and syntax. I'd never thought about those parallels before
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That sounds absolutely fantastic. I definitely see the 'Lily as the absent center' thing: as you say, she never gets to be fully human, she's raised on an extremely high pedestal as a smart, kind, beautiful, giving, generous muggleborn witch. And I'd never considered the similarities between the way Molly and Mrs. Black are written, but now that you mention it, I'll have to go back and take a look, because that's really interesting
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My least favorite scene in the book was the epilogue. I pretty much hated it, how they all grew up and married in their cozy little foursome and never did anything outside of it. :\ I will probably write a rant about it some other time, but I am tired, so...yeah, some other time. Along with the rest of our HP babble. XD
I guess it was bound to happen eventually, lol. But it's not a total disagreement, though; I'm not a fan of the epilogue at all, either.
I had a couple of problems with it. First of all, it read like fanfic. It was so unrealistic that these guys would stay in the same relationships for the rest of their lives. Okay, I cut JKR some slack because my favourite thing about the HP verse, besides the magic/fantasy, is Ron, Harry, and Hermione's great love friendship. I also take great offence to the name Albus Severus Potter. I mean, come on. Kid's gonna be bullied for the rest of his life with a name like that.
I read a fic about the epilogue once which, frankly, I didn't really enjoy. It was very artsy and pretentious, idk. But it raised an interesting point. It showed how, oh, cyclical the series becomes when you take the epilogue into consideration. Like, Harry married a redhead just like his father, and Malfoy's looking a hell of a lot like his father and has a smirking little son with a stupid name, and the Weasley kids are being (
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Yes! That is why I disliked it, too! It showed a complete lack of growth and character development. I guess you could argue that having gone through all that together, Ron and Hermione were the only people who would've understood each other, but I think that's a pretty weak argument because there were hundreds of people affected by the war. I wish Harry, Ron, and Hermione had just stayed really good friends, but moved on past the Hogwarts days and met some new people. I mean...no matter how close you are, having three best friends, one of whom is your significant other? Not really enough.
I also take great offence to the name Albus Severus Potter. I mean, come on. Kid's gonna be bullied for the rest of his life with a name like that.Haha, I know, right? Worst. Name. Ever. Well, except for Renesmee, but we're not even gonna go there
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IA that it showed a lack of growth and development, but idk. I almost think that Harry, Hermione, and Ron were so close that any other SO might feel ostracized by it. Nevertheless, I know that's just my bias talking, and that it would probably be healthier and more realistic if they'd found other people, like you suggest
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And I totally agree with you about Lupin - I was always such a big fan of his, and then that whole shirking of responsibility thing really soured me.
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My least favorite scene in the book was the epilogue. I pretty much hated it, how they all grew up and married in their cozy little foursome and never did anything outside of it. :\ I will probably write a rant about it some other time, but I am tired, so...yeah, some other time. Along with the rest of our HP babble. XD
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I had a couple of problems with it. First of all, it read like fanfic. It was so unrealistic that these guys would stay in the same relationships for the rest of their lives. Okay, I cut JKR some slack because my favourite thing about the HP verse, besides the magic/fantasy, is Ron, Harry, and Hermione's great love friendship. I also take great offence to the name Albus Severus Potter. I mean, come on. Kid's gonna be bullied for the rest of his life with a name like that.
I read a fic about the epilogue once which, frankly, I didn't really enjoy. It was very artsy and pretentious, idk. But it raised an interesting point. It showed how, oh, cyclical the series becomes when you take the epilogue into consideration. Like, Harry married a redhead just like his father, and Malfoy's looking a hell of a lot like his father and has a smirking little son with a stupid name, and the Weasley kids are being ( ( ... )
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I also take great offence to the name Albus Severus Potter. I mean, come on. Kid's gonna be bullied for the rest of his life with a name like that.Haha, I know, right? Worst. Name. Ever. Well, except for Renesmee, but we're not even gonna go there ( ... )
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