Continuing on the ranty-ness
Mar. 16th, 2004 05:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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captainbianca
The Weasley Boy Marriage Quiz made by Sapphire.
What I meant to add in my last entry, was the vexed subject of Percy Weasley. Now, I like Percy. Maybe he's a bit pompous and nit-picky, but he's somehow very lovable. I was rooting for him to realise that Fudge and the ministry are lying about Voldemort's return. The subversive reading would be to think that Percy's right for sticking with Fudge and co.
Think of the situation at the end of GoF: A pupil of Hogwarts is dead, and the DADA teacher apparently isn't who everyone thought he was. Fudge silences one witness in a fate worse than death, refuses to listen to the other and ignores Dumbledore's interpretation of events. He's not just sticking his head in the sand, he's quarrying the stuff.
Now Percy. On the one hand is the Harry version, on the other the Fudge version. Percy has know Harry for four years, he's stayed in his house, he's Ron's best friend, he saved Ginny's life. Has Harry ever been known to lie about a major issue or suffer from delusions? The last time people thought Harry delusional, he was right about there being a giant snake roaming Hogwarts. A Weasley of all people knows that. Percy's family believes Harry, and his old teacher. The only reason Percy has not to believe Harry is the Prophet's smear campaign--Molly is castigated for believing the Prophet, and one might almost say that learning about the love lives of one's son and his friends from the national tabloids is an occupational hazard of sending him to an English boarding school.
On the other hand, we have Fudge doing a classic cover-up, up to and including Reckless Deployment of a Dementor. Why is he so frantic not to examine the facts? He sounds like someone afraid. In fact, he could hardly have done Voldemort a better service if he had been his loyal Death Eater.
It's not misplaced family loyalty or a close examination of the evidence that could lead Percy to join the Fudge party, just fear or ambition and self-interest. I long to give my boy the benefit of every possible doubt. Probably he's convinced himself into believing the Fudge-olo reedit. Maybe he's so far entangled in Ministry politics that he thinks he can't get out of it. Maybe he fears that the Death Eaters could use him to hurt his family, and a break from them is the way to protect them. Maybe he's even spying undercover for Dumbledore--that would put a new spin on the 'I'm afraid so' quotation.
But I can't see how joining the 'let's ignore Voldemort and hope he'll go away' party can in itself be better than fighting with the Order. I know that the Order aren't all nice people--Mundungus is a petty crook, etc. But surely letting the truth be known and making a stand against genocidal megalomaniac Dark Lords is better than hiding? Because soon enough there won't be a shadow of doubt that Voldemort's back, and every minute the Ministry spent not fighting him will be regretted.
captainbiancaThe Weasley Boy Marriage Quiz made by Sapphire.
What I meant to add in my last entry, was the vexed subject of Percy Weasley. Now, I like Percy. Maybe he's a bit pompous and nit-picky, but he's somehow very lovable. I was rooting for him to realise that Fudge and the ministry are lying about Voldemort's return. The subversive reading would be to think that Percy's right for sticking with Fudge and co.
Think of the situation at the end of GoF: A pupil of Hogwarts is dead, and the DADA teacher apparently isn't who everyone thought he was. Fudge silences one witness in a fate worse than death, refuses to listen to the other and ignores Dumbledore's interpretation of events. He's not just sticking his head in the sand, he's quarrying the stuff.
Now Percy. On the one hand is the Harry version, on the other the Fudge version. Percy has know Harry for four years, he's stayed in his house, he's Ron's best friend, he saved Ginny's life. Has Harry ever been known to lie about a major issue or suffer from delusions? The last time people thought Harry delusional, he was right about there being a giant snake roaming Hogwarts. A Weasley of all people knows that. Percy's family believes Harry, and his old teacher. The only reason Percy has not to believe Harry is the Prophet's smear campaign--Molly is castigated for believing the Prophet, and one might almost say that learning about the love lives of one's son and his friends from the national tabloids is an occupational hazard of sending him to an English boarding school.
On the other hand, we have Fudge doing a classic cover-up, up to and including Reckless Deployment of a Dementor. Why is he so frantic not to examine the facts? He sounds like someone afraid. In fact, he could hardly have done Voldemort a better service if he had been his loyal Death Eater.
It's not misplaced family loyalty or a close examination of the evidence that could lead Percy to join the Fudge party, just fear or ambition and self-interest. I long to give my boy the benefit of every possible doubt. Probably he's convinced himself into believing the Fudge-olo reedit. Maybe he's so far entangled in Ministry politics that he thinks he can't get out of it. Maybe he fears that the Death Eaters could use him to hurt his family, and a break from them is the way to protect them. Maybe he's even spying undercover for Dumbledore--that would put a new spin on the 'I'm afraid so' quotation.
But I can't see how joining the 'let's ignore Voldemort and hope he'll go away' party can in itself be better than fighting with the Order. I know that the Order aren't all nice people--Mundungus is a petty crook, etc. But surely letting the truth be known and making a stand against genocidal megalomaniac Dark Lords is better than hiding? Because soon enough there won't be a shadow of doubt that Voldemort's back, and every minute the Ministry spent not fighting him will be regretted.
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no subject
Date: 2004-03-16 07:45 pm (UTC)1. Believe Harry, which makes logical sense given his history, but which entails believing that the world is about to change radically, and the rules he has always so carefully tended are going to blow up in his face. It's terrifying. It means all the things he dreamed for his life are going to have to change, because the world in which he dreamed them is going to end, no matter who wins the war. War always changes things and leaves the world a different place.
2. Disbelieve Harry, which means having a big fight with his family, but reinforces his belief that the world is safe and predictable, as long as you learn and follow the rules. If you can succeed in squeezing your eyes shut, putting your fingers in your ear, and singing la-la-la at the top of your voice until logic gives up the ghost, then when you open them, there's the world, exactly as you know it, and you can go on with what you've always done and continue planning what you've always planned.
I'll stop before the subtext becomes text.
no subject
Date: 2004-03-16 07:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-03-16 07:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-03-17 02:05 am (UTC)I don't get it, either.
no subject
Date: 2004-03-24 03:43 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-03-25 03:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-03-26 05:01 pm (UTC)