On Love
Discussing Harry Potter with one of my students, I was a bit offended when she asked "But didn't you think that the love stuff was just…ridiculous?" I happened to think that the description of Harry's infatuation with Ginny was quite well-done (although is getting her to break up with her boyfriend with the help of the Felix Felicis any different really that Voldemort's mother using a love potion on Tom Riddle???)
However, the Hermione and Ron situation, once again, ruffled my feathers. I have always identified with Hermione and perhaps I am apt to judge her a bit more harshly. First of all, why Ron? If Hermione is the perfectionist that I know she is, why doesn't she shoot for the big one, Harry Potter himself? I think Ron is a neat guy, but he's a bit of a dork and the descriptions of him making out with Lavender Brown hardly make me think he would be a good lay.
Also, I think Rowling went a little overboard with Hermione's reaction to the Ron/Lavender fiasco. I don't know. For the first time I actually could remember a little bit what it was like to be the same age as the characters. In the previous books, I didn't really identify with them very much emotionally, but my late teenage emotional memories are still quite present in my memory. And, as I said, I always identified with Hermione. But in this situation, I couldn't really understand why she flipped out. The bird attack was a bit extreme. Normally, don't teenage girls just brood alone in their rooms, write clichéd poems, listen to the same CD over and over again, all the while trying to seem like they've got it together on the outside? Or was that just me?
In any case, I do believe that the scenes at the end with Ron and Hermione comforting each other at Dumbledore's funeral were sweet, if not very real to me. And if we are in some sort of sick way living vicariously through the HP characters, I hope for everyone's sake that they get to stay single for a little while longer.
However, the Hermione and Ron situation, once again, ruffled my feathers. I have always identified with Hermione and perhaps I am apt to judge her a bit more harshly. First of all, why Ron? If Hermione is the perfectionist that I know she is, why doesn't she shoot for the big one, Harry Potter himself? I think Ron is a neat guy, but he's a bit of a dork and the descriptions of him making out with Lavender Brown hardly make me think he would be a good lay.
Also, I think Rowling went a little overboard with Hermione's reaction to the Ron/Lavender fiasco. I don't know. For the first time I actually could remember a little bit what it was like to be the same age as the characters. In the previous books, I didn't really identify with them very much emotionally, but my late teenage emotional memories are still quite present in my memory. And, as I said, I always identified with Hermione. But in this situation, I couldn't really understand why she flipped out. The bird attack was a bit extreme. Normally, don't teenage girls just brood alone in their rooms, write clichéd poems, listen to the same CD over and over again, all the while trying to seem like they've got it together on the outside? Or was that just me?
In any case, I do believe that the scenes at the end with Ron and Hermione comforting each other at Dumbledore's funeral were sweet, if not very real to me. And if we are in some sort of sick way living vicariously through the HP characters, I hope for everyone's sake that they get to stay single for a little while longer.
posted by Mandounette at 4:42 PM
4 Comments:
See, I identify with Hermione too, but I have to say I'd go for Ron over Harry any day. Ron's funny and endearing... And I think Hermione has a bit of an ego/power trip (part of the reason she got so upset about Harry using the Half-Blood Prince's book), so Ron, I think, is more the Yin to her Yang (or vice versa--I always get those mixed up).
And while Hermione overreacted (I agree it was way too harsh), you could buy into the notion that she does have tendencies to lash out--she did, after all, have that wonderfully-fulfilling run-in with Malfoy when she punched him.
And you know, I bet in HP7, Ron's going to totally have a major heroic moment (like, he'll end up saving Hermione's life or something), and THAT'S when they'll totally hook up!
Also, why shouldn't these books deal with love, for Pete's sake? They're teenagers, and we ALL went through the same thing! It's part of life--she dealt with the angst thing in book 5, and really working on the love thing now. Makes it real, baby, makes it real...
I never said she shouldn't deal with the love thing, just that she should deal better with it. The ladies seem to slide into Cosmo stereotypes as soon as they fall in love. Look at the examples: lavender, a cheesy ditz; Hermione, a bitter manipulator; Ginny, an easy flirt; Tonks, a weepy victim of unrequited love. But I guess the narrative structure (we only really know what Harry knows) prevents any real comprehension of any of the other characters. I'd like to read all 7 books from Hermione's perspective. Or from Ginny's if we want to up the amount of booty in the books.
I was responding to your student...sorry!
Stereotyping sure does suck.
I caught the end of an A&E Biography on JK this weekend, and she was talking about how she based Hermione on herself. I wonder if she tended towards extreme jealous reactions? Or, if she's just going with the typical stereotypes. For one, I wasn't a fan of the extremely angry adolescent teen Harry in book 5, thinking it was too much, but then again, I wasn't an extremely angry adolescent teen, so who knows.
And wouldn't it be great to write these books from Hermione's perspective? You should do it, Mandounette!
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