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Dec. 20th, 2008 02:20 am![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
brimtoast.livejournal.com posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
alt_fenHappy Christmas holidays! I'm excited to see the characters go home and to learn a little more about their home lives.
*What do you think is the Strettons' motivation for fostering Sally-Anne? It doesn't really sound like they want to welcome her as a family member.
*Also, Penelope and Percy finally getting along was really adorable. It seems like the one thing they have in common is that they don't really have any friends (that might be too much of a leap, but I'm basing it on Percy's general snotty attitude plus Penelope's statement that she couldn't get anybody to come to Hogsmeade with her). I wonder what they found to talk about over their butterbeer.
*Poor Bellatrix, having her Lord forget her birthday. She named her entry "V" which is interesting because it seems like she still thinks of him as Voldemort rather than Lord Protector, although I suspect she wouldn't use that name publicly anymore.
And what could Voldemort be working on? He's already achieved immortality and conquered Britain. What else does he want?
*from![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
longstrider: Pansy freaking breaks my heart. I know she's a little bit of a brat, but who wasn't at 11? She's been tortured, crucio and otherwise, multiple times in the last four months. (I don't want to know what Lucius did in the line of that resulted in her needing to freshen ... up before going on to our next appointment. I just don't. I know it could have just been a stern talking to, but Lucius, Pansy this universe? No I just don't want to know.)
*fromtravelintheways: So many of these characters are fascinating, but I think I look forward to Pansy's entries and comments the most. I'm never entirely sure when she's being serious about the LP and when she's being subversive. Pretty crafty for an 11 year old, though it's heart-breaking that she's had to learn that so early.
Share other thoughts/observations/hellos in the comments. It's been quiet here this week. How is everyone?
EDIT: I've just had an idea for how alt_fen posts like this could work. Can everybody who has been reading lately and who has a few minutes link to one or two threads that struck them as interesting, and then add a comment or question about that thread? Then I'll copy everything up into the main post, and it'll be a way for us to touch base and share our thoughts in between the times when we have a big topic of discussion.
*What do you think is the Strettons' motivation for fostering Sally-Anne? It doesn't really sound like they want to welcome her as a family member.
*Also, Penelope and Percy finally getting along was really adorable. It seems like the one thing they have in common is that they don't really have any friends (that might be too much of a leap, but I'm basing it on Percy's general snotty attitude plus Penelope's statement that she couldn't get anybody to come to Hogsmeade with her). I wonder what they found to talk about over their butterbeer.
*Poor Bellatrix, having her Lord forget her birthday. She named her entry "V" which is interesting because it seems like she still thinks of him as Voldemort rather than Lord Protector, although I suspect she wouldn't use that name publicly anymore.
And what could Voldemort be working on? He's already achieved immortality and conquered Britain. What else does he want?
*from
longstrider: Pansy freaking breaks my heart. I know she's a little bit of a brat, but who wasn't at 11? She's been tortured, crucio and otherwise, multiple times in the last four months. (I don't want to know what Lucius did in the line of that resulted in her needing to freshen ... up before going on to our next appointment. I just don't. I know it could have just been a stern talking to, but Lucius, Pansy this universe? No I just don't want to know.)*from
travelintheways: So many of these characters are fascinating, but I think I look forward to Pansy's entries and comments the most. I'm never entirely sure when she's being serious about the LP and when she's being subversive. Pretty crafty for an 11 year old, though it's heart-breaking that she's had to learn that so early.Share other thoughts/observations/hellos in the comments. It's been quiet here this week. How is everyone?
EDIT: I've just had an idea for how alt_fen posts like this could work. Can everybody who has been reading lately and who has a few minutes link to one or two threads that struck them as interesting, and then add a comment or question about that thread? Then I'll copy everything up into the main post, and it'll be a way for us to touch base and share our thoughts in between the times when we have a big topic of discussion.
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Date: 2008-12-22 05:54 am (UTC)I know this is a slightly different issue, but it's actually been surprising to me at Hogwarts how much being around mudbloods *hasn't* improved attitudes towards them. If anything, it seems like it has confirmed what a lot of people already expected to believe about them: weird, dirty, inhuman.
In a way it makes sense, because of confirmation bias: we tend to notice the things we are looking for, and tend to look for things that agree with our pre-existing theories. Still, it's weird seeing it in action in this case. A few kids, like Neville and the younger Weasleys, seem to try to point to Terry and Hermione as evidence that Muggleborns are people with intelligence and feelings Just Like Us, but really those seem to only be the kids who grew up being subtly pointed towards that view by their parents/grandparent. Even with Pansy, it's hinted that her father dropped clues to her about secret Muggle sympathies and that's what opened her mind to being a little less closed-minded.
But with Millicent, Harry, Draco, Teddy, and others (Sally-Anne? I can never tell how much of what she says matches her actual beliefs), their exposure to Hogwarts Muggleborns seems to do nothing to change their prejudices, and in many cases they actually seem to strengthen them. Because of confirmation bias.
I used to think that once Voldemort's original followers aged a bit, and the new generation took over, the irrational prejudices of the parents wouldn't be sustainable. But now... well, I suppose there are many societies where prejudice has been passed from generation to generation without change.
The one big hope is that when this generation becomes teenagers, their tendency for teen rebellion might be enough to shake up their attitudes. Because so far, just being exposed to Mudbloods doesn't seem to have done much.