~~ how lame is -this-. heh.
Sep. 29th, 2003 03:20 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
reenkaI'm rather embarrassed to think that one day... or now... someone non-fandom could read this stuff and think, "oh my, is this all she thinks about?" and... er... the answer would sort of be "yes and no", but it's close enough to yes that I get wibbly. I spent the weekend talking to ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
addictedkitten about mostly fandom things (at least I'm not alone). I indulged my skills as a traveling beta. We talked about everyone behind their backs (hehehe). It's all good :D
Well, no, I lie. Mostly, we just talked about porn. *laughs* Partly loitering on the steps of a comic store at like, some ungodly hour like 1:30 or something. Dude. We are so cool it hurts.
So Sara tells me (well, not in so many words) it would be cool if I mixed things up and mentioned my "real life" (not that I have any) more. Because then I would be a real person, just like... everyone else? Heh. Yeah. And this would be part of my not-so-sekrit plan to... er... bore everyone to death. Exciting. And yet sad at the same time.
Mostly, I was remembering how Sara insisted that she's Slytherin, and I was like, Dude! You are so not! And she kept saying she was, so eventually I said I supported her choice. But she let me be Ravenclaw 'cause I have issues with being a Hufflepuff (I told you! We are so cool it's hurting me still.) So anyway... this led to my so-called revelation..... *coughs*
There is a number of people who say they're Slytherin in this fandom (you all know who you are), who are so... not. And then there are the myriad quizzes who tell you who you are and people point to them and almost actually believe they've been sorted. And then there's all the confusion about whether the HP characters were correctly sorted (but no! Hermione's a Ravenclaw! Harry's a Slytherin! Neville's a Hufflepuff! etc). So, being brilliantly fascinating as I am, I thought about this on the way home.
It seems almost painfully obvious that you are Sorted into whatever House you want to be Sorted into. I mean, I know the Hat makes a show of picking the House for the student, but in reality, Ron and Harry and Draco were all Sorted specifically according to their desires and/or expectations. I think the case could easily be made that the Hat looks at what motivates them on the conscious preferences level as much or more than at the subconscious aptitudes level.
This would explain why some students don't seem to be "smart enough" or "brave enough" or "cunning enough" (hello, Crabbe) for their House. It would also explain everyone's favorite question of Why Was Tom Riddle In Slytherin Though He's A Halfblood. Clearly, even though the Houses were founded on certain principles, those principles don't count for as much as they did initially, and really the directions one takes in life (and in Hogwarts) are controlled by -choice-. This would make sense with JKR's overall theme better, too. This would also tie in with some sort of "redemption" of Slytherin-as-a-House, simply because it proves that no one's intrinsically -different-, no matter where they are, and it's only their conscious desire to segregate themselves that really influences the resulting separation.
There are no "good" exceptions in Slytherin, but Crabbe or Goyle aren't cunning or all that ambitious, and really, how cunning is Draco. They're shown as sucking anyway, but not because they're so -Slytherin-. Hey, it could be important. Also, maybe this inspires someone to no longer torture themselves over whether Slytherin can accept non-purebloods. I don't think Dumbledore would -allow- a House that didn't, too. This is a matter of publicity keeping the population stable more than anything, it seems to me.
addictedkitten about mostly fandom things (at least I'm not alone). I indulged my skills as a traveling beta. We talked about everyone behind their backs (hehehe). It's all good :DWell, no, I lie. Mostly, we just talked about porn. *laughs* Partly loitering on the steps of a comic store at like, some ungodly hour like 1:30 or something. Dude. We are so cool it hurts.
So Sara tells me (well, not in so many words) it would be cool if I mixed things up and mentioned my "real life" (not that I have any) more. Because then I would be a real person, just like... everyone else? Heh. Yeah. And this would be part of my not-so-sekrit plan to... er... bore everyone to death. Exciting. And yet sad at the same time.
Mostly, I was remembering how Sara insisted that she's Slytherin, and I was like, Dude! You are so not! And she kept saying she was, so eventually I said I supported her choice. But she let me be Ravenclaw 'cause I have issues with being a Hufflepuff (I told you! We are so cool it's hurting me still.) So anyway... this led to my so-called revelation..... *coughs*
There is a number of people who say they're Slytherin in this fandom (you all know who you are), who are so... not. And then there are the myriad quizzes who tell you who you are and people point to them and almost actually believe they've been sorted. And then there's all the confusion about whether the HP characters were correctly sorted (but no! Hermione's a Ravenclaw! Harry's a Slytherin! Neville's a Hufflepuff! etc). So, being brilliantly fascinating as I am, I thought about this on the way home.
It seems almost painfully obvious that you are Sorted into whatever House you want to be Sorted into. I mean, I know the Hat makes a show of picking the House for the student, but in reality, Ron and Harry and Draco were all Sorted specifically according to their desires and/or expectations. I think the case could easily be made that the Hat looks at what motivates them on the conscious preferences level as much or more than at the subconscious aptitudes level.
This would explain why some students don't seem to be "smart enough" or "brave enough" or "cunning enough" (hello, Crabbe) for their House. It would also explain everyone's favorite question of Why Was Tom Riddle In Slytherin Though He's A Halfblood. Clearly, even though the Houses were founded on certain principles, those principles don't count for as much as they did initially, and really the directions one takes in life (and in Hogwarts) are controlled by -choice-. This would make sense with JKR's overall theme better, too. This would also tie in with some sort of "redemption" of Slytherin-as-a-House, simply because it proves that no one's intrinsically -different-, no matter where they are, and it's only their conscious desire to segregate themselves that really influences the resulting separation.
There are no "good" exceptions in Slytherin, but Crabbe or Goyle aren't cunning or all that ambitious, and really, how cunning is Draco. They're shown as sucking anyway, but not because they're so -Slytherin-. Hey, it could be important. Also, maybe this inspires someone to no longer torture themselves over whether Slytherin can accept non-purebloods. I don't think Dumbledore would -allow- a House that didn't, too. This is a matter of publicity keeping the population stable more than anything, it seems to me.
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no subject
Date: 2003-09-29 10:41 am (UTC)See, I've always wondered about this, because the question itself implies that everyone in Slytherin is, by and large, a pureblood. Now, that makes sense on the one hand, with Slytherin wanting only purebloods at Hogwarts. But on the other hand, number wise, it doesn't seem to work. We know that most wizards are half-bloods, and accounting for the fact that some that are pureblooded get sorted into other houses (like the Weasleys), there doesn't seem to be enough students left over to fill an entire house. I've always assumed that if someone displays the "personality traits" of a Slytherin they would be sorted there regardless of their blood line, with maybe a warning from the hat (as in: are you sure you want to go into Slytherin? they don't take kindly to half bloods). What are people's general opinions on this? Are all Slytherins purebloods?
no subject
Date: 2003-09-29 04:10 pm (UTC)The hat has said different things about what it takes to get into any particular House every year. The only thing that's constant is that the people we know seem to -want- to be where they are and to feel some sort of "House spirit" somehow. So they want to be there, and there's no obvious in-House fighting. I can only assume the whole question of Slytherin=Purebloods(?) to be ill-formed and unnecessary.
We know that most wizards are half-bloods
We do?
Where are you getting this from?
Of course, we don't know -that- much about the wizarding world on this issue, but it seems like if they were so common, there wouldn't be all this prejudice, so it has to be the minority and purebloods in the majority, although they do seem to feel threatened so the numbers must be increasing, I think.
no subject
Date: 2003-09-29 04:46 pm (UTC)Er...something Hagrid said back in CoS...*fishes out battered copy*..."Most Wizards these days are half-blood anyway. If we hadn't married muggles we'd've died out." (p100).
But never mind, I can't even remember why I brought that up. Your thoughts on sorting though, very interesting. The whole "House Spirit" concept sounds like the best explanation I've never thought of. You're right, the only thing they all have in common is that they're in the house they wanted to be in, and that would mean that their preferences outweigh their personality traits when it comes to being sorted.