July novel-reading

[garran]

A fairly predictable pattern, this month.

J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (reread)
Lois McMaster Bujold, The Sharing Knife: Legacy
Steven Brust, Dzur
J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (reread)
J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (reread)
J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (reread)
J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (reread)
J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
Gene Wolfe, The Shadow of the Torturer

On a nearby subject, I wanted to ask: which, if any, of the Hogwarts houses do the people reading this who have also read the books feel kinship with? Actually, what I wanted to ask was, "Do I have any friends who don't self-identify as Ravenclaw?" but before I got around to it I found somewhere* where a Windsor House acquaintance had described themselves as a Gryffindor. I'm still interested in whether Ravenclaw is as popular as it seems to be, though, based on its disproportionate favour among people I know who have told me that they think they'd be in a particular of the houses, so I'm especially interested in folks who feel inclined toward one of the other three. (Don't worry, we can still hang out!)

(* Okay, so it was their facebook page. I feel embarrassed to publicly admit that I'm using facebook now, but I guess it means that I can muse about it in public later.)

If any spoilers for the final book appear in my comments I will edit the post to mention them. Since I know that there is at least one person reading this who hasn't got to it yet and cares if they're spoiled, it would be cool if commenters could also clearly mark that spoilers are coming up if there are any, in case I don't get there in time. Edit: Some moderate spoilers have appeared, so far only in comments that are marked with warnings in the subject line. The earlier books, of course, are spoiled with impunity.

I finally duct taped the armrests to my computer chair. That's going to be so much better.

Comments

[opt513.livejournal.com]

The hat is not indifferent to a person's choice, that is true. But just because a person values different things doesn't make them fundamentally different, and just because a person values a character trait doesn't mean they have it.

Wisdom is prized by Ravenclaw, but Cho doesn't seem very wise to me, nor does her friend with the boils on her face. And considering the Grey Lady's story, Ravenclaw has a long history of producing wizards that didn't really live up to what they believed in. I'm sure there are people like that from the other houses as well.

I think I've drifted off topic, however. Judging a house by its failures would be as unfair as, say, writing off the entirety of one house as irredeemably evil.

[vorkon.livejournal.com]

Well, that's the thing. Being a Ravenclaw isn't about actually BEING wise. It's about accumulating knowledge for its own sake, instead of to actually USE it for something. Now, the end result of that is often wisdom, simply because you've accumulated so much damn knowledge, but it isn't actually about wisdom, in and of itself. It's kind of the same way that Slytherin isn't actually about being evil, but that evil just has a nasty tendency to arise from the Slytherin mindset of being sneaky and abmitious.

[opt513.livejournal.com]

I suppose there's a point to that. And using the Dark Arts doesn't make one a dark wizard. After all, Harry himself has used two out of three Unforgiveable Curses.


The longer this conversation goes on, the more I figure I'd have been a Ravenclaw. Most of my life has been about accumulating knowledge without thinking what it would be good for, and honestly quite a lot of my knowledge doesn't seem to be all that useful.

That said, I'm still not British. Inasmuch as our American schools of wizardry would certainly be unplottable, the Washingtonian in me is telling me that there would have to be a school of magic around here somewhere. Either in the Olympic mountains, on an island in Puget Sound, or somewhere in the northern Cascades. Being as the Sorting appears to be unique to Hogwarts, well... there you have it.

[vorkon.livejournal.com]

I recall there being a mention of an American school for witches and wizards in Salem. There may have been others mentioned, but that's the only one I can remember off the top of my head. Other than that, though, for some reason I imagine that magic in the Americas would be dominated by the natives. That might just be the old Shadowrunner in me talking, though...

[opt513.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Salem, Massachusetts. One school isn't enough for a continent.

I think magic in the Americas may have more native influence in the south, but it seems to me that wizards in Rowling hold to roughly the same nationalist tendencies as muggles despite being mostly separate societies. I would expect the Salem academy to be entirely European style magic, and I would expect that the Unforgiveable Curses accompanied gunpowder and horses in wiping out most native magical traditions.