I’m reading MOR with considerable interest and enjoyment—and recommending it—but.....
There’s a big emotional difference between HP and MOR. In the original, Harry has no friends or allies at the Dursley’s. In MOR, his family life isn’t great and he doesn’t seem to have any friends or anyone he’s expecting to miss, but he isn’t under constant attack.
Part of the emotional hook in HP is that Harry is almost immediately in a circle of friends and acquires a family in the Weasleys.
In MOR, his best emotional connection is to McGonagle, but it’s complicated by his intellectual dominance. None of his close friends from HP are worth being close to (or did I miss someone?). His nearest approach to a friend his own age is Draco, and that’s very much complicated by Draco having been raised to be a sociopath, and by Harry’s need to manage Draco.
Part of the charm of HP was that Hermione’s memory, intelligence, and conscientiousness are presented as more valuable than annoying, though the annoyance for the other characters is still there. This is a rationalist feature of HP which seems to be lost in MOR—Hermione is interested in getting things right for the sake of status.
Her delight at being in a Romance completely eclipsing the question of whether she likes Harry is depressing, but within the human range, I think.
QuirrelMort setting up the Harry’s structured humiliation no doubt has plot reasons, but I can also model it as organizational hysteresis—after Harry made such a strong power grab in re Snape, it’s plausible that great efforts will be made to remind him that he’s just a student.
I have a notion that it wasn’t just his mother’s sacrifice that saved Harry, it was also something he did, and his reflexive rage and need to win is hooked to what he did to survive when he was a baby.
is the training that Draco is getting from Lucius based in anything from the novels? The Dracos never impressed me. They just seemed to be rich and mean, and the Pure Blood campaign is weirdly abstract and idealistic compared to their temperaments. (Is there a reverse halo effect where all bad qualities accrete something which is considered to be bad? The Dracos are bullies, so of course it’s reasonable to turn them into Nazis.) To my mind Slughorn is part of the real range of Slytherin possibilities.
that’s very much complicated by Draco having been raised to be a sociopath
I need to object pretty strongly to this particular phrase. Draco is not being raised to be a sociopath; he’s being raised to be a high-status member of a hierarchical society. Draco and his father very much love each other, and are perfectly capable of making real emotional bonds with people that they have identified unequivocally as ‘pack’. EY has actually done very well at showing Draco as what a perfectly normal child becomes in that environment.
This is an important distinction, because we need to remember that ‘sociopathy’ is a comparatively rare (and usually inborn) condition, while high-status machiavellian narcissism is a natural consequence of human evolutionary psychology.
In MOR, his best emotional connection is to McGonagle, but it’s complicated by his intellectual dominance. None of his close friends from HP are worth being close to (or did I miss someone?).
In fact Harry himself doesn’t seem particularly worth being particularly close to. He’d be a pain in the ass to be around and he’s probably going to become a demi-god and care about what you want no matter what you do.
I agree to an extent. He does remind me of people I’ve known in the rationalist movement. It’s worth pointing out that him blurting out the wrong thing at the wrong time isn’t just an annoying character trait, it’s probably symptomatic; I’d speculate he doesn’t really consider other people as fellow actors in his decision making. If there was someone who did not make efforts to bond with people around him, would you be willing to trust him with power over their happiness?
That’s a non hypothetical question, I’d love to hear a rebuttal.
I should reread, but the most recent chapter with Hermione presents her as a person who’s at least much less worth spending time with than the HP Hermione.
I’m reading MOR with considerable interest and enjoyment—and recommending it—but.....
There’s a big emotional difference between HP and MOR. In the original, Harry has no friends or allies at the Dursley’s. In MOR, his family life isn’t great and he doesn’t seem to have any friends or anyone he’s expecting to miss, but he isn’t under constant attack.
Part of the emotional hook in HP is that Harry is almost immediately in a circle of friends and acquires a family in the Weasleys.
In MOR, his best emotional connection is to McGonagle, but it’s complicated by his intellectual dominance. None of his close friends from HP are worth being close to (or did I miss someone?). His nearest approach to a friend his own age is Draco, and that’s very much complicated by Draco having been raised to be a sociopath, and by Harry’s need to manage Draco.
Part of the charm of HP was that Hermione’s memory, intelligence, and conscientiousness are presented as more valuable than annoying, though the annoyance for the other characters is still there. This is a rationalist feature of HP which seems to be lost in MOR—Hermione is interested in getting things right for the sake of status.
Her delight at being in a Romance completely eclipsing the question of whether she likes Harry is depressing, but within the human range, I think.
QuirrelMort setting up the Harry’s structured humiliation no doubt has plot reasons, but I can also model it as organizational hysteresis—after Harry made such a strong power grab in re Snape, it’s plausible that great efforts will be made to remind him that he’s just a student.
I have a notion that it wasn’t just his mother’s sacrifice that saved Harry, it was also something he did, and his reflexive rage and need to win is hooked to what he did to survive when he was a baby.
is the training that Draco is getting from Lucius based in anything from the novels? The Dracos never impressed me. They just seemed to be rich and mean, and the Pure Blood campaign is weirdly abstract and idealistic compared to their temperaments. (Is there a reverse halo effect where all bad qualities accrete something which is considered to be bad? The Dracos are bullies, so of course it’s reasonable to turn them into Nazis.) To my mind Slughorn is part of the real range of Slytherin possibilities.
I need to object pretty strongly to this particular phrase. Draco is not being raised to be a sociopath; he’s being raised to be a high-status member of a hierarchical society. Draco and his father very much love each other, and are perfectly capable of making real emotional bonds with people that they have identified unequivocally as ‘pack’. EY has actually done very well at showing Draco as what a perfectly normal child becomes in that environment.
This is an important distinction, because we need to remember that ‘sociopathy’ is a comparatively rare (and usually inborn) condition, while high-status machiavellian narcissism is a natural consequence of human evolutionary psychology.
I think it’s more a matter of approaching romance with the maturity and self-reflection abilities of an eleven-year-old.
In fact Harry himself doesn’t seem particularly worth being particularly close to. He’d be a pain in the ass to be around and he’s probably going to become a demi-god and care about what you want no matter what you do.
I agree to an extent. He does remind me of people I’ve known in the rationalist movement. It’s worth pointing out that him blurting out the wrong thing at the wrong time isn’t just an annoying character trait, it’s probably symptomatic; I’d speculate he doesn’t really consider other people as fellow actors in his decision making. If there was someone who did not make efforts to bond with people around him, would you be willing to trust him with power over their happiness?
That’s a non hypothetical question, I’d love to hear a rebuttal.
Hermione?
I should reread, but the most recent chapter with Hermione presents her as a person who’s at least much less worth spending time with than the HP Hermione.
Really? It seemed that she’s just a bit genre savvy. She’s an 11 year old who’s main understanding of how the world works is from distilling tropes.
The reverse halo effect you describe is called the horns effect.