I don’t quite see how this takedown of Skeeter is so brilliant. Ok, she’s been convinced of something that’s not true, but what of it? She’s written untrue things before without getting into trouble. And the nature of the story doesn’t seem particularly damaging to Lucius’s interests either. Harry Potter engaged to Ginny Weasley, well, so what? It seems to me that Harry and Quirrell are both being very impressed with the technical difficulty of what’s been done, without particularly considering the more relevant aspect of how damaging it is. They both just assume that Lucius will retaliate against Skeeter, but why should he?
Also, and related, I was rather disappointed at Skeeter dying like that. We don’t get to see the effects of the brilliant takedown, they are merely asserted! Boring! Admittedly it’s clearly the result of Quirrell’s plans overlapping with Harry’s, but narratively it’s rather inefficient. It’s one thing to have the hero suffer from two enemies both plotting against him, and show how he gets into even worse trouble because of how they interact, but a villain should not be defeated this way.
I don’t quite see how this takedown of Skeeter is so brilliant. Ok, she’s been convinced of something that’s not true, but what of it? She’s written untrue things before without getting into trouble.
That’s what I was wondering about the most. Perhaps the main difference is that her usual dishonest stories are written to be difficult to falsify — so it’s technically her word against her victims’ — whereas in this case she believes the story to be true, and perhaps the Weasley twins will have left specific proof that the story is false, or perhaps even made it appear that she had actively forged the evidence; this could compel the Daily Prophet to fire her (even if they don’t really want to). It probably wouldn’t do much to her reputation (sounds like everyone already hates her), but if it interferes with her career, her ability to disseminate information to wide audiences, that could indeed reduce her usefulness to Lucius.
Come to think of it, how do real tabloids get away with reporting week after week that every celebrity is having an affair with every other celebrity or is in drug rehab or whatever? Do the celebrities in question just not consider it worth the time or money to go after them for libel?
Read up to Chapter 26, commenting on same.
I don’t quite see how this takedown of Skeeter is so brilliant. Ok, she’s been convinced of something that’s not true, but what of it? She’s written untrue things before without getting into trouble. And the nature of the story doesn’t seem particularly damaging to Lucius’s interests either. Harry Potter engaged to Ginny Weasley, well, so what? It seems to me that Harry and Quirrell are both being very impressed with the technical difficulty of what’s been done, without particularly considering the more relevant aspect of how damaging it is. They both just assume that Lucius will retaliate against Skeeter, but why should he?
Also, and related, I was rather disappointed at Skeeter dying like that. We don’t get to see the effects of the brilliant takedown, they are merely asserted! Boring! Admittedly it’s clearly the result of Quirrell’s plans overlapping with Harry’s, but narratively it’s rather inefficient. It’s one thing to have the hero suffer from two enemies both plotting against him, and show how he gets into even worse trouble because of how they interact, but a villain should not be defeated this way.
That’s what I was wondering about the most. Perhaps the main difference is that her usual dishonest stories are written to be difficult to falsify — so it’s technically her word against her victims’ — whereas in this case she believes the story to be true, and perhaps the Weasley twins will have left specific proof that the story is false, or perhaps even made it appear that she had actively forged the evidence; this could compel the Daily Prophet to fire her (even if they don’t really want to). It probably wouldn’t do much to her reputation (sounds like everyone already hates her), but if it interferes with her career, her ability to disseminate information to wide audiences, that could indeed reduce her usefulness to Lucius.
Come to think of it, how do real tabloids get away with reporting week after week that every celebrity is having an affair with every other celebrity or is in drug rehab or whatever? Do the celebrities in question just not consider it worth the time or money to go after them for libel?