I’d like to point out something awesome Eliezer did in the previous chapter, “Cheating”. In canon, Potions as a discipline is hardly taught at all. The only thing you ever see Snape do in the books is give a list of ingredients and instructions, tell the class how long the class period is, and assign papers at the end of the class. This is one example of how J.K. Rowling wasn’t really invested in developing the mythology of the universe, except as strictly necessary to make her plots happen. (There’s nothing wrong with that; they’re children’s books, not “real” fantasy for adults.)
With the “Cheating” chapter, rather than trying to create a whole framework of Potions rules to understand as he’s done elsewhere, he simply added a darn good explanation that legitimizes everything Rowling already showed us. When Hermione lectures Harry on “understanding the principles” in Half-Blood Prince, instead of scoffing about how there’s never been evidence of any principles to learn, we can now imagine that there’s a very good reason why Harry is never taught the principles of potion-making: if you’re not smart, thoughtful, and careful enough to figure them out for yourself, you have absolutely no business knowing them at all.
When compared side-by-side as if they’re in the same genre and directed toward the same audience, Methods of Rationality often makes the books look worse than they used to look. But in this case, future readings of the books will be made a little bit better. I wonder whether there are other ways that’s true that I haven’t noticed yet.
Seconded. In retrospect, the Canon teaching of potions now seems incredibly practical. The vast majority of students not only don’t need to learn the theory, but it’s a negative for them to do so. They only need to learn two things: 1) how to make the potions they’ll use every day and 2) whether or not they even can make those potions or if they should just buy them from someone else. Constant repetition with minimal instruction is exactly what you need for a class that’s more akin to cooking instead of calculus.
Potions is not the only thing that’s neglected in canon; Transfiguration is also “just” taught but never used (except by the teachers). I love it that Harry!MoR puts Transfiguration to good use; after all it seems to be the most general magic manipulation.
It feels a bit as if canon and MoR aren’t the same fiction subgenre. Canon is about a boy growing up, about action and an isolated society that still parallels the muggle society in many ways. MoR is more about discovering the magical world and about complicated plotting.
I’d like to point out something awesome Eliezer did in the previous chapter, “Cheating”. In canon, Potions as a discipline is hardly taught at all. The only thing you ever see Snape do in the books is give a list of ingredients and instructions, tell the class how long the class period is, and assign papers at the end of the class. This is one example of how J.K. Rowling wasn’t really invested in developing the mythology of the universe, except as strictly necessary to make her plots happen. (There’s nothing wrong with that; they’re children’s books, not “real” fantasy for adults.)
With the “Cheating” chapter, rather than trying to create a whole framework of Potions rules to understand as he’s done elsewhere, he simply added a darn good explanation that legitimizes everything Rowling already showed us. When Hermione lectures Harry on “understanding the principles” in Half-Blood Prince, instead of scoffing about how there’s never been evidence of any principles to learn, we can now imagine that there’s a very good reason why Harry is never taught the principles of potion-making: if you’re not smart, thoughtful, and careful enough to figure them out for yourself, you have absolutely no business knowing them at all.
When compared side-by-side as if they’re in the same genre and directed toward the same audience, Methods of Rationality often makes the books look worse than they used to look. But in this case, future readings of the books will be made a little bit better. I wonder whether there are other ways that’s true that I haven’t noticed yet.
Seconded. In retrospect, the Canon teaching of potions now seems incredibly practical. The vast majority of students not only don’t need to learn the theory, but it’s a negative for them to do so. They only need to learn two things: 1) how to make the potions they’ll use every day and 2) whether or not they even can make those potions or if they should just buy them from someone else. Constant repetition with minimal instruction is exactly what you need for a class that’s more akin to cooking instead of calculus.
Only this can be considered a condescending attitude. And more importantly can drive some intelligent students to moonlight through schooling :-)
Potions is not the only thing that’s neglected in canon; Transfiguration is also “just” taught but never used (except by the teachers). I love it that Harry!MoR puts Transfiguration to good use; after all it seems to be the most general magic manipulation.
It feels a bit as if canon and MoR aren’t the same fiction subgenre. Canon is about a boy growing up, about action and an isolated society that still parallels the muggle society in many ways. MoR is more about discovering the magical world and about complicated plotting.
I never viewed them as really belonging in the same genre. Canon is character focused adolesence tale, MoR is plot focused epic fantasy.
All I got from this is HarryMoRt*