I don’t understand your comment. He’s casting himself as the Gandalf of this story, and trying to avoid one of Gandalf’s grave mistakes. That is exactly what is meant by Genre Savvy.
However, it still seems to me that Dumbledore is acting significantly more sane than he has in previous chapters. So far he has attempted to fill the role of Wise Old Wizard exactly.
Harry attempted to fill the role of Brave Young Hero and succeeded at that, but in the process, committed to something incredibly dangerous with less consideration than he would have given it under other circumstances.
I’d say rather that role-filling isn’t necessarily a smart thing. Much of how humans interact is little more than negotiated role-filling. In fact, choosing to fill-roles can be quite useful and adaptive. I don’t think it’s useful meaning of the word to consider 95% of the human race to be insane. Jumping into such choices without sufficient introspection, thought and intent is likely to lead to poorer outcomes, of course.
I’ve got to say, I think the wizardly mentor character pointing out the mistakes of Gandalf is about as far from Genre Savvy as one can get!
I don’t understand your comment. He’s casting himself as the Gandalf of this story, and trying to avoid one of Gandalf’s grave mistakes. That is exactly what is meant by Genre Savvy.
Well, that’s exactly what is meant by Genre Savvy if he is correct in his casting. I worry that he’s really Wrong Genre Savvy.
Hm, I guess you are right.
However, it still seems to me that Dumbledore is acting significantly more sane than he has in previous chapters. So far he has attempted to fill the role of Wise Old Wizard exactly.
Harry attempted to fill the role of Brave Young Hero and succeeded at that, but in the process, committed to something incredibly dangerous with less consideration than he would have given it under other circumstances.
Role-filling =/= sanity.
I’d say rather that role-filling isn’t necessarily a smart thing. Much of how humans interact is little more than negotiated role-filling. In fact, choosing to fill-roles can be quite useful and adaptive. I don’t think it’s useful meaning of the word to consider 95% of the human race to be insane. Jumping into such choices without sufficient introspection, thought and intent is likely to lead to poorer outcomes, of course.