"Ignore them" is good advice when the Slytherins really are just trying to get a rise out of them. Harry should have ignored Draco on the Quidditch Pitch in OotP, for instance. And when Draco's taunting him I don't think it's rude to ignore him. It's just that it goes beyond that. I think Harry has always come across as someone who judges them all and finds them wanting. It crosses the line between ignoring them until they are polite and just total disdain. It's really the same thing as Harry and Snape--they have no reason to believe that Harry will ever treat them with any respect so ignoring them when they're being jerks isn't like a way of teaching them to treat him better.
I love your take on Draco as a kind of attention-seeker. I hold back a little bit, because I do think he has a streak of sociopath to him that I find troubling -- especially the way he aligns with muggle-killers in CoS, which is one of the few times, for me, that he really goes over the line.
Since HBP I've re-read and re-appreciated Elkins' "Draco the Nutter" essay. I tend to see this streak the way she describes it there. I think JKR is setting up some interest contrasts in evil characters. Tom is a true sociopath having no empathy for others. Snape, from the little we know, seems quite a bit along that path himself. We're told he slithers out of action, but his Sectumsempra spell and apparently successful stint in the DEs (where he rose to prominence) to me suggests a strong stomach for evil deeds. Draco is interesting in that he certain aspires to that. If Muggleborns are not human and are just a disease to be cured or a vermin to be exterminated, the Heir is doing a good thing. He could be a bit like those kids raised by terrorists who are 7 years old and still spouting genocidal rhetoric--not to mention they are willing to blow themselves up in its service. That's the thing about kids, that whatever they grow up with is normal.
But that's not exactly what JKR is doing with Draco, because when he's at his worst, where he's literally facing DE murders and saying they are a good thing, JKR writes him as seeming not truly happy but on the edge, feverish, quivering, overly-bright eyed. A bit mad sounding. So the effect of evil on him is a little different than it is on Tom or Snape. Tom becomes ugly and twisted and inhuman. Snape is still human but is also repulsive and unhappy, bitter. Draco may just shatter and go mad, since embracing this sort of thing always seems accompanied by signs of physical distress: a flushed face, bright eyes, quivering, trembling, grey skin, shadowy eyes, cracked voice, looking like he might throw up. So yeah, the sociopathic streak is definitely something to worry about, but it doesn't manifest the same way as, say, Barty Crouch's does.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2006-01-20 04:16 pm (UTC)I love your take on Draco as a kind of attention-seeker. I hold back a little bit, because I do think he has a streak of sociopath to him that I find troubling -- especially the way he aligns with muggle-killers in CoS, which is one of the few times, for me, that he really goes over the line.
Since HBP I've re-read and re-appreciated Elkins' "Draco the Nutter" essay. I tend to see this streak the way she describes it there. I think JKR is setting up some interest contrasts in evil characters. Tom is a true sociopath having no empathy for others. Snape, from the little we know, seems quite a bit along that path himself. We're told he slithers out of action, but his Sectumsempra spell and apparently successful stint in the DEs (where he rose to prominence) to me suggests a strong stomach for evil deeds. Draco is interesting in that he certain aspires to that. If Muggleborns are not human and are just a disease to be cured or a vermin to be exterminated, the Heir is doing a good thing. He could be a bit like those kids raised by terrorists who are 7 years old and still spouting genocidal rhetoric--not to mention they are willing to blow themselves up in its service. That's the thing about kids, that whatever they grow up with is normal.
But that's not exactly what JKR is doing with Draco, because when he's at his worst, where he's literally facing DE murders and saying they are a good thing, JKR writes him as seeming not truly happy but on the edge, feverish, quivering, overly-bright eyed. A bit mad sounding. So the effect of evil on him is a little different than it is on Tom or Snape. Tom becomes ugly and twisted and inhuman. Snape is still human but is also repulsive and unhappy, bitter. Draco may just shatter and go mad, since embracing this sort of thing always seems accompanied by signs of physical distress: a flushed face, bright eyes, quivering, trembling, grey skin, shadowy eyes, cracked voice, looking like he might throw up. So yeah, the sociopathic streak is definitely something to worry about, but it doesn't manifest the same way as, say, Barty Crouch's does.