pauraque_bk | Vacation yay!

I've just come back from visiting

keladryb in South Lake Tahoe, and am relaxed and happy (and sunburned). I hadn't had a vacation in a long time. Kel was a gracious host, and the scenery was breathtaking. She let me win at ping-pong. We built a sand castle. French toast was consumed. And we watched West Wing and the last fifteen minutes of Chamber of Secrets, so our respective fandom needs were satisfied. Simple things in life, dude.

I skimmed my flist a couple of times on her comp, but I'm not going to try to catch up. If you posted anything that you wanted me to see, let me know.

One thing I did catch:

hp_survivor starts today! Woo! *waves pom-poms for

purveyorofaid*

*

And now that I'm back, on with the reread!

PoA 6: Talons and Tea Leaves

[...]the first thing they saw was Draco Malfoy, who seemed to be entertaining a large group of Slytherins with a very funny story. As they passed, Malfoy did a ridiculous impression of a swooning fit and there was a roar of laughter. (75)

'I'm dying!' Malfoy yelled, as the class panicked. 'I'm dying, look at me! It's killed me!' (90)

Draco is a complete drama queen. He also doesn't have much cause to get a grip on himself, since his "ridiculous" theatrical behavior has apparently made him very popular.

'That little git,' [George] said calmly. '[Malfoy] wasn't so cocky last night when the Dementors were down our end of the train. Came running into our compartment, didn't he, Fred?' (75)

So, Neville wasn't the only one wandering into other compartments that night. I'm still not sure I see the logic in this.

[George]: 'Most of the prisoners go mad [in Azkaban].' (76)

Again, this is common knowledge, remarked on casually.

'[...]And around Easter, one of our number will leave us forever.' (80)

Easter. Not Beltane, not April. As usual, the WW acknowledges Christianity in an oddly secular way. Perhaps this could go along with the idea that the break with Muggle society was traumatic to wizarding society, and that they still cling to the trappings of Muggle culture for this reason.

'[...]Oh, and dear --' she caught Neville by the arm as he made to stand up, 'after you've broken your first cup, would you be so kind as to select one of the blue patterned ones? I'm rather attached to the pink.' (81)

Trelawney really isn't a bad fortune teller, in the Muggle sense: she can size people up quickly and accurately, and use their insecurities to predict something likely and effective. She asks Neville immediately if his grandmother is well, suggesting to me that for all her talk about rarely coming downstairs, she knows perfectly well who Neville is. Neville reacts with immediate fear, so she tries him again with this prediction about the teacups -- an educated guess, given that he's already trembling (80), and she may have heard from other teachers that he's a klutz. He fulfils that prophecy, so she goes after him once again, predicting he'll be late for her next class. This all looks like the work of an experienced Muggle fortune teller.

The real question is, how aware is Trelawney of what she's doing? She does have real talent, but it's wild, and activates without her being consciously aware of it (GoF). Does she really believe she's magically telling the kids' futures here?

I took a religious anthropology class some years back, and the textbooks I was set have some fascinating articles on the psychology of magic-users in societies that believe in magic (unlike our own). Of course, many magic-users truly believe they have magic, but some know they do not. I remember an interview with an African shaman who was hiding a terrible secret -- he had no magical talent. He didn't question that magic did exist (in other shamans), and his tribe believed he had magic, so he'd learned to fake it, but he couldn't face telling them the truth.

I don't see this in Trelawney. I think she's deluding herself, not really aware that she, too, has learned to fake it. Her alarm at Harry's tea leaves seems real to me.

I also wonder if the wizarding education system just isn't up to dealing with Seers. Trelawney's prognostication seems about on the same level as Harry's magic as a child. We're told again and again that Seeing is tricky and not to be trusted (McGonagall says so in this chapter), but ALL magic is uncontrolled until it's educated. Looking into the past is commonplace and reliable in this world (the Pensieve), so why not looking into the future?

He could tell that he wasn't the only one who didn't [know what a Grim was]; Dean Thomas shrugged at him and Lavender Brown looked puzzled[...] (82)

Lavender's a Muggleborn. I'd forgotten that.

'My -- my Uncle Bilius saw one and -- and he died twenty-four hours later!' (85)

Aw, Ron's middle name is after his poor uncle who died after seeing a Grim.

Neville ran repeatedly backwards from his, which didn't seem to want to bend its knees. (90)

Harry, too, is wary of the Hippogriffs and doubts his ability to control them (89), but he doesn't let it show. Again, Neville plays out Harry's anxieties.

Past re-read posts are saved in memories here.