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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Merlion" data-source="post: 3116797" data-attributes="member: 10397">Discussion of politics is forbidden. I am in no way discussing politics. I'm discussing something I felt about a particular aspect of a work of fantasy fiction.If the moderators dont like it, they are of course free to remove it, warn me, ban me etc. But it is already understood that politically or religious topics may arise somewhat in discussion of the main things this site is about; it happens all the time. There have been entire threads discussing the experiences of gay gamers in their RPG groups etc with no problems. Yes of course we do. And he is an outcast regardless. But that doesnt have anything to do with what I am talking about. I am talking about the possibility that he may eventually have been portrayed as being gay (something even some literary observes have commented on).Of course if its not something you personally wish to discuss, I'm not going to make you. But wether or not the conversational direction is apropriate is up to the mods. They arent going to automatically close your thread. If they consider it a problem...which is a big if judging from my own past experiences, they will post and warn me. If they do, I wont bring it up again. But its a topic people on ENworld have shown themselves to be capable of discussing reasonbly. One, I wouldnt call this "dark."Two, children face this sort of thing, and worse, at ALL schools, with great frequency.Next, some of it is simply writers neccesity. Having McGonagall get involved and solve the problem wasnt what the author had planned. As you say it does reflect badly on McGonagall, but it made for a good story. I think Rowling has gotten better at handling that in later books. We dont really know exactly what Snape's whole deal is yet. However I tend to agree...I never really understand people who show no regard for the feelings of others. This is an odd one for me. On the one hand, as I mentioned in an earlier post, it seems odd to me to be surprised that a school would allow/turn a blind eye to bullying, because its standard procedure in all schools. In the case of most public compulsory schools such as those here in the US, bullying is in fact part of the insitution's real purpose.However, this is a fantasy school of magic run by a very powerful, very benevolent wizard. So there are I think two answers to why this is in this situation.One: Dumbledore believes that he should allow people to make their own decisions, rather than using his power to force people to behave themselves. He'd rather have them figure it out on their own.Two (the real reason), because it would interfere with the author having the events she wants to take place, take place. People dont always do the right, logical, or sensible thing. In fact, they frequently do the oposite. And in stories, if your characters always do the best thing, you rarely have much of a story.Also I think it reflects the life of children and young people very well. From age 5 or 6 children are sent into a hostile enviroment full of adult strangers who may or may not give a fflip about them. Their word is rarely accorded much credence. And they are kept in this state of subservient childhood even after their minds and body's are mostly grown. Hogwarts is still a lot better than real schools.</blockquote>

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