A Pilgrim Named Dad

Grant me purity and piety in my words, but not yet.

[A Pilgrim Named Dad @GodsBeggar]

You cannot love without wanting to fight for a beloved. But you cannot fight for a beloved unless they are someone worth fighting for. Thus, War and Wooing are not separate: they are Romance itself. https://t.co/YKytAFktuE

[A Pilgrim Named Dad @GodsBeggar]

@ElysiaHelper Sorry, the X filter got you. Can you DM me?

[A Pilgrim Named Dad @GodsBeggar]

Happy Malfoid Monday: Everyone is offering according to their skills. I am no great artist, but I AM a professional editor. If you will accept my lack of source-material knowledge, I would like to help the resurgence to produce the best things it can.

TBH, though, people changing to aim at higher things is itself the most important change.

Please be mindful that I am juggling many jobs, so I may not be able to take every request.

But if you want some professional treatment, I can provide that for you. I do not care how amateur you are; I will take you as seriously as you intend to be.

[A Pilgrim Named Dad @GodsBeggar]

@SidedCoin Far be it from me to upset consensus, then.

[A Pilgrim Named Dad @GodsBeggar]

I was asked to comment on this, after it was explained to me:

Sectumsempra _can_ deprive Malfoid of having children if Harry is kept mostly as he is in the source material, i.e. using trickery and lies/stealing to solve his problems. To me, it becomes a tragic, ironic punishment for his lack of development and would prompt his growth as a young man.

Sectumsempra _cannot_ deprive Malfoid of having children, however, if Harry is written in a way where he becomes a worthy Lover over time, shedding childish morals for the morals of a man. That's when the child-deprivation becomes a cheap hit of angst.

At least, that's what Aristotle would say.

_I_ say that he and Malfoid should have ten children and be really snooty about it.

[OrangTheMan @OrangTheMan]

Sectumsempra

[A Pilgrim Named Dad @GodsBeggar]

@IsBirdWatching “For Enemies” takes on a whole new meaning, here, if it was a scrotum-seeking missile spell.

[A Pilgrim Named Dad @GodsBeggar]

@AtavismDr By the way, I wanted to extend a personal thanks to your comment the other day that helped spurn the creation of an article. You and @Kit_Shicker were discussing Malfoid, and I saw that I was not alone.

[A Pilgrim Named Dad @GodsBeggar]

@AtavismDr Pretty wild, right? It's a "gothel did nothing wrong" moment when I teach this in class.

[A Pilgrim Named Dad @GodsBeggar]

@EthosHeretica Ah, it's Feliciano de Silva's ghost, come back to haunt us: the OG "I only write sequels to other people's work to cash in" courtslop writer.

[A Pilgrim Named Dad @GodsBeggar]

@EthosHeretica What, seriously?

[A Pilgrim Named Dad @GodsBeggar]

@JOrgonezoner Others may not know, but for what it's worth, I will hand this to you.

[A Pilgrim Named Dad @GodsBeggar]

@EthosHeretica Look out Heretic, another Innkeeper, another Mirror Knight.

[A Pilgrim Named Dad @GodsBeggar]

@firegryphon Right, and now we see my weakness in this arena. I guess "Well it can work if _we change everything_" is a poor remedial tool.

[A Pilgrim Named Dad @GodsBeggar]

@reriotar Specifically, the discussion of _hamartia_.

[A Pilgrim Named Dad @GodsBeggar]

I wasn't relying on the Ethics. I was relying on the Poetics. It proscribes certain conditions for art that "represents men either as better than in real life, or as worse, or as they are."

[A Pilgrim Named Dad @GodsBeggar]

It has everything to do with the Feminine power fantasy, viz. to ennoble via mere presence/recognition. If the Female Wielder of the Ennobling power is also injured in the process, then she also receives the accolade of "martyr."

This dynamic has existed for a long time. Modern examples include Hull's 1919 novel, The Sheikh, wherein a... victim of coerced hugging... is able to convince the local warlord to abandon his treacherous ways. This goes all the way up to that benighted romantasy book about the minotaur.

[A Pilgrim Named Dad @GodsBeggar]

I think the parallels are very hard to ignore. The relationship can also follow Spenserian Romance where they can kneel to each other and flip the dynamic: Harry is a sinner, improved by the pursuit of something of a higher order than himself. Malfoid redeems by the virtue that her knight-errant sees in here.

This is not unlike The Man of La Mancha.

[A Pilgrim Named Dad @GodsBeggar]

https://t.co/A9t24HbmVg

[A Pilgrim Named Dad @GodsBeggar]

@RampantDaydream This is how I'd prefer it, but I was only making a narratological observation.

[A Pilgrim Named Dad @GodsBeggar]

@lumpish593

[A Pilgrim Named Dad @GodsBeggar]

@Alter_ExPatria Hmmm, I'll have to accept your authority here. Concede.

[A Pilgrim Named Dad @GodsBeggar]

I'm no fanfiction writer, nor am I a loremaster, so my opinion here means very little.

That being said, I think sectumsempra as written has this irrevocable problem that you're mentioning. I'd solve it, however, by removing the secrecy around it. As I understand it, Harry irresponsibly uses it because it's "for enemies," a title that he, like young-Snape, uses immaturely.

That reinforces his character flaws when he uses it to win a fight against Tom Felton, not knowing what it did.

If Harry understood what it was, and then employed it against a faceless shadow that he'd been chasing, that ended up being Malfoid in disguise, then it's an accident fueled not by irresponsibility but by haphazard vengeance. That's something that a man can learn from.

Malfoid is free to interpret being the victim of the spell as many fanfictions have done. Harry, though, with the benefit of knowledge, is called upon to realize the identity of his real enemies, i.e. not the humdrum "bullies" at his school.

[A Pilgrim Named Dad @GodsBeggar]

@NW_Viking Also, thank you for reading the article and for your kind words.

[A Pilgrim Named Dad @GodsBeggar]

You cannot love without wanting to fight for a beloved. But you cannot fight for a beloved unless they are someone worth fighting for. Thus, War and Wooing are not separate: they are Romance itself. https://t.co/YKytAFktuE

[A Pilgrim Named Dad @GodsBeggar]

C.S. Lewis once said we humans have encountered only two major cultural/historical shifts that fundamentally redefined our world views: The christening of Europe, and the unchristening of culture.

He lists the following as factors: (1) A change in the governing image of the universe; (2) reorientation of the "chest," i.e. morals. New technology does this when it _starves_ or _redirects_ the affections and the sense of value.

Sounds familiar? AI likely has completely reoriented our morals because it gave everyone the tools needed to redirect their attentions and their sense of value - we don't have to wait for media creators, anymore, to produce content that does that FOR us.

Malfoid was inevitable.