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diff --git a/literature/hp_redemption.rst b/literature/hp_redemption.rst new file mode 100644 index 0000000..adc4f65 --- /dev/null +++ b/literature/hp_redemption.rst @@ -0,0 +1,68 @@ +How redeemable is canon Draco Malfoy? +##################################### + +:date: 2019-12-08T22:24:29 +:category: literature +:tags: review, harryPotter, blogComment, fromReddit + +(originally posted_ on Reddit) + +Yes, everybody is redeemable. I believe redemption stories of +some former SSmen (and SSwomen), guards in the Nazi concentration +camps, etc. Redemption (or let’s use the old-fashioned term +“conversion” or “penance”) however doesn’t mean to somehow excuse +previous deeds. It requires true acknowledgement that these deeds +happened, to own them, and to admit that they were evil. It +requires honest asking for forgiveness. I don’t want to get any +political, but it requires at least on the personal level, +something like what Germany did after the Second World War (see +for example recent visit of `Angela Merkel in Auschwitz`_). + +What do we see in most so-called redemption stories of Draco +Malfoy (or Severus Snape, or Petunia Dursley)? Excuses that those +deeds were not so bad, excuses that they were crippled by their +past, excuses by some good deeds they have done as well (“Your +honour, why we are still talking about those twenty minutes when +I was stealing from the bank, and not about my whole life when +I was a good law-abiding citizen?”). Yes, there could be an +interesting story how the path to hell is paved with good +intentions, and how somebody can persuade herself, that being +a Death Eater is The Right Thing to do, but that’s a different +kind of literature and I think it would do better for everybody +involved if they were kept separate. What I would be more +interested, and what I mostly still wait for is the story how the +main heroes stand in the wreckage of their lives, they are +disgusted in themselves, and they try to build up their lives +back. + +Perhaps the closest I got to it was `Exile by bennybear`_, but +even that was more story of a pureblood trying to find his way in +the strange world of muggles then true redemption story of +dealing with guilt. Nevertheless, it is still a very good story. + +Or perhaps `Dudley’s Memories`_ and `Snape’s Memories`_ by +paganaidd for the Dudley character, not so much for Snape who is +more in the excuses territory. The same author wrote `Digging for +the Bones`_, which is one of the best attempts to do the +redemption for Snape/Severitus, but still, I think it mixes too +much of the path-to-hell-pavement with the redemption and it +sometimes balances quite close to making excuses for his +behaviour (BTW, I **love** Molly Weasley in this story). + +.. _`Angela Merkel in Auschwitz`: + https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-europe-50690669/auschwitz-visit-responsibility-for-nazi-crimes-part-of-german-identity-says-merkel + +.. _`Exile by bennybear`: + https://www.fanfiction.net/s/6432055 + +.. _`Dudley’s Memories`: + https://www.fanfiction.net/s/6142629/1/Dudley-s-Memories + +.. _`Snape’s Memories`: + https://www.fanfiction.net/s/6329597/1/Snape-s-Memories + +.. _`Digging for the Bones`: + https://www.fanfiction.net/s/6782408/1/Digging-for-the-Bones + +.. _posted: + https://www.reddit.com/r/HPfanfiction/comments/e7hp1z/how_redeemable_is_canon_draco_malfoy/fa3isp1/ |