CHip@210,
I don't know the location of Moaning Myrtle's loo, but the question merits further study and debate.
I attended a Deathly Hallows party at the public library last summer, dressed as Moaning Myrtle. I wondered what house Moaning Myrtle had belonged to. (I figured Gryffindor, since she was in the bathroom Hermione uses, and that must be a Gryffindor bathroom, after all.)
But a fan dressed as Hermione told me that Moaning Myrtle had been in Ravenclaw. How did she know? J.K. Rowling had mentioned it in an interview.
To me, that didn't settle it. To my point of view, if it wasn't in the book (implicitly or explicitly) then we don't know what house Moaning Myrtle was in.
The fan dressed as Hermione and I saw this differently. To her, Rowling's extra-textual commentary made a difference to how she experienced the story. Not to me.
But the Dumbledore thing is different, because it does seem to be implied in the text.
Meanwhile, here in Pittsburgh, PA, there is a Mayoral race between Mayor Luke Ravenstahl and another candidate whose name doesn't sound like any of the Hogwarts houses. (I thought he would make that a campaign issue, but so far it hasn't come up.)
Of course the author is an authority on the books she writes, but we, the readers, don't have to accept that authority.
Or, rather, her authority only goes so far. Experiencing a book is a 50-50 partnership. The author brings half, and the reader brings half.
The elements of the book mean different things to different people.
For example, I always thought Voldemort was supposed to sort of represent Hitler. Maybe that's not what J.K. Rowling meant, but that's my experience of the story.
Niall,
I wondered that about the lyrics, too.
I guess we're meant to identify with Monkey and yet recognize his flaws, too. He probably is in the wrong business; he's probably pursuing the wrong love interest; he's probably never going to rise above it all. He's deluding himself, in a kind of sympathetic way. But then, aren't we all?
I like the nautical print in the background, too!
I just deleted my LJ account.
I would have liked to use this as my user icon.
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