Abraham Thorn has just been guilty of the death of a whole train-full of people. He may claim that it was the Government's fault for not taking his warning seriously (a chickenshit piece of evasion of responsibility that the IRA used to indulge), but he closed the tunnel and condemned those people to death. Frankly, given that, I am surprised you should find his imperiusing one teen-ager so disturbing. It is in character and less than I would have expected from him.
Three points: A) Crimes committed on-stage are always worse than crimes committed off-stage. So while my being more disturbed by this scene than the Roanoke Underhill crash might be a reflection of problems in human moral reasoning, it shouldn't be surprising. B) Abraham Thorn is almost a textbook Well-Intentioned Extremist. The train crash was basically explained away, in his mind, as a necessary sacrifice to reform the Confederacy. Cold-hearted, certainly, but not completely clear-cut evil. On the other hand, I'm sure there were plenty of ways to notify Alex about the time and place of their meeting, but he went straight for the Imperius. That IS evil, no two bones about it. C) I never said or implied that I found the Imperius out-of-character for him, or contrary to my expectations. I merely said it was evil and disturbing, and a REMINDER that Abraham isn't anything close to a good guy. Our argument got started because I got the impression that you don't think it was a very big deal. If I'm wrong about that, I apologize.
I think we agree exactly on your point B, or almost exactly. I would say that while Thorn is very good at justifying himself, things like the cursing of Larry Albo (whether it was an Imperio or something else, it was at least a public humiliation of the harshest kind) bring out his real quality. Actually, when it comes to that, his manipulation and use of his too-loyal sixteen-year-old son is even worse. It reminds me of what a really bad parent will do during a custody case, and it involves, not just mechanical manipulation from outside, but going there and making use of a boy's emotions and ill-judged loyalty to send him to his death for a purely physical advantage - manipulating him in person. What Thorn did to Maximilian, he did it face to face, and we have to remember that with all his honour and courage, Max was still only sixteen.
As for the rest, I have a suspicion that my problem may lie with JKR's own categories. It has always bothered me a bit that she should place so much emphasis on curses that, after all, only affect individuals, in the context of a society where people can be corrupted by the million. But I think we had better leave it there, because that would open a whole new can of worms.
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inverarity) wrote2010-05-07 12:24 am
Re: Chapter 20 Review
Re: Chapter 20 Review
(Anonymous) 2010-05-08 05:09 am (UTC)(link)A) Crimes committed on-stage are always worse than crimes committed off-stage. So while my being more disturbed by this scene than the Roanoke Underhill crash might be a reflection of problems in human moral reasoning, it shouldn't be surprising.
B) Abraham Thorn is almost a textbook Well-Intentioned Extremist. The train crash was basically explained away, in his mind, as a necessary sacrifice to reform the Confederacy. Cold-hearted, certainly, but not completely clear-cut evil.
On the other hand, I'm sure there were plenty of ways to notify Alex about the time and place of their meeting, but he went straight for the Imperius. That IS evil, no two bones about it.
C) I never said or implied that I found the Imperius out-of-character for him, or contrary to my expectations. I merely said it was evil and disturbing, and a REMINDER that Abraham isn't anything close to a good guy. Our argument got started because I got the impression that you don't think it was a very big deal. If I'm wrong about that, I apologize.
Re: Chapter 20 Review
As for the rest, I have a suspicion that my problem may lie with JKR's own categories. It has always bothered me a bit that she should place so much emphasis on curses that, after all, only affect individuals, in the context of a society where people can be corrupted by the million. But I think we had better leave it there, because that would open a whole new can of worms.