An Offshoot of A HMS STFU Post
This exchange, which was an outgrowth of a meta regarding Sirius Black and Dumbledore, was a segue into gift exchanges in the HP books; the original HMS STFU entry regarding the entry by terri_testing is here.

As spake by terri_testing:

I think I was warped by growing up on Frances Hodgeson Burnett; "The Little Princess" was my favorite book for years. In it, a little heiress is suddenly orphaned and left destitute, and her school keeps her on as a starving drudge... until her kindness under adversity catches the eye of the neighbor's servant, and... it ends with her restored to fortune and a foster-family.

The point being that,yes, Sara Crewe delighted in being indulged again after years of deprivation. But one of her chief pleasures (especially after the first shock wore off) was being able to be generous in turn.

So I guess I expected that in Harry. A deprived little boy is suddenly made heir to a large fortune. Sure, at first we see him delighting that people (almost all of whom have less money than he) like him enough to give him gifts. But at some point we should see him waking up to the pleasures of generosity (and to the fact that having wealth, like having magical talent, is both asset and responsibility).

This passage, and some others further down, really do reveal, for me, the wish-fulfillment fantasy these fen have. They don't care that JK Rowling is just a human being and is not a robot who makes literature to exact specifications. They don't care that some stuff is implied (by reasonable extrapolation) while other stuff is stated. It's all about them and what they want(ed) to see.

It is a fascinating insight, and it is the most conclusive proof yet (to me, anyway) that the thesis the STFU has operated on regarding delusional fen is correct. This thesis is: the delusional fen want the books re-written THEIR way and nothing else will remotely suffice.

In the absence of getting their very own special JK Rowling to do this, they instead do the following:

• Butcher the moral fiber and decency of any person not named Snape, Malfoy or Voldemort. Examples, if I may get away from the Snapefen for a second, include making Harry and Ron the most venal, idiotic, bumbling, imbecilic people to walk the face of the Earth, or making Ginny a shallow, vicious woman with Galleons in her eyes.


• Hold up their chosen character on a pedestal so high all shortcomings and faults are dismissed, and anything their character has screwed up or gotten wrong is blamed on anybody else but that character. Hermione can't be someone who's brilliant in the academic realm but fails to be able to effectively translate that into the ability to act quickly in a fight. Snape can't be a very obviously biased jackass of a man who's still twelve years old inside. Luna can't be someone who just genuinely believes some rather odd things.


• When they are confronted with basic, straightforward canonical evidence that JK Rowling has constructed the character(s) a certain way, they employ every trick in the book to avoid the simple reading, even to the point of justifying appallingly atrocious behavior shown in canon. Or, such as in that ridiculous prophecy discussion the Snapefen have had before, they insist that the simple reading and JK Rowling's exposition via Dumbledore are wrong, thereby transforming their character into the "Real Hero". Pstibbons's frontkick batshittery also qualifies.

I never cease to be astonished at the tortuous tl;dr crap that can get spewed all over by people who appear to just not be able to accept a simple, salient fact:

Had JK Rowling never written these books the characters would be no more real or physical than they are now.

Literature is not intended as a therapy tool or as a validation for a person's life experiences. It may accidentally do so, but personal experience is subjective and can't be used to create authoritative claims that extremely non-canonical interpretations of the literature are the only valid ones.

Credit for any concepts or ideas put forth by other STFU-ians is hereby acknowledged. If anyone wants specific credit given I shall edit this post forthwith.