black_dog @ 2003-05-10 18:08:00 |
Potterstinks at the Crossroads?
Reading over Potterstinks' last few journal entries, I'm trying to imagine what's going on in his head and coming up with some intriguing possibilities.
Did anyone else feel that PS sounded more humane than usual in his Thursday and Friday posts? It's as if his time in the theater, alone with a head of lettuce, may have been filled with profitable introspection after all. PS is of course the master of the tale-of-woe, but usually these tirades are shrilly and ridiculously self-justifying, a display of raw ego without restraint. In contrast, his stories Thursday about his detentions had a sort of rueful, resigned, "everyman" quality to them -- I especially loved the tale of the umbrella, and PS' complete failure to make anything at all of the lake-sounding assignment. Even if the house-elf stories were a bit cruel, it's sympathetic to picture PS sitting there even listening to Winky's life story. What's striking is that he was telling stories that were genuinely funny, without requiring any irony or distance on the part of the reader. He seemed almost on the verge of laughing at himself -- especially in the Ministry of Magic scene -- and that would be a huge, huge step for him.
His long chat with Pansy where she attempts, successfully, to freak him out about her period also showed him in a good light. He was genuinely self-mocking -- "that shade of green entering my cheeks is the color of compassion" -- good-humoured about being overcome in the discussion, and seemed genuinely affectionate toward her behind his own teasing.
sistermagpie has a post, here, where she argues that Draco's behavior to both his parents shows some new strength, as well. He shows determination in sticking to a difficult resolution to ignore his mother. He asserts his own self-sufficiency to his father, as abruptly as he dares. This would be part of the same pattern, maybe.
And yet, just when we're thinking it's breakthrough time, PS' most recent post ("I noticed that breakfast was undercooked") seems like a loss of ground. As others have pointed out, the sentences are choppy to the point of incoherency, and the old bitterness and sense of entitlement is back, even in the more carefully written second half. The "tragic theater" image suggests he's thinking, self-pityingly, of his lonely weekend.
Is it any coincidence that this desperate post, this loss of composure, comes only an hour after his mother has had a friendly back-and-forth with Harry on Harry's own journal? He's still got issues there, apparently, and they're strong enough to interfere with his new self-reliance. It probably didn't help that he'd just spent the day in detention with the ever-solicitous Vector, either . . .
Anyway, it really seems like Draco is poised on the verge of something big, some new self-knowledge, but could go either way. There are glimpses, in the last few days, of a Draco who can be deeply funny in a non-hostile way, capable of laughing at himself, and genuinely affectionate to his friends. But it's still fragile.
Am I over-reading? Anybody else see this, or disagree?
Comments:
blankcanvas @ May 10 2003, 16:02:59 UTC |
I think Draco's latest post was just his way of trying to put on a brave face. Like maybe he was just trying to convince the rest of the school that he was still DRACO MALFOY WHO IS BETTER THAN YOU. He's just putting on a front.
On the Narcissa thing, I believe it's a combination of her responding to Harry's post and not responding to her own son's post. That would probably make anyone feel bad, and Draco is prone to overreaction.
black_dog @ May 10 2003, 19:42:57 UTC |
Yeah, I definitely agree about "putting on a brave face." And this seems relatively back to normal, compared to the Thursday-Friday posts, which I though seemed mellower. Although I'm taking heavy fire on the notion that they were, in fact mellower!
(parent)princess_draco @ May 10 2003, 16:47:17 UTC |
Hmm.. I agree with what you've said here. Except, I don't see the breakfast comment as loss of ground. It's actually much less biting than most of his comments used to be/are. It seems like more of a (quite feeble) attempt at keeping insults.
Where's the conversation between Pansy and him about her period?
black_dog @ May 10 2003, 19:14:11 UTC |
Achiasa just beat me to providing a link -- just as well, I'm awful at html. I like your word "feeble." I agree that the impact is feeble, though as the post goes on the intention is as nasty as ever before. So there's not just a change in tone, but a deterioration in his powers of snark. Something is up, I really think, even if we haven't quite got our finger on it.
I guess one reason I'm looking inside Draco's head for the explanation, too, is that I'm having trouble accepting some of the arguments circulating, for example that some kind of charm was cast or that there was a subtextual Harry/Draco meeting that happened. Those strike me as ad hoc and a bit contrived, although the H/D shipper in me hates to admit it. I think it's more plausible to think that Draco's Lost Weekend and week of silence may have made him introspective, to the extent that introspection is possible for Draco, and then to see how much we can infer from his writing, and from external events that we do have some evidence for. Though it's all speculation, of course.
sistermagpie @ May 10 2003, 20:25:21 UTC |
Just to clarify--I also think that we should look inside Draco for most everything we're seeing. In a way this is a lot like the outing post. The post was mostly indicative of what was going on with him, but you had to work out what had happened to him outside of the lj that led up to posting it. With this, too, it seems possible that something did happen that inspired his posts of fine, but that doesn't mean the post is a logical response to one incident.
I don't think, for instance, that there's been any major breakthrough between ps and any other characters (especially j_h). But it is possible that something happened outside lj that effected that situation somehow. It could be Narcissa talking to Harry, or her own enraged post or a random meeting or sighting at school. Definitely, though, it seems like Draco and Harry are both up to something with their slightly new attitudes. Whatever it is is probably related at least indirectly to the other because both boys' recent troubles has been "caused" by the other. If anything they're probably more aware of each other than ever for that reason, even if they're studiously ignoring each other.
dancingrain @ May 10 2003, 20:52:08 UTC |
I agree about the "feeble" though maybe that's not quite the precise way I'd characterize it. It seemed to me just sort of half-assed, as if he was only posting about his complaints because he was expected to. I took the "fine" mood to be sort of a "yes, MOTHER, I'm FINE, so drop it, OK, everyone stop breathing down my neck" type thing - but yet, he *wasn't* upset or frustrated enough to be enraged.
And then, the whole tone of that "fine" post was just rather - perfunctory. Again, the complaints seemed to be there more because they were expected to be. Like the bit about how he must have had stuff destroyed by Millicent's tank. It's just sort of, Oh, I'm sure I must have had SOMETHING in there so I OUGHT to be upset, huh, well, yeah, whatever, I can't be arsed to figure out what I must have had there but yo, Millicent must owe me money, can't be arsed to say how much.
And to me most tellingly, at the end, there is just no bite to the "I will no longer take any of this lying down." I mean, come on, where's the anger in that? It sounds... deflated. As if his heart is not in it anymore. As if he's just putting on a show of being upset, cos really, he just doesn't care so much about all that at the moment.
princess_draco @ May 10 2003, 21:00:47 UTC Re: |
*nods* I didn't quite make the point I wanted to in my comment above. What you are saying is what I meant exactly. :D
I can sort of see Draco rolling his eyes throughout typing the whole entry. like "well I have to do this but it's so stupid"
*shrugs*
black_dog @ May 10 2003, 22:27:55 UTC |
Well, hello there! Interesting, I had originally sensed weariness and irritability in PS' "fine" post, but not apathy -- it's a provocative point. After all, on second thought, he does have worthier targets for his satire than bathrooms and cosmetics, and the image of himself as North Tower sniper seems unusually self-critical, because the image of a desperate sniper is the image of a loser. Do you think this shows a radical discontent with his old, "enraged" role, as if he no longer finds it a credible role to play? Or is it a more temporary discouragement and apathy?
(parent)Anonymous @ May 10 2003, 16:47:26 UTC |
It's hard for me to pin down whether, as you say he sounds more humane and self-mocking. His posts are just dancing at the edge between being taken as lighter and slightly self-mocking or just more of the same "ha ha I am so witty and put upon by the world that does not acknowledge the wonder that is me."
As for the Pansy exchanges, the pie/sock/menstrual cycle remarks felt very much to me like the banana gift exchanges from Christmas in tone. The three of them (Draco, Pansy, Millicent) have had this style of seemingly-mean, playful bantering for some time.
But I do feel somehow like there are changes at hand, but they seem so subtle and hard to pin down in a definite way. It all seems to rest in implications of "the possible new tone." The latest terse message with it's "fine"... it seems to signal something, but in what direction... I feel like it could be argued round and round endlessly.
Also: I really, really love your analyses of N_A events, black_dog. Even when I'm not quite in agreement. Always very interesting to read and insightful. yay!
black_dog @ May 10 2003, 18:37:09 UTC |
I very much agree that the changes are "subtle and hard to pin down." Really, I posted to test my own flickering vision on this, and very much appreciate the reaction. I really did feel, when reading Draco's detention posts, that he came off as a more attractive person, that I was responding with more uncomplicated delight, with more direct sympathy for Draco, than is usual in his rants. And I tried tentatively to pin down what, specifically, was different. And some of this crystallized when I read his "FINE" post, which was again a contrast. I sort of feel at once that maybe I overstated it, but that also there is "something" there that's worth trying to figure out. So I will continue to read with attention!
You're absolutely right about the banana/melon post. I thought briefly about that post and should have reread it to make a tighter comparison, but Draco's memories are organized a bit like Borges' Chinese Encyclopedia and I gave up on finding it. So I'll just say there's a cheerfulness in his exchange with Pansy, and a charm to his character that comes out, though maybe it's too much to call this, specifically, new.
I think the reason we care so much about PS, or at least I do, is that so much is at stake in how his personality develops. For all his awfulness, we can see that he also has this tremendous energy and intelligence and extroversion and fascination with the world, and can't help thinking what an extraordinary attractive personality he might become, how much capacity for happiness he might have, if he could just find his center. The tension, the sense of an outcome in the balance, makes him just insanely interesting as a dramatic character.
Always fun to be argued with. Especially when there's disagreement!
notapipe @ May 10 2003, 17:37:52 UTC |
Just a couple notes here:
"that shade of green entering my cheeks is the color of compassion" doesn't seem very self mocking or compassionate to me. I see it as a sarcastic way of saying "You're making me sick, woman. I don't care about your monthly. Please, I must away to hurl."
He didn't post an hour after the exchange. Check the timestamp for Pansy's response to his post to accurately reflect the time he posted. He posted 4 minutes after Harry responds to Narcissa and BEFORE Narcissa responds back. He probably couldn't have written that entry in 4 minutes (though if he could have written any of his entries in under 4 minutes, it would have been that one). He also posted nearly a good 5 hours after Narcissa first talks to Harry. I don't think that a temporal relation exists here.
black_dog @ May 10 2003, 18:12:33 UTC Re: |
Yay! A direct engagement. Fun! However, I do not agree, and hereby deploy my return fire:
The timestamp on Harry's reply is 00:09 May 10, and Narcissa's further reply is at 00:27. Draco's post is at 01:13, almost an hour later. I think you transposed or dropped the hour on Draco's reply, and my timetable stands.
It's true that Narcissa first posted earlier that evening, on 19:43 on the 9th, when Draco was presumably still napping after his long afternoon with Vector. But I would still suggest that the obviously friendly exchange between Harry and Narcissa would have more of an immediate emotional impact on Draco than a single, formally supportive post.
My take on the "shade of green" comment is that it is literary enough -- the extravagance of the conceit, the alliteration in "color of compassion" to be playful and distanced, and not merely a crude expression of disgust. The climax of the whole exchage comes after Draco calls Pansy the antichrist, and then laughingly wishes he'd known before and mourns their lost opportunities. Yes, he's squicked, but he's amused to be squicked, I think, and he cares enough to work at making Pansy laugh. The overall tone is playful and affectionate.
My take, anyway. Always fun to be forced to sharpen my arguments.
notapipe @ May 10 2003, 18:25:23 UTC |
Look at the timestamp on Pansy's reply to Draco's post (2003-05-10 00:51) and Draco's response to that (2003-05-10 00:56). This means that A) Draco's post has to have occured at 00:13, and it's just Draco's journal settings or something messing this up or B) time went backwards. I am inclined to support the first option. He simply COULD NOT HAVE SEEN Narcissa's response to Harry's response. And probably couldn't have seen Harry's post that was probably made after he had started to write.
The end certianly is affectionate and amused, I agree. However, I think that the different realms of discourse established by Pansy's comments to which he replies are the cause of this change. So the preamble to the end is not so affectionate. He has negative "I am squicked" responses to her mensturation comments, but when they LEAVE that sphere, he can divorce himself and his responses from the squick. Imagine that you are reading the Harry/Dead!James fic. You say "disgusting" when reading it, or even, if light stomached, be unable to finish it, but you can call the author brilliant and find it very amusing at a reflective level. In this same way, Draco can praise the author of the disgusting text, but will still be disgusted and respond in a disgusted way.
sistermagpie @ May 10 2003, 18:36:21 UTC |
Although I did think that was Pansy's intended response anyway because she keeps going on about it. Clotted blood?? She knows how fastideous he is, and how completely divorced from anything female, imo. So I took his response to be like, "You are making me sick but I am not going to run away." Wasn't he the one who brought up her period to begin with? I can't remember now...
black_dog @ May 10 2003, 19:23:34 UTC |
Yes, because he associated it with her excessive baking. So the discussion is really Pansy's payback for an issue he raised. Serves him right! And to his credit, I think he implicitly acknowledges it, though that gets us back to the main argment . . .
(parent)fourscore @ May 10 2003, 19:24:42 UTC |
Well, Pansy mentioned it first, really , in her entry.
(parent)black_dog @ May 10 2003, 18:52:47 UTC |
Hmmm. You're right that the timestamps on Draco's comment page -- even for Draco's own initial comment -- differ from the timestamps on the Nocturne Alley friends page by an hour. My argument was based on the Alley's timestamp. So I have to put a caution flag on it, after all.
Is there any reason, based on how LJ works, to privelige one of the timestamps over the other? Or is there simply enough slack and variability in LJ timestamps to make all of us wary of arguments based on tight timetables?
But, I'll recast my argument a bit. Do you agree that there is a change in tone, a deterioration in style and coherence, between Draco's "FINE" post and his previous "detention" posts? I start from a strong feeling that there is such a change, and that the issue needs explaining. But if I'm not convincing on that first point then everything else is superfluous.
If there is a difference, then what caused it? If the time doesn't stand up to support the idea that it was Narcissa's midnightish exchange with Harry, than perhaps it was her first post on Harry's journal after all, and Draco has just woken up from his nap and seen that. Do you agree that something very recent and specific is bugging him? Any thoughts on what else it might be? Or do you not accept the premise?
Anonymous @ May 10 2003, 18:57:53 UTC |
All right, I'm just going to clear up all of this time stamp confusion right now because it's leading all of you astray.
The timestamps on LJ comments are all in PST. No one can change them.
In entries, the time on them is whatever the time on the person's computer currently is. Now, as much as you want to use the timestamps as proof, the fact of the matter is that NA is run by players who don't all live in one time zone. The times for the entries are sometimes entered manually in order to make sure that the post is labelled as being written after the last post that was made.
Sorry to burst any effects here. But the time on LJ really isn't something you should go by. Not everyone who posts changes their time, so often it's just the time that it is where the player lives. Some people do. Some people don't. You're absolutely right - they aren't an argument to use.
- A player.
black_dog @ May 10 2003, 19:17:31 UTC |
Thanks! That's hugely helpful.
If I understand you, though, it does mean that the timestamps in the comments, themselves, will be consistent, even in different threads. And that those timestamps should be preferred to the timestamps on posts. So that supports notapipe's timeline over mine.
Anonymous @ May 10 2003, 19:20:06 UTC |
Yes, the times on the comments cannot be changed. The hours on them are not generally correct; they will always be in PST, so it's completely possible that a comment would say 04.30 when the characters are discussing going to breakfast. It's unfortunate, and knowing that the times on comments were well behind most time zones we've always ignored them and never thought that anyone else would pay attention. However, it would be ludicrous for us to wait until the appropriate hour was reached in PST to make comments.
(parent)black_dog @ May 10 2003, 19:28:49 UTC |
OK, thank you again -- that's an even more radical point, because it means that comments at, say, 01:00 PST on different threads, even though made simultaneously, may be happening at different "times" within the world of the game.
This is really helpful. You know we all fall on this stuff like detectives, so it's really a permanent gain to have definitive word on the times. Thanks again!
Anonymous @ May 10 2003, 19:40:54 UTC |
Oh oh oh. No. Well, you can consider them to be in order. Say if Pansy has a comment at 01.23 and Draco has one at 01.39 elsewhere, Draco's was made after hers. But take the hour with a grain of salt if it doesn't seem to fit properly.
(parent)black_dog @ May 10 2003, 19:50:01 UTC |
*laughs* Are you ready to strangle me yet?
OK I think this is finally clear. To use the original example, we can assume that if Draco posted his FINE post at about the same absolute time Narcissa and Harry were talking, we may assume those incidents were also simultaneous in the world of the game, not intended to significantly precede or follow one another, even if we remain wary about what specific time of night it was supposed to be?
sistermagpie @ May 10 2003, 20:18:23 UTC |
Personally, the only timestamps I usually use are those referenced in posts. The players often say when they're posting--for instance, ps saying breakfast was undercooked indicates this is after breakfast.
(parent)notapipe @ May 10 2003, 20:29:13 UTC |
Which just means we have to consider that Draco and Harry start posting again at approximately the same time. Reinforcing the contention that Draco interacted with Harry.
(parent)notapipe @ May 10 2003, 20:56:17 UTC |
I agree that there is a change in tone, as you note. I also think it's due to a recent and specific cause. HOWEVER, I don't see the connection between THIS incoherence and Narcissa's interaction with Harry.
Personally, I think it has to do with Harry, given the mirroring of their moods at similar times. Of course, this can't happen if he was just napping, but there's no reason to suspect that he napped until late at night (see Harry's post about when he got Remus's comment for justification of "late"). I don't see any reason to suspect that a nap was involved, at all.
black_dog @ May 10 2003, 22:01:43 UTC |
I can't tell you how much the H/D shipper and me would like to believe that PS and JH spent the evening together, but I just can't convince myself of it. Which I guess is why I'm deliberately trying out other explanations.
It's interesting to play with, though. They both have alibis (Draco's exhaustion, Harry's need to work on his speech) and both those alibis have holes (Pansy didn't watch PS his whole nap, Harry was "looking for a place" to work, and "hadn't finished yet" when he came back into view). And Harry really is suspiciously perky. But I can't make it add up. The textual evidence is too thin, I think -- in the parallel example of the infamous drunken meeting, I think I remember that hints were more carefully set up -- Draco's solitary prefect duty, Hogwarts' emptiness, Harry's disappearance from the party. And right now, it would be an extraordinary move for both of them, given what we can assume about their mental state, so I would really want to see stronger hints before I leaned on them.
As for the mirroring of their moods -- well, I agree that Harry probably posted because Draco posted, and was happy because Draco seemed his old self Thursday and Friday, but at the moment Harry's perkiness is contrasting with Draco's apathy and hostility. Is it likely that the same meeting charged Harry up and depressed Draco?
I won't beat this to death. I'd love to be converted. I looked over at other threads and the discussion seemed whimsical and speculative, but if I missed a more substantive argument, I'd be eager to hear it.
sistermagpie @ May 10 2003, 19:41:30 UTC |
Over-reading? What's that?:-D
I definitely think ps's time in the theater (GREAT image, btw...am I the only one who imagines him slipping into a David Lynch-type movie scene in there?) led him to something.
His current tone may be a case of "that which does not kill us makes us stronger." His life really has become "theatrical tragedy" (or tragi-comedy?) and the fact that he's becoming able to deal with it without killing himself seems kind of good to me. Ps always has been quite the actor, so maybe he's realized all his sound and fury has made him a fool?
I had thought he took off for London the night of the duel, but he just went to the theater. So it was there that he decided to apply for MoM. Presumably it was only after he came back to Hogwarts that he read Vector's post, but he probably spent the whole weekend wondering if anyone was looking for him. Perhaps he even wanted to believe he was frightening everyone. If that was the case it would explain his vehemence over not talking to his mother. He knows how long he was really gone--and it turns out to be a long time.
I definitely thought his stories about his detention were more in the "my life has become a comedy" vein. It wasn't completely different from his usual stuff--really it would be unrealistic for him to change completely. I've been trying to think of what the difference is and I think part of it is that usually ps presents himself as the only civilized person in an uncivilized world. But in his stories about the detentions it was like for the first time he really was the only sane person. Everyone seemed like a nutcase; either they're turning his eyes colors or swelling up his throat or giving him split ends, or else they're giving him detentions like something out of Hades and offering protection in the form of clouds that hit him with lightning and give him a cold.
If you put everything together it's like...maybe he's sort of found a place of peace in the middle of the storm? Not completely yet. But maybe for the first time he's trying to rely on himself a bit. If he decides that the world as he's known it is mad he just might, for the first time, start trying to work out a logical way to behave, if that makes sense. Rather than reacting to every little thing, which is what he seems to usually do, he might start to pick and choose.
I mean, ps has always made himself the hero of his own drama but he may not have a different idea of what kind of play he's in. He's really never fit the one he pretended to be in, where he was the great aristocrat amongst peasants. He does</b> sort of fit the role of the fool, though. His last post just seems very...disjointed. He skips around from one thing to the other instead of presenting one narrative. Maybe he is just realizing he's dissatisfied with his role in life/Hogwarts but hasn't found the correct one for himself yet?
black_dog @ May 10 2003, 20:04:59 UTC |
If he decides that the world as he's known it is mad he just might, for the first time, start trying to work out a logical way to behave, if that makes sense.
OK now I'm going to go haring off after your own extensions of the theater metaphor, because I think they're extremely interesting.
I wonder if the potential change in Draco isn't summed up by moving from the view of himself as the author of the play to a player in it. His narcissism relates everything to himself, to his own immediate feelings and impressions. But part of his insight in the theater seems to be that the hero, may, indeed, end up "sacrificed by imbeciles." So he has to pay more attention to the social rules around him, in order to function. Even if he thinks, right now still, that they're crazy. And this is the beginning, at least potentially, of a greater regard for other people and their own, separate intentions.
And if he realizes that the tragic hero has a blind spot that lets the "imbeciles" creep up on him, than maybe he can come to understand his own fallibility. And that, in turn, may eventually humanize him.
And finally, if he realizes he is playing a role, then he can become more sophisticated about expressing his own feelings, controlling the "mask" he presents to the world. And this will give him more self-control, make his social experiences more agreeable, maybe even give him some insight into the inner/outer dynamic in other people's characters.
Oh yes, this is promising! Where else can we go with this?
sistermagpie @ May 10 2003, 20:44:46 UTC |
LOL--I find myself thinking about Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead. Really, this whole lj has been ps's attempt to make himself the main character in the HP universe.
It just really does seem incredible fitting that ps ran away to a theater where there was no audience and no players to entertain him or throw things at. It's just so poignant an image I can't believe his player wasn't aware of it. I do wonder what he did while he was there. I know people were joking about his talking to the lettuce but that didn't cross my mind. I imagined him switching back and forth between the stage and the audience. I find it impossible to imagine ps with access to a theater and not taking advantage of it. We're talking about two days here. He probably did rehearse any number of future scenarios. I can imagine him playing at beating Harry, listening to his parents beg his forgiveness, impressing Snape, telling off Dumbledore, crushing Ron. Maybe that's just how he came up with his plan for MoM. Obviously this weekend wasn't the starting point for an all-new ps because he's pretty down when he comes back to Hogwarts, but it still seems like it must be important.
The thing about ps is that he's rarely without an audience. When he posts he consciously adopts a role and assumes he's speaking to one. When he's in the audience he refuses to keep himself out of the show, hijacking people's journals and heckling. What does he do with no one to heckle and no one to perform for?
PS is such a social person (yeah, the word sounds funny applied to him, but I mean he's not an introvert) it seems like it's only when he's very depressed that he seeks out solitude, like when he hid after Colin's tirade. In fact, he seems to have gone to the theater expecting people. He wanted to direct his anger at the players but there was nobody performing. Yet he chose to stay for a long long time. I just love the whole idea, though I'm not sure yet exactly what it was like.
black_dog @ May 10 2003, 22:11:04 UTC |
Really, this whole lj has been ps's attempt to make himself the main character in the HP universe.
And who's to say he's failed?
I love, love, love your speculations about PS's time alone in the theater. I'm even taking seriously, for the first time, the notion that he talked to the head of lettuce -- I can imagine it as prop, foil, the second character in his roleplaying. Two days! Perhaps originally, there were more heads of lettuce. He must have been nearly insane, close to unmoored, by the end of that weekend. As the MoM episode illustrates.
I just love the whole idea, though I'm not sure yet exactly what it was like.
Me neither. I don't know where to go with this, but I'm going to let it rattle around in my head a while and just enjoy it.
Do you suppose he tried kissing the head of lettuce?
conversant @ May 11 2003, 05:09:17 UTC |
Magpie and BD,
I'm going to try answering both of you together. This is a great thread.
1. BD's Do you suppose he tried kissing the head of lettuce?
Now you've gone and twisted everything. I had been wondering why he hadn't taken a tomato if he'd intended to use his vegetable as a projectile to hurl at the actors. Reading Sister Magpie's speculations on Draco's empty stage weekend, I began to think of the lettuce head as the necessary stand-in for Yorick's skull that would allow Draco to give Hamlet a go. It was a great train of thought. -- But the idea of Draco snogging the lettuce head yanked me back from that flight of fancy.
I've recovered, however. As you know, I rarely let go of a flight of fancy. What if Draco is now putting on an antic disposition. I offer this in an attempt to understand what's up when he lists his mood as "fine" and when he writes posts that seem to lack characteristic PSness. Perhaps he is attempting to manage others' reactions by trying out new, unexpected masks. Perhaps he's realized that others will be less hostile if he presents a different face -- or perhaps he is experimenting with ways to beat them at their own game. (I loved that he figured out how to rid himself of Dumbledore's protection charm! I think that is a sign that he's not yet on the verge of becoming domesticated!Draco.)
It could be that the new mood and voice are a strategy for regaining the spotlight after being driven off the stage by a howling audience, or it could be a genuine attempt to protect himself from the hostility he provoked with his 'Potter's a Queer' post. (Given that it's PS, it's probably a bit of both -- attention-seeking and self-protection.)
I'm not really meaning to suggest that PS's player has Shakespeare in mind (though NA players seem to have an inordinate fondness for Shakespeare... sometimes to a fault). I think it was you, Magpie, who suggested that Draco may be trying to figure out how to behave in order to negotiate the mad world he's trapped within. As I read that suggestion I thought about The Taming of the Shrew where Petruchio engineers a mad environment in order to coerce Kate into docility: the only way she can control her world is to mold her behavior to his expectations. This seems to me to be a possible explanation of Dumbledore's strategy with Draco's rain cloud protector. Again, I'm not proposing that our cast has Shakespeare in mind, I'm just noticing that their plot devices bear certain functional similarities to Shakespeare's (and because I'm reading a lot of Shakespeare at the moment, that's where my comparisons are likely to be grounded).
BTW and for the record, I nearly choked when I reached the climax of Magpie's list of scenes Draco might have rehearsed: I can imagine him playing at beating Harry, listening to his parents beg his forgiveness, impressing Snape, telling off Dumbledore, crushing Ron. Of course, I misread that (hope I misread that) as crushing on Ron. Surely by 'crushing' you meant something along the lines of Millicent's Muggle tank and not... not... I can't type it.