Believe it or not, given how much and how passionately I've responded to these books, I don't have a post about Madame Pince. And boy, is she ever a topic for an essay! Unfortunately, I don't own the books any more, and I'm too involved in other projects to spend a lot of time hunting up quotations, but, if I can help at all, I'd be glad to. This is what I remember about her: There's a scene where she shushes the kids when they get too loud. There's the famous scene where she chases Harry and Ginny out of the library because they have a chocolate egg. I think there's a scene where she looks disapproving when one of the kids wants a book? We all assume that Snape is lying (yes, even I, Snape fan that I am!) when he takes points from the trio in their first year because they have taken a book outside. But, for all we know, that may actually be one of Madame Pince's rules. The kids never go to complain to her, at any rate! And they never ask her for help.
She just seems to fit, and reinforce, all the cheap negative stereotypes about librarians. I cannot remember J.K.Rowling saying a singe positive thing about libraries or librarians in seven books. It seems ungrateful, to put it mildly! Since, in my experience, librarians were her first boosters and were pushing the books to children long before the word-of-mouth by children started.
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Date: 2009-11-25 02:06 am (UTC)There's a scene where she shushes the kids when they get too loud.
There's the famous scene where she chases Harry and Ginny out of the library because they have a chocolate egg.
I think there's a scene where she looks disapproving when one of the kids wants a book?
We all assume that Snape is lying (yes, even I, Snape fan that I am!) when he takes points from the trio in their first year because they have taken a book outside. But, for all we know, that may actually be one of Madame Pince's rules. The kids never go to complain to her, at any rate! And they never ask her for help.
She just seems to fit, and reinforce, all the cheap negative stereotypes about librarians. I cannot remember J.K.Rowling saying a singe positive thing about libraries or librarians in seven books. It seems ungrateful, to put it mildly! Since, in my experience, librarians were her first boosters and were pushing the books to children long before the word-of-mouth by children started.