Well - it's actually not all that clear to me that Lucius cares about Draco, but I am willing to give him the benefit of the doubt in this regard. As I said, we don't really *know* anything at all about Lucius and his motives.
But, if I used the term 'sociopath' incorrectly (I don't think I did, for I was aware that it meant someone incapable of sympathy or empathy), I meant exactly what I said when I said Riddle was a monster. A monster is, literally, someone extraordinary, not normal, not like other human beings. Further, it is someone abnormal from birth*. And this is the whole problem I have with the way Rowling has presented Riddle. She has presented him as a monster - someone so damaged, from birth, that he will never be a fully normal human being. At the same time, she keeps insisting (mostly through Dumbledore, whom I find myself liking (or at least respecting) less and less as I think about it) that it is our choices that make us what we are. But what choice did Riddle ever have? That's my problem, in a nutshell. She seems to be having her cake and eating it, too, where Riddle is concerned.
*(By this definition, you could argue that Einstein or Mozart were monsters as well. I'd accept that argument. It's a more modern usage that makes monsters (1) inferior and (2) dreadful, horrible, less than human.)
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Date: 2006-12-13 04:06 am (UTC)But, if I used the term 'sociopath' incorrectly (I don't think I did, for I was aware that it meant someone incapable of sympathy or empathy), I meant exactly what I said when I said Riddle was a monster. A monster is, literally, someone extraordinary, not normal, not like other human beings. Further, it is someone abnormal from birth*. And this is the whole problem I have with the way Rowling has presented Riddle. She has presented him as a monster - someone so damaged, from birth, that he will never be a fully normal human being. At the same time, she keeps insisting (mostly through Dumbledore, whom I find myself liking (or at least respecting) less and less as I think about it) that it is our choices that make us what we are. But what choice did Riddle ever have? That's my problem, in a nutshell. She seems to be having her cake and eating it, too, where Riddle is concerned.
*(By this definition, you could argue that Einstein or Mozart were monsters as well. I'd accept that argument. It's a more modern usage that makes monsters (1) inferior and (2) dreadful, horrible, less than human.)