loserthree comments on Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality discussion thread, part 10 - Less Wrong

11 Post author: Oscar_Cunningham 07 March 2012 04:46PM

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Comment author: loserthree 25 March 2012 12:07:04AM 0 points [-]

Ravens are hoarding thieves, rather than scholars. There is a similarity, there, but typically a mascot reflects aspects more flatteringly, no?

Comment author: wedrifid 25 March 2012 02:36:34AM 0 points [-]

Ravens are hoarding thieves, rather than scholars. There is a similarity, there, but typically a mascot reflects aspects more flatteringly, no?

When you are creating animal mascots to represent your defining features and your defining feature is IQ and cleverness you run into something of a problem. The only scholars I know are humans.

I'd obviously go with crows rather than ravens (both have respectable levels of intelligence). The ravenclaw mascot being a crow just doesn't quite seem right for some reason.

Comment author: pedanterrific 25 March 2012 02:48:37AM *  1 point [-]

I'm actually not sure that Ravenclaw has anything to do with IQ or cleverness. Harry thinks it does- he notes at one point that "the 75th percentile of Hogwarts students a.k.a. Ravenclaw House is not the world's most exclusive program for gifted children"- but in actual practice it seems more like studiousness, or curiosity, or love of knowledge for its own sake, is the unifying trait. I mean, Dumbledore is a Gryffindor, Voldemort and Snape and Draco are Slytherins...

Comment author: wedrifid 25 March 2012 02:51:19AM *  0 points [-]

And Hermione and McGonnagal are both Gryffindor (in canon). House assignment is broken.

I think you are right about 'love of knowledge for its own sake'. A certain level of intelligence would also seem to be required.

Comment author: TobyBartels 31 March 2012 04:00:03AM 0 points [-]

They have to answer riddles to enter the dorms. But this may not require intelligence so much as genre-savviness. (Particularly in canon.)

Comment author: pedanterrific 31 March 2012 05:33:58AM 0 points [-]

How this is supposed to keep anyone out is beyond me. For all we know, canon!Hermione spent most of her spare time hanging out in the Ravenclaw common room tutoring seventh-years.

Comment author: pedanterrific 25 March 2012 02:57:47AM *  0 points [-]

Yeah, I have to agree that "If Hermione Granger didn't go to Ravenclaw then there was no good reason for Ravenclaw House to exist."

Of course, in canon Pettigrew is a Gryffindor. It's enough to make one wonder about the whole idea of unifying traits.

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