Ordinary Bookclub: Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality (Chapters 16-25)
Okay. Welcome to the Ordinary Bookclub. We’re reading Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality. Our kickoff post is here, we review Chapters 1-5 here, and we review chapters 6-15 here.
This week we resolved to read chapters 16-25. (These brief summaries are probably going to miss stuff and put emphasis on the wrong stuff and, probably, miss the point from time to time. When I’m wrong, please call me out in the comments.)
Chapter 16: We go to our first Defense Against The Dark Arts class! And we meet Draco there! And he has henchmen! And they want to know, among other things, why a Ravenclaw kid showed up for the Slytherin DADA class! And then the Professor shows up! And he gives a speech about how the textbooks are dumb! And how he’s going to teach REAL Defense! And ALL of the Houses will be in the same class! And classes will be twice as long! But there will be no homework! And there will be Quirrell points! And we cast our first hex spell! And we find out who is the most dangerous student in the class! And it’s not Hermione! And then the chapter wraps up with Harry hexing somebody, but not Draco and not Hermione. (Kind of a letdown, after all that buildup, if you ask me.)
Chapter 17: We don’t mess with time. We shouldn’t mess with brooms. Neville has his Remembrall played keepaway by proxy. Remembralls don’t tell you what you’ve forgotten; just that you have. We have a conversation with Professor McGonagall. We have a conversation with Heh. We learn that Dumbledore, despite his first syllable, is not dumb. We get a rock. We take an oath. We get a book. We burn a chicken. We don’t trust Dumbledore. We talk to Professor McGonagall again.
Chapter 18: We prepare for Potions class. We prepare a cake. We have a conversation with Snape. A long conversation. Jeez. We have a conversation with Dumbledore, McGonagall, and Snape. We figure out suitable punishments for everybody. We learn that common sense is often mistaken for Legilimency. We have a one-on-one with Professor McGonagall. We have limitations on the Time-Turner. We learn that wizards have paperwork too. And the cake has 51 candles on it.
Chapter 19: We talk to Draco all about what in the heck happened in the previous chapter. In doing so, we learn how Syltherin read what in the heck happened. We learn that Draco has a lot of training. We learn that he wants to help train Harry. We learn that Draco knows that Harry knows that Draco knows that Harry knows… well, it’s complicated. We have our second DADA class. We learn why to lose. Dang. We learn how to lose. (No, we don’t.)
Chapter 20: We ruminate on why it’s important to learn why to lose. Maybe this helps us learn how to lose a little better than we did last chapter. I guess. We see the dichotomy between the representativeness heuristic and the Bayesian definition of evidence explained. We learn that the Sorting Hat probably wasn’t “just kidding”. We discuss moral theory. We discuss the downsides and upsides of being a Dark Lord. We discuss nuclear weapons. We discuss the space program. We talk to Dumbledore. We ask “Was it that obvious to a real Slytherin?” And we find out that Quirrell snuck into NASA once.
Chapter 21: We go back to Hermione, having ignored her for a while. We beat Harry Potter (who, it should be pointed out, did not lose particularly gracefully). And Harry and Draco start talking about sciency-stuff and staring into each other’s abysses. We get a letter from Santa Claus. We have another cake. We have a prophecy bubble up again. And we write mum and da.
Chapter 22: We test magic. Like, what happens when we hold syllables too long when we cast a spell? What happens if we use the wrong vowels? What happens if we don’t tell people what the spell does before we ask them to cast it? And, yeah, the first test falsified the first hypothesis. Dang it. Harry’s books on the Scientific Method might not worth as much as we thought when it comes to dealing with magic and Hermione’s books on Magic might not be as worthless as we thought. We have another session with Draco while Draco has another session with Harry. We discuss Rita Skeeter. We learn about Blood. We learn how to reject papers. We learn that there are some alternate explanations for what’s going on with magic since 800 years ago and we need to test them. We learn the Litany of Tarski. We figure out how to falsify some of those alternate explanations.
Chapter 23: We gather data. We learn about the Interdict of Merlin. We explain why we have to articulate our theory BEFORE we look at the data. We go over the big ones for DNA theory in a handful of paragraphs. We give our theories of what’s going on with Blood. We look at the data. Then we talk to some paintings about magical creatures. We see the trap shut. And we learn that you shouldn’t sacrifice things lightly. And we learn that you shouldn’t manipulate a Malfoy lightly.
Chapter 24: We have Act 3 without having had Act 1 or Act 2. And we tell Malfoy about how we got out of yesterday’s situation. And we learn that, yeah, Draco learned his lessons. We learn about the Rule of Three. We borrow some money from Malfoy. And we get all twisty and think about the plans within plans within plans.
Chapter 25: Oh, there’s Act 1 and Act 2. In Act 1, we see Harry explain his plans about Draco to Dumbledore. In Act 2, we ruminate on genetic inheritance and fitness and Atlantis and whatnot and it ends with prep for Act 3. Ooooh! And then we have Act 5 without having had Act 4! Act 5 shows us the map. And we meet Ambrosius Flume. And we see tomorrow’s headline. And then it’s Act 6? Well, this is where Quirrell has a conversation with Rita Skeeter. And, seriously, read the part about Mary’s Place again. It’s important. And then we have Act 4. Whew. The Order of Chaos is reborn. And we discuss media theory. And we learn about how important pranking is.
Whew.
That was a wild 10 chapters.
One of my favorite parts in the book was the scene in Chapter 17 where Dumbledore said:
The old wizard gestured, a sweep of one hand that seemed to take in all the mysterious instruments around the room. “When we are young we believe that we know everything, and so we believe that if we see no explanation for something, then no explanation exists. When we are older we realise that the whole universe works by a rhythm and a reason, even if we ourselves do not know it. It is only our own ignorance which appears to us as insanity.”
If I had to pick a favorite part of just these 10 chapters, though, I’d pick this line of Draco’s from chapter 24: “Father had warned Draco against people like this, people who could ruin you and still be so likable that it was hard to hate them properly.”
Anyway, I think it was around here that it started sinking in for me that Harry is NOT The Hero. He’s merely The Protagonist.
And that’s our first twenty-five chapters.
Next Sunday, we’ll cover chapters 26-35 which should take us all the way up to the very beginning of Christmas Break.
So… What do you think?
(Featured image is Foucault’s Pendulum by Sylvar. Used under a creative commons license.)
I quite enjoyed the meeting in Dumbledore’s office in 18. Some good chuckles there, picturing that scene with the actors from the HP movies, since they’ve now completely taken over whatever images I made up for myself reading the first book or two when I hadn’t seen the movies. Snape’s apology was pretty poor, which I guess is about right for powerful people apologizing not because they feel it but because they’ve been informed an apology is called for…
Chapter 23 is probably too optimistic (is that the word?) about the power of science. Harry is the protagonist, and maybe science is a/the hero, hence maybe Yudkowsky overplaying Draco’s irrecoverable fall into the trap of being a scientist. Perhaps Draco will come back with some Andrew Wakefield-esque junk science later to back his pet theory.
Oh, and I can’t remember now from the HP books – was the experimentally observable distinction between Muggles and Squibs made up just for the purpose of the genetics experiment, or was there something there in the original books?Report
Well, one thing we see over and over and over again in the story is that if you are given a useful tool, you can’t *HELP* but use it when the opportunity shows up.
It happens with Time Turners, it happens with Science.
Last week, I said “Harry has a lot of faith in the power of science.”
So does Yudkowsky.
Oh jeez. I don’t remember what the experimentally observable distinction was between Muggles and Squibs. (Unless it was just the “uses magic” thing… Surely not everybody who *CAN* use magic in the world ends up at one of the schools. Surely there are a number of Wizards out there who don’t even know that the term for everyone around them is “Muggle”…)Report
In HPMOR, muggles have no access to magic, squibs can use potions and magic artifacts but not ritual magic, and only Wizards have access to spell casting.
In the HP books I just remember serious being the same in manifestation as muggles, just with at least one wizard parent. Wizard-born muggles, basically.Report
We saw Argus Filch in the books a lot… but I don’t know that we ever saw him use magic.
Here’s from the Harry Potter Wiki (and I am prepared to take its information as good):
But, just a little further down:
So… clear as mud.Report
And, now that I think about it, Harry’s (adopted) mother in our story can use a potion that improves her looks and isn’t it canon that Voldemort’s mother used a love potion on a muggle? (Was the muggle a squib, then?)Report
If muggles can neither do magic, nor be affected by magic, that does rather diminish the dread power of magic.
So, I’d interpret that to mean that squibs can make potions and operate certain magical objects, while muggles can only be affected by magic, whether ritual, potion, or artifact-based.
Otherwise it puts Potterworld magic in the same realm as fairie magic in the original White Wolf Changeling RPG. It gets you access to wonderful adventure and is usable within those adventures, but it poses no threat whatever to boring old humanity – it’s boring humanity that poses a threat to magic.Report
Magic and its offshoots (potions, etc) have effects on muggles and squibs in both books, so that’s a baseline.
I hadn’t considered if a muggle or a squib could brew a potion in this book’s universe of rules (or cannon for that matter).
I’d say no to muggle or squib creation of potions, must be done by magic person, but yes to effected by potions, works on all types.
The above gets weird when I layer on later in the story, based on some stuff that comes up re: magic use and potions and spoilers. Are we doing spoilers?Report
We can do spoilers if we use rot13. It’s a simple encryption protocol that allows you to take a sentence like “The butler did it” and turn it into “Gur ohgyre qvq vg”.
Someone who wants to read spoilers can take “Gur ohgyre qvq vg” and put it into the rot13 decryptor and get the original sentence, but people who want to avoid spoilers will only see gobbledygook.Report
Then what is the observable difference between squibs and muggles, that allows Draco to quiz portraits as to whether they knew any squib couples and their children, and whether each of those children was a wizard, squib or muggle?Report
If two wizards have a kid and the kid isn’t a wizard, it’s a squib. You can observe the parents, I guess.
If two muggles have a kid who is a wizard, the muggles have the gene, I guess, and would have been considered squibs had their environments been different? I guess?
So there have been ways to find people like Hermione for centuries, I guess?Report
I don’t know how many are reading through trying to solve the book’s puzzles. Remember that they are actually *meant* to be solved. This is not a puzzle novel, not a mystery novel that tries to to cast shadows on everyone and everything and just pick one of several possible reveals at the end.
Anyway, if you are trying to solve it as a puzzle, please realize that this from Chapter 17 is an extremely significant hint:
Report
I assumed that Harry had forgotten the note that he wrote himself JUST THAT VERY MORNING.
Jeez. Did I get that wrong?Report
Yeah, you did! That wouldn’t explain why it would “[blaze] like a miniature sun.” I’ll DM it to you rather than post it here though.Report
We probably should have had examples of what it looked like when you were forgetting to brush your teeth or forgetting to eat breakfast.
I just assumed that he was forgetting something REALLY IMPORTANT.
Not, you know, what you DMed.Report
Yeah, I’m sure trying to figure this one out. So far I’ve noticed
– the remembrall,
– the scene with McGonnagall’s line of questioning as to whether Harry had been abused & Harry trying to figure out if he could have been obliviated
– the frequent questioning as to whether Harry is going to be the next dark lord
– the whole mysterious dark side / Bruce Potter / credible hulk / you wouldn’t like me when I’m angry thing (specifically how the phoenix has to use its song to heal Harry after he uses his rage to outmaneuver Dumbledore and Snape in the blackmail scene)Report
One theory I’m looking at is that the canonical and fanfic realities are sorry of overlaid, coexisting to store extent, kind of like in Matt Ruff’s Mirage where there are hints that our reality exists somewhere behind the novel’s inversion of it. So his canonical abusive childhood is sort of half experienced through the fairy food induced experience of his happy upbringing.
And/or maybe Harry is a kind of Manchurian candidate dark lord. Maybe it’s not Quirrel but Harry who’s carrying about the half-living dark lord in the back of his headReport
Well, Horcrux explains the entire dark side element quite well.Report
Oh I like that idea. If you can’t beat’em, put a horcrux in’em so they at least can’t beat you.Report
As you keep reading the series they get to a point that makes it very explicit what the nature of Harry’s dark side is.Report
This Dumbledore passage Jay quoted:
Despite having read this through a good number of times, I’m only now realizing that Dumbledore is actually directly telling us how to make sense of what he is doing.Report
I very much enjoy the fundamental truth that “all will not be revealed” is just a baseline state in this story (and elsewhere).Report
I read through this on a *very* long flight to a faraway land a couple weeks ago, h/t to Jaybird for bringing it to my attention, and although I knew going in that the puzzles were supposed to be solvable, I found I rarely knew when to stop and try to solve them!
Maybe a pointer to a good place to “stop and solve the puzzle!” in each post on a puzzle or two in the upcoming chapters would be fun to provide? As this is already alot of work to do recapping, I won’t blame anyone if this isn’t taken up, but I would have had fun with it during my first read.Report
Here is my problem with that (it’s an engineering problem rather than a moral one):
I, too, have no idea where the puzzles are. For example, I didn’t even know that the Remembrall puzzle was a puzzle until today.
While I know that the Rita Skeeter storyline provides a bit of a puzzle, I don’t know what any of the others might be. So I cannot possibly give people warnings beforehand because I don’t friggin’ know.Report
Sounds like a perfect crowd sourcing opportunity. Anyone have puzzles? Send in some tips!
And now that is a moral problem?
Puzzle is to add commas to the previous sentence to make it fit your desired outcome.Report
Then that is the plan.
Okay, EVERYBODY! In reading chapters 26-35, were there ever any moments that had you saying “wait, what in the heck is going on?” before having your question resolved by the end of the chapter (or by one of the following chapters)?
If so, that’s probably a puzzle.
Leave us a comment to that effect, please. I guarantee you that we’ll enjoy going back and looking at all of the puzzles we solved, the puzzles we got wrong, and the puzzles we missed entirely.Report
Oh! And let me say “Awesome to have you aboard, Ozzy!”Report
I think this is a very important thing to understand about HPMOR. I think a lot of the dislike the story gets is from people who see Harry as some kind of author-insert who’s just so smart and can see that the Harry Potter world is dumb.
This is very much not what Yudkowsky is doing. In fact, you don’t really get to see what he is doing until pretty much the end of the story.Report
We’re used to liking him.
Hell, we’re used to liking Ron and he doesn’t show up at all. Draco does. And we’re making friends with Draco! This is bullcrap!
At least Quirrell is awesome the way that Lupin was awesome.Report
I find HPMOR Harry more than I like regular Harry or Ron (they’re too “ordinary kid” for me ), but he definitely not supposed to be Mr Always Right.
And HPMOR Quirrell is very awesome. I’m looking forward to getting to Mad-Eye Moody.Report
Reading through again, I see that I forgot how didactic it is. The majority of the “rationality” topics he brings up were familiar to me before the first read, and I was happy enough to learn a bit more about others, but I do wonder how well these many very quick presentations do as an introduction for the uninitiated. The ones that get thrown into a paragraph or two seem a little forced and rushed.
One small item in Chapter 2 that I picked up on only with the second read — Harry describing his peculiar sleep patterns to McGonagall and her saying “I’ll find a solution in time.”Report