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What's up with Madam Pince?, Does Jo need to meet a GOOD librarian? |
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  Feb 10 2005, 11:00 AM
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President of the Order of the Bun
Posts: 2,195
Joined: 10:47am January 28, 2005
Location: Burlington, WI USA
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QUOTE(LisaQQQ @ Feb. 09 2005,9:28) I periodically use the name "Madam Pince" as a member name, and even named a website after her, but I can't help but shudder when I read the passages where she appears. She represents librarianship all gone wrong! I can't help but wonder if Jo has had bad experiences in libraries.
Oh, I agree! I wanted to use a passage for my sig about said librarian, but they are all so negative! :( I'm hoping Jo is just capitalizing on the stereotype and going for a laugh and that librarians aren't really like that in her mind!
QUOTE
I'm not sure where I'm going with this, except for 2 things:
*I would LOVE to be her research assistant (wouldn't you?)
*I wonder how she did her early research. The Web was in its infancy so I don't think she would have used the internet. She mentions using Brewer's and Culpepper, but did she own them, did she use a library? No one has ever asked her what her research methodology was.
It's too bad we didn't think of this before--we could have sent her boatloads of stuff! Maybe not to replace Pince, but perhaps to introduce a younger, hipper librarian or assistant in the Hogwarts library...
Perhaps this is where fan fic could be a great thing! Write our own librarians into HP....
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"Not the ruddy librarian again?" said Ron. p 218 GoF
Where's it coming from?
The LOUNGE!
(from: Clue, the Movie)
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Feb 17 2005, 02:06 PM
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Knockturn Alley Fingernail Vendor
Posts: 794
Joined: 6:55am January 28, 2005
Location: In St. Mungo's Fourth Floor: Spell Damage
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In light of the fact that Hermione is a caricature of JKR, herself, perhaps we can assume that nothing has deterred her love for the library.
My guess is that she has met all kinds of librarians and combined the irritaing ones into the stereotypical librarian image for comic relief. I have to laugh at my husband, who described his hometown librarian as a female version of Alfred Hitchcock. I don't remember having some of the bad experiences that he has described, but I do remember meeting a varying range of personalities at the local library, which I used to haunt as a child. However, none of them really stood out in my mind. I wonder if those who currently run the schools and local libraries are beginning to realize that it is not enough to hire those who love books, but also love children.
I recently got a chance to meet my daughter's school librarian and was very impressed with her. She was very friendly, kind, and helpful and most importantly my daughter really likes her. I've also been very impressed with those who work in the children's department at our public library. They seem to genuinely love both books and children and they go out of their way to be helpful.
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The happiness of your life depends on the quality of your thoughts. ~ Marcus A. Antoninus
Thoughts can leave deeper scarring than almost anything else... ~ Madame Pomfrey (OoP) |
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Feb 17 2005, 07:10 PM
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Being Eaten by the Pea Soup
Posts: 20
Joined: 2:39pm January 28, 2005
Location: California
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Well...although I think it is important to like children when working in a "children's" department, I work with a lot of teens and I must admit I am partial to that group.
Although it is changing and has been for some time, that group tends to be left out. It is the rare library, usually very well staffed (yeah, I know), that has a Young Adult Librarian or someone willing to take up the slack.
The focus always seems to be on the younger kids, so I am constantly trying to make people aware in the community of this group that is too old for the cutsy stuff, but too young for the so-called grown-up stuff.
I am grateful that Jo has created our Harry in a way that is appealing to all ages. And as for Madam Pince...Don't we all have our Madam Pince-y days? 
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Mar 2 2005, 11:14 PM
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Just Through the Brick Wall
Posts: 7
Joined: 7:57pm March 1, 2005
Location: New York
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What a delightful discussion!
This exchange comes from another site I am active on (Thinkpotter). The thread discusses feminism and HP, but this little exchange about Madame Pince is between jemlibris, who is a librarian, and another member:
jemlibris: It's odd that in all the female characters mentioned so far, whether they are considered stereotyped or not, nobody so far, has mentioned Madame Pince. . . .
I have already mentioned that Madame Pince follows a traditional stereotype of librarian, even though in a professorial monologue I also highlighted some well-known dilemmas mentioned in the books with which Madame Pince undoubtedly had to deal, while running Hogwart's library. And that stereotype does not spare the many male librarians either. In literature we are sometims caricatured as bun and spectacle-wearing desiccatedly elderly old maids, or spectacle and cardigan-wearing desiccatedly monkish curmudgeons. Much as it annoyed me, I've seen films like "It's a wonderful life", often shown at Christmas, where a choice of becoming a librarian was considered a fate almost worse than death for a nubile young woman.
Aramantha: Madame Pince is a pretty bad example of the author's stepping into a well-worn and immediately recognizable stereotype rather than creating an interesting, off-image new character -- and one that might have done a heck of a lot of good, considering how many people read these books. Interesting that you spot she wasn't even included among the "females" in this discussion -- the operative word in your discussion is "dessicated," I believe. She (and librarians in general) apparently are not seen as partaking of basic yin quality, which is watery. Dried up. . . prune. . . blah blah and no reflection AT ALL on our own formidable biblomancer: librarians as stereotype aren't seen as generative, but only caretakers of someone else's fertile/fruitful knowledge.
Pah.
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Mischief managed (usually. . . )
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Mar 2 2005, 11:43 PM
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Searching for the 'Invisible Book of Invisibility'
Posts: 590
Joined: 8:44pm January 4, 2005
Location: Tossing garden gnomes
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It's true. People are so surprised to hear that librarians write articles and publish webpages. I loved getting my degree in part because the other students were all so interesting: whitewater rafters, bikers, restaurant owners, tattoo collectors, poets, mothers with 6 children, musicians, radio deejays, and on and on. Book people are not boring!
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Mar 5 2005, 05:24 AM
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Madame Pince's House Elf
Posts: 4,111
Joined: 5:46pm January 28, 2005
Location: Telephone box, Wagga Wagga
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Petuniageist has just quoted a Thinkpotter item in which Madame Pince was mentioned in connection with a Professorial monologue. This article, featuring Madame Pince in the Chocolate in the Library incident, is part of a writing competition on that site in which the Hogwarts professors' thoughts in a particular situation were to be depicted:
jemlibris@thinkpotter
QUOTE MADAM PINCE’S LIBRARY STEWARDSHIP
“Chocolate in the library! Chocolate in the library! Out, Out, Out, Out, I say!”
Bang, Crash! Kerplunk! (That gets rid of them! Harry Potter and the Weasley Girl, I thought to myself. But didn’t I let them know what’s what! This is what I said:)
“Chocolate in the library, what next?” How dare they do such a thing! I don’t care whether it is Hogwart’s or if it is the Stonewall High School library. Since when have people turned the library into a picnic area? Can you find a library anywhere in the world which permits food in the library? Which ones permit Chocolate in the library? None, I tell you! And in front of me, I might add. So rude not to offer me any!
And what special occasion may I ask? I am sick and tired of all these students thinking that the library is just a home away from home and that I’m just a flunky after their every need! And the items they borrow, and do not return on time! What was the one? Was it Moste Potente Potions? What did they want that one for, may I ask? Fishy, I call it. Then that other title, Quidditch through the ages. Oh yes, silly boy said the teacher confiscated it. A likely story! Next time they’ll tell me that it went down the toilet. Or that their owl ate it!
Some of them stay all day, and all night too if I let them. Hermione Granger, for instance, and those two boys always with her. And the racket they make, too! Platform 9 and ¾ on September 1st is a quieter place to read than this place! Don’t they read the signs? You know the one! SILENCE PLEASE! There was Potter staying there all night last year. Some sort of spell to breathe underwater, he and his mates wanted. They even asked me where to find it. Don’t they know I’m not supposed to help with reference questions? Don’t they know they are supposed to do their own homework? That their ability to find information is what they are tested for?
How am I supposed to have any idea where it could be, anyway? Probably one of the ones on that desk yonder! Why don’t they give me an assistant with all these books to shelve? That girl, Hermione Granger, would be a good one to start with. Teach her not to leave them lying about, just anywhere. Doesn’t she know there is a system and order in which Hogwarts library books are shelved? Which person, does she think, puts all these books away? What sort of house elves do I get to help in this place, anyway?
“And you lot, stop looking at me! Chocolate in the library indeed! I’m sick of peanut butter sandwich bookmarks, bits torn out of valuable, irreplaceable books, books going missing then turning up where they don’t belong. We are still looking for our copy of the Invisible Book of Invisibility! Which of you lot took it? Students thinking they can come here after hours, and during the holidays – can’t you read the sign? The one with the library opening hours written on it? Stop your glaring! Who do you all think you are! Coming in here and using it as a social club. Didn’t you read the sign? You know the one. Yes that one! NO FOOD IN THE LIBRARY!”
Bah! Chocolate in the library, and I didn’t get any. That lot mightn’t even know how to read! So what are they doing in a library?
I hope you enjoy it as it was in pure fun. Personally, I think JKR could do worse than put Hermione in the library for her work experience. :note:
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Mar 10 2005, 09:33 AM
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Flesh-Eating-Slug Catcher
Posts: 151
Joined: 9:20am March 10, 2005
Location: Kicking Snivillus's rear end and washing his greasy hair at the same time.
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QUOTE(LisaQQQ @ Feb. 09 2005,21:28 ) I periodically use the name "Madam Pince" as a member name, and even named a website after her, but I can't help but shudder when I read the passages where she appears. She represents librarianship all gone wrong! I can't help but wonder if Jo has had bad experiences in libraries.
I'm not sure where I'm going with this, except for 2 things:
*I would LOVE to be her research assistant (wouldn't you?)
*I wonder how she did her early research. The Web was in its infancy so I don't think she would have used the internet. She mentions using Brewer's and Culpepper, but did she own them, did she use a library? No one has ever asked her what her research methodology was.
Madam Pince might be the way she is because of all that she has to put up with from the students. :headdesk:
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In magic, anything is possible-Siegfried Fischbacher
Freedom, you have it in your heart forever-Roy Horn
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