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Tallying up the votes from the communal Sorting Hat (counting definite placements as 2 and half-and-half placements as 1 each) reveals:
Gryffindor - 1
Hufflepuff - 3
Ravenclaw - 7
Slytherin - 4
(And no one voted squib - much appreciated, especially after that Sorting Hat quiz meme that was going around in March. :)
So, Ravenclaw it is, then. I'm a little surprised, to tell you the truth - I always thought I'd be Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff, but lately I've been tending towards Hufflepuff, especially when I compare my own approach with that of friends who are immersed in academia. And, as someone said, I'm not really ambitious. I used to think I was, but I've found that, rather than leading, I tend to stand back and look at what isn't being done, and find ways of improving things with a focus on the good of the whole (needless to say, this does not endear me to egotistical/insecure bosses). And I can't be bothered with expenditure required to compete for a leadership role, or the palmgreasing often needed to keep it.
On the other hand, I have always sought knowledge and wisdom and intellectual honesty in preference to money or status or friendship (which isn't, of course, to say that I wouldn't want them, but just that seeking them has been less of a driving force for me than the quest to understand. So I can see how I would fit Ravenclaw. And if I'm not as clever or learned as many of you are and as I once thought I was - well, a personality trait doesn't necessarily denote aptitude or ability.
Or, put more positively, Ravenclaws aren't concerned only with book-knowledge: we also put a high value on insight gained from experience.
And that got me thinking. I don't have much of a sense of Ravenclaw - they've always seemed rather dry to me. After all, if Hermione, with her love of the library, didn't get put there, what are real Ravenclaws like? (Though, on reflection, Hermione's way of seeking and memorising knowledge is perhaps not very Ravenclaw-like. Insecurity in a strange world is a strong motivating force for her initially, her desire to use her academic abilities to prove herself is mixed with her genuine interest.)
And they don't seem to get a lot of attention in fandom, compared to other houses. Slytherin and Gryffindor do, for obvious reasons, but I've seen a number of posts recently exploring and defending Hufflepuff (with which I wholeheartedly concur).
I think this is because Ravenclaws are easier to pigeonhole - we think we know what they are, and in a community of writers there are plenty of people who are happy to identify as members of the 'intellectual' house. They therefore don't need defending.
Hufflepuffs, on the other hand, get a raw deal. As a house they are looked down upon in canon ('a lot of duffers'), and their defining traits are more difficult to grasp. Loyalty and hard work, we're told - but we see plenty of that in Gryffindor, too, and he OotP Sorting Hat song could be taken to place Hufflepuff as the default option. Personally I see that quality of Acceptance to be valuable in itself, but apart from Cedric's sense of fair play, we get little canonical sense of positive defining attributes for Hufflepuff. For anyone pondering the houses, therefore, Hufflepuff requires more thought than Ravenclaw.
Actually, in remembering Cedric it occurs to me that we haven't had an equivalent character from Ravenclaw. There have been Ravenclaws who are essential to the plot, true, but not because of their essential Ravenclaw-ness. We have Cho, but not much sense of her personality (perhaps her sketchiness is a source of the animosity she often gets from in fandom - there is less sympathy for a grieving character when we haven't really engaged with her).
Anyhow, thanks to all of you who voted - it's interesting to see how I come across from the 'outside'. One person said either Hufflepuff or Slytherin, which made me grin - usually I think of these as total opposites. There can't be too many Slytherpuffs about!
And to those who voted Slytherin because of my Luciusfic - I think my sense of what goes on in his head stems from curiosity more than identification. I wanted to know why he fascinated me so much, and to do that (and because of the fascination) I wanted to understand why he might do and say the things he does. And I think gaining a measure of that understanding is easier from the outside - it would be more difficult to see his blind spots if I shared them.
To take an example from real life, my Mum is always amazed that I don't feel confident about career networking, because I can talk pretty knowledgably about how it works. But being able to analyse how to act like a Slytherin doesn't mean I'm particularly gifted at doing so - and even when I do, acting like Slytherin on the outside is not the same as being a Slytherin at heart.
Gryffindor - 1
Hufflepuff - 3
Ravenclaw - 7
Slytherin - 4
(And no one voted squib - much appreciated, especially after that Sorting Hat quiz meme that was going around in March. :)
So, Ravenclaw it is, then. I'm a little surprised, to tell you the truth - I always thought I'd be Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff, but lately I've been tending towards Hufflepuff, especially when I compare my own approach with that of friends who are immersed in academia. And, as someone said, I'm not really ambitious. I used to think I was, but I've found that, rather than leading, I tend to stand back and look at what isn't being done, and find ways of improving things with a focus on the good of the whole (needless to say, this does not endear me to egotistical/insecure bosses). And I can't be bothered with expenditure required to compete for a leadership role, or the palmgreasing often needed to keep it.
On the other hand, I have always sought knowledge and wisdom and intellectual honesty in preference to money or status or friendship (which isn't, of course, to say that I wouldn't want them, but just that seeking them has been less of a driving force for me than the quest to understand. So I can see how I would fit Ravenclaw. And if I'm not as clever or learned as many of you are and as I once thought I was - well, a personality trait doesn't necessarily denote aptitude or ability.
Or, put more positively, Ravenclaws aren't concerned only with book-knowledge: we also put a high value on insight gained from experience.
And that got me thinking. I don't have much of a sense of Ravenclaw - they've always seemed rather dry to me. After all, if Hermione, with her love of the library, didn't get put there, what are real Ravenclaws like? (Though, on reflection, Hermione's way of seeking and memorising knowledge is perhaps not very Ravenclaw-like. Insecurity in a strange world is a strong motivating force for her initially, her desire to use her academic abilities to prove herself is mixed with her genuine interest.)
And they don't seem to get a lot of attention in fandom, compared to other houses. Slytherin and Gryffindor do, for obvious reasons, but I've seen a number of posts recently exploring and defending Hufflepuff (with which I wholeheartedly concur).
I think this is because Ravenclaws are easier to pigeonhole - we think we know what they are, and in a community of writers there are plenty of people who are happy to identify as members of the 'intellectual' house. They therefore don't need defending.
Hufflepuffs, on the other hand, get a raw deal. As a house they are looked down upon in canon ('a lot of duffers'), and their defining traits are more difficult to grasp. Loyalty and hard work, we're told - but we see plenty of that in Gryffindor, too, and he OotP Sorting Hat song could be taken to place Hufflepuff as the default option. Personally I see that quality of Acceptance to be valuable in itself, but apart from Cedric's sense of fair play, we get little canonical sense of positive defining attributes for Hufflepuff. For anyone pondering the houses, therefore, Hufflepuff requires more thought than Ravenclaw.
Actually, in remembering Cedric it occurs to me that we haven't had an equivalent character from Ravenclaw. There have been Ravenclaws who are essential to the plot, true, but not because of their essential Ravenclaw-ness. We have Cho, but not much sense of her personality (perhaps her sketchiness is a source of the animosity she often gets from in fandom - there is less sympathy for a grieving character when we haven't really engaged with her).
Anyhow, thanks to all of you who voted - it's interesting to see how I come across from the 'outside'. One person said either Hufflepuff or Slytherin, which made me grin - usually I think of these as total opposites. There can't be too many Slytherpuffs about!
And to those who voted Slytherin because of my Luciusfic - I think my sense of what goes on in his head stems from curiosity more than identification. I wanted to know why he fascinated me so much, and to do that (and because of the fascination) I wanted to understand why he might do and say the things he does. And I think gaining a measure of that understanding is easier from the outside - it would be more difficult to see his blind spots if I shared them.
To take an example from real life, my Mum is always amazed that I don't feel confident about career networking, because I can talk pretty knowledgably about how it works. But being able to analyse how to act like a Slytherin doesn't mean I'm particularly gifted at doing so - and even when I do, acting like Slytherin on the outside is not the same as being a Slytherin at heart.
