Silly ideas?

[Geoff Bannister]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, "Carol" <justcarol67 at ...> wrote:
>
> "finwitch" wrote:
> > >
> > > A little speculation (if you know a fanfic, please tell) on how
> the  characters would react if (say) Harry...
> > > 
> > > a) was blind/deaf/mute
> > > b) had Tourette's
> > > c) had some mental disease for real
> > > 
> > > As it is, I find it odd Harry made it trough Dursleys and did NOT
> develop a mental disorder of any kind.
> > > 
> > > Finwitch
> > 
> > Geoff:
> > What again??
> > :-))
> > 
> > Perhaps third time lucky......
> >
> Carol responds:
> While I'm with Geoff in not understanding your fascinatiion with this
> noncanonical approach to Harry, at least I now understand that you
> think Harry's (relative) normalcy was unnatural under the
> circumstances. Possibly, you think that he should have become a
> psychopath like Tom Riddle (who actually received better treatment, in
> some ways, but had other problems, such as bad genes and no mother
> love, countering the decent care at the orphanage). Or you think that,
> like Snape, he should have turned out bitter, sarcastic, and verbally
> abusive.

Geoff:
Thank you, Carol, because I am trying to make points along that 
sort of line. I agree that, under some circumstances, a  child might 
develop some sort of psychiatric problem (for want of a better 
phrase) but to introduce physical problems which might have 
been there from birth would, as you say, produce a different 
"Harry".

Children can be very resilient under difficult circumstances and
emerge the stronger for it at the end. We know a guy - who is 
now in his mid-40s who lost both parents by the age of 11. We
looked after him for a while until his relatives stopped arguing 
(in front of him) as to who was going to draw the short straw 
and take him in {shades of Little Whinging!!!). He was then 
shifted into residemtial care because the aujnt and uncle who 
did take him had only had a daughter who was then grown-up 
and had no idea how to deal with a male teen. He has remained 
amazingly stable and balanced despite all that in his early teens.


Carol:
> However, I'd like to point out that Harry's upbringing resembles that
> of many children in earlier eras, who would not necessarily have a
> spoiled, bullying stepbrother or -sister (a Dudley counterpart), but
> would have had sleeping conditions similar to Harry's and have been
> subjected not only to verbal but to physical abuse (by today's
> standards). Even when I was a child, parents routinely spanked their
> children or sent them to bed without supper, and some used hairbrushes
>    or belts in place of hands for spanking. (In my mother's day, the
> parents used switches from a pepper tree, which must have really
> stung.) And yet, despite corporal punishment and what today would be
> considered abuse and neglect, most kids turned out just fine.

Geoff:
I consider my parents to have been good and loving. My father would 
threaten to use his belt but I don't think he ever did; reaching for it 
was enough to get me as much into line as he wanted.

But this was in a time when we were expected to behave; we didn't 
come of age until we were 21 and some parents could be quite 
restricitve on their offspring even when they were 19 or 20; a financial 
argument often prevailed there as well. The risk of losing spending 
money probably carried more weight than a thump.
:-)