Divination book title

[justcarol67]

> Geoff wrote:
> Although I have been amused by many of JKR's plays on words
> such as "Diagon Alley", "Disillusion" and "Grimmauld Place", there 
> are few, if any, which play on sexual double entendres. 
> 
> Bearing in mind, that the early books were read by younger folk
> and I suspect that as the adult readership increased when the books 
> got darker - and the original readers got older - I would stand 
> by my first thought that the reference was to crystal balls, as 
> they are so closely associated with fortune telling and divination.
>
Carol responds:
JKR isn't as innocent as all that, I'm afraid. She sometimes writes over the heads of her child readers, especially in the later books. I can't remember which book (PoA?) has troll guardians patrolling the hallways, but surely "comparing the size of their clubs" has Freudian overtones. Some of the remarks on wands and wandwork are similar, for example, the remarks relating to the book Ron gives Harry on how to charm witches. Of course, there's a more innocent pun there, too: "charm" as in cast a charm and "charm" as in "enchant with your personality and manners." (The etymology of both "charm" and "enchant" suggests magic, Both words are related to "incantation," as she may have known.)

She also uses what American kids call "gross out" humor relating to bogies, vomiting, Uranus/your anus, etc. At least she doesn't joke about flatulence (or if she does, don't remind me.)

Despite all that, I still agree with you that "broken balls" has no relation to male anatomy.

Carol, who doesn't go looking for Freudian implications (or "gross-out humor") and wishes she had never heard of Freud