Getting Book IV -- and mental illness

[catlady_de_los_angeles]

Original Yahoo! HPFG Header:
No: HPFGUIDX C3651
From: catlady_de_los_angeles
Subject: Getting Book IV -- and mental illness
Date: 7/9/00 5:44 pm  (ET)

Back in March, I ordered it from amazon.co.uk because I didn't know that
they weren't continuing the tradition of making the American edition
wait until long after the British edition.

Many of the "spoilers" on e-group Harry Potter Anonymous say how much
less Americanization this one has. Yes, I read the spoilers, but I don't
think commenting on the amount of Americanization is really a *spoiler*. I
think they just didn't have time to send the book to the Americanizer,
what with simultaneous publication and wasn't JKR still writing right
up to the moment of sending the manuscript to the printers?

When I found out that the American edition would be simultaneous,
even when I found out Amazon.com was offering free FedEx for first
quarter-million, I foolishly didn't change my order.

a.c.uk sent me an e-mail Thursday that they had put it in the mail,
but I don't really expect my hope that it will arrive Monday to be
fulfilled.... my boss said she expects it to arrive Friday, but that
may be her hope speaking, as whatever day it arrived, surely I would
stay up all night reading it and call in sick the next day....

But my roommate Tim just phoned me from his shopping trip to Costco and
said they have HP4 for $13.99, should he get it for me? You can guess
what I answered!!!! I am waiting impatiently for his return. a.c.uk is
charging L8.99 plus L4.95 s+h, I don't know what that is in /r/e/a/l/
Muggle money until I see it on my credit card bill.

And this is a great deal more cheerful than the phone call I got while
reading accumulated posts: my roommate Joyce was visiting her daughter
Serina and got all suicidal (I'm sure that the kitten dying, last week,
didn't help) and gave her car to her son (as if he could possibly make
the payments!!!) and refused to let her daughter take her to the nearest
hospital Emergency Room and ran out of the house, and her daughter phoned
me for advice on whether she should call the police to report a suicidal
person (which is what we are supposed to do, but the LAPD have a bad track
record of 'accidentally' killing the suicides they're trying to prevent,
and their policy is to put them in County Jail (rather than hospital)
for 3 days 'psychological' observation).

Fortunately, Joyce returned to her daughter's apartment while we were
dithering, and I spoke to her on the phone. I told that she has to go
on living for the sake of her 13-year-old cat Ebony, who is *totally*
devoted to her, and she said to put Ebony in a shelter, she doesn't care
anymore. I told her that her Serina believes that Serina's children
need a grandma and she sulked. I *ordered* her to let Serina take her
to Olive View, but she tried to run out the door again and Serina had
to threaten that if she didn't go to the hospital willingly, she would
call the police to report her being suicidal.

Which actually does tie into an HP discussion from before book 4, we
were discussing what the master of a House does. Part of it is to keep
an eye on all the students in the house so ones who are sick can be sent
to the Infirmary and ones who are having trouble with schoolwork can be
paired up with older students for tutoring

and ones who are emotionally disturbed must be gently privately
conversed with to decide if what they need is an encouraging word, or
some practical advice on coping with a real-life problem, or professional
help for mental illness.

What kind of professional help for mental illness exists in the wizard
world? I mean, for the normal range of mental illnesses that Muggles
also get. Potions? (When the Charms class covered Cheering Charms,
I wondered if they serve in place of Prozac?) Curse removal? Ten years
of talk therapy on a couch?