The other senses - escapee puns - Mrs. Figg

[Amy Z]

No: HPFGUIDX 24916

Frantyck, terrific post on JKR's language.  There is another sense 
that she uses a lot, but I don't know if it has a name; it needs a 
fancy term like "internal kinesthesia" or such.  

"Harry looked up at the owner of the hand on his shoulder and felt a 
bucketful of ice cascade into his stomach," PA 3.

"Harry turned to look at her and his stomach gave a weird lurch as 
though he had missed a step going downstairs," and
"It was odd; a moment before, his insides had been writhing like 
snakes, but suddenly he didn't seem to have any insides at all," and
"His insides had come back again.  It felt as though they had been 
filled with lead in their absence," all GF 22.

"Out of the corner of his eye he saw the fluttering banner high above, 
flashing *Potter for President* over the crowd.  His heart skipped," 
PS/SS 11.

etc.

Her use of this "sense" is not terribly innovative (it mostly focuses 
on the stomach, e.g., which is a pretty common literary locus for 
emotion), but it stands out to me as one of her favorite forms of 
sensory language.

Thanks, Amanda, for the Ford Prefect tipoff.  Twenty years 
after encountering Hitchhiker's Guide, I finally get the joke.

Neil wrote:

>There may also be a slight joke in the fact that the rear wings of 
the 1960s
>Ford Anglia were its distinctive feature (they were pointed), and 
that the
>magical car is able to fly with these 'wings'.  Okay, I'm really 
stretching
>a point here, but give me a break: I'm jetlagged!

I don't think you're stretching it!  This is another lost-on-the-Yanks 
joke, because we don't call them wings, we call them fins or tailfins. 
 A small joke, true, but I doubt it's a coincidence that of all the 
cars she could have chosen, JKR picked one with wings.

I did twig to the fact that "fairy lights" has another meaning, but 
only because the text particularly draws attention to the use of real 
fairies (maybe it helped that it was being interpreted to me by 
someone who got the joke, since I was listening to the audiobooks).  I 
still didn't know exactly what they were.  It's funnier when you've 
actually heard the term.

I love the cabbage-Polyjuice-Mrs. Figg connection.  This is *just* the 
kind of tiny little thing JKR would plant in books one and two for us 
all to say "AHHHHH!" to in book five.

I hate cooked cabbage, and as a picky eater, it has frequently 
occurred to me that I'd find life at Hogwarts difficult.  Potions and 
magical remedies do not seem to be designed with picky eaters' tastes 
in mind. 

Amy Z

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   "See, there was this wizard who went . . . bad.  As bad as 
 you could go.  Worse.  Worse than worse.  His name was . . ."
   Hagrid gulped, but no words came out.
   "Could you write it down?" Harry suggested.
   "Nah--can't spell it."
                              -HP and the Philosopher's Stone 
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