[HPforGrownups] British places in HP1

[Barry Hill]

No: HPFGUIDX 31919

Hi,


Wednesday, December 19, 2001, 12:29:50 AM, Gabriel Rozenberg wrote:

GR> Hmmm. A much more straightforward explanation is that Surrey is a byword for
GR> suburban, Thatcherite dullness. You get the idea a bit in the film (although 

I think "dull" is too kind a word. The prevailing mentality in that
area is more of a "fight to the top of the pile", than simply dull.


GR> aprons). Surrey is pleasant, but is a county less famous for, say,
GR> outstanding natural beauty than for the narrow minded aspirational self-made 
GR> men of the Vernon Dursley mould who populate it.

*agree*

Surrey represents the South East and has the highest property prices
in the whole of the UK (apart from London). People who can afford a
house there are seen by the rest of the country as "having arrived".

The general view is that they're the petit bourgeois, always trying to
improve their social standing, which is shown by JKR in the ways in
which the Dursleys try to impress business guests in the first pages of
CoS, and their general mentality.

Harry's strengths are inner values, as opposed to the Dursleys
superficial attitudes.


GR> JKR [...] clearly has it in for people like that.

... not a bad thing ...


GR> The v amusing name of the village, Little Whinging, sums this up
It's these subtleties which they didn't (couldn't) translate in the
German version of the film ... :-)


Regards,

Barry

PS: I hope I've not offended anyone in Surrey!