Dieting Dudley

[anguis_1 at yahoo.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 22737

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., meboriqua at a... wrote:
<snip>
> What if Dudley comes home thin and even more obnoxious than before?
 
> Do we expect him to suddenly be nicer if his diet worked?  I don't 
> think he'll still be fat in OoP; why else would JKR have made it
such 
> as issue in the first chapters of GoF?  How will his parents really 
> handle Dudley's weight loss?  What if Dudley brags about a new 
> girlfriend or something, guessing correctly that Harry doesn't have 
> one?  I'm just wondering how a different *looking* Dudley could
affect 
> the story...

This has been bothering me a bit.  From the Ton-Tongue toffee scene
in 
GoF, I can envision some sort of nonsense about Dudley becoming
afraid 
of sweets or food and consequently losing a lot of weight.  I suppose 
that this would be all right, except that I am terribly afraid that
he 
will also go through a drastic personality change at the same time, 
thereby implying that a person's appearance is connected to his or
her 
character/personality (after all, look at all the diet/cosmetic/
clothing commercials that claim that you will become happier/smarter/
more popular/more successful if you would just lose weight/use their 
makeup/wear their clothing/etc.).
Anyway, I've got my fingers crossed in hopes that JKR will show that 
she has a more mature attitude about appearance than she has already 
demonstrated.

--Anguis (taking a few moments from her last minute planning for a
trip 
to Britain to delurk on a topic she is very passionate about)

"It is not true that we have only one life to live; if we can read we 
can live as many more lives and as many kinds of lives as we wish."
--S. I. Hayakawa