Nature of OT, US/UK English, happiness & "Skool"

[Tabouli]

No: HPFGUIDX 26478

Lotus:
> I can only speak for me, but I didn't join the chatter list because I was 
under the impression (and pardon me if I'm wrong) that it was mostly a 
discussion about fan fic, which I am not interested in at all.<

As Cassie has already pointed out, not at all.  The OT list is a more personal list.  There's a lot more disclosure about listmembers as people, discussion of social issues and in-depth speculation on topics originating from HP but too far off the beaten track for the main list.  More of a social club, less of an HP analysis forum.

As for fan fic, I admit I've always been deeply suspicious of the concept, perhaps because the vast majority of it is just so badly written and plotted.  However, out of a sense of fairness, I thought I should read some of the highly recommended stuff before issuing such a damning judgment, and was in a couple of cases pleasantly surprised (for fellow cynics who've steered around the stuff, if you can bring yourself to look at "The Potionmaster's Apprentice" by R.J. Anderson you may soften your stance.  It's behind Draco at Fiction Alley).  

As usual, I also generated some interesting cross-cultural observations reading fanfic written by non-Britons trying to write British English.  (insert hasty disclaimer that I am open to correction from outraged North Americans and Britons before I continue my comments).  A lot of fanfic writers pointedly sprinkled in a lot of classic English slang, but unconsciously used a lot of very US words instinctively: for example, characters saying "You're nuts" (a very American expression), rather than "You're mad" (mad meaning "angry" rather than "crazy" in American English), and the regular use of the term "dating", which AFAIK is not used as much outside the US and Canada.  "Date" as a noun, as in "going on a date", yes, but even that is less common.  In Australia "they're going out together" or "they've been together for two years" would typically be used rather than "they're dating", unless the speaker was being ironic or putting on an American accent to disguise self-consciousness.  I have to admit I'm extrapolating quite a bit on my UK assumptions here: any thoughts from UK members?  (NB: this is an example of a discussion which should probably be shifted over to OT!)

Amy Z:
> (Since JKR has commented in an interview that the happiest people 
don't become ghosts)  Is Remus happy?

Interesting question.  For a man who has a lot of reasons to be miserable, he's certainly good at projecting calm and mild benevolence (perhaps, as someone said, *because* he becomes a ravening werewolf for a few days each month).  A while ago we briefly noted that a prime candidate for a new Hogwarts ghost would have to be Crouch Senior, who was murdered under wretched circumstances *and* buried in Hagrid's vegie garden.

As for the happiness of the characters, there's plenty of room for speculation there: is Dumbledore happy?  Is Hermione?  Dudley?  The Weasley twins?


Rita:
> One of my pen pals told me on September 6 that the name Hogwarts first
> appeared in "DOWN WITH SKOOL" by Ronald Searles and someone

It's Geoffrey Willans and Ronald Searle, and they wrote a series of these books, which are set in an English boys' boarding school called St Custard's and are written through the eyes of Nigel Molesworth in rather creative spelling.  I have a couple at my parents' house in Adelaide, and one here called "Back in the Jug Agane".  I'm not sure where Hogwarts comes in, though.  They were first published in the 1950s, with another paperback run around the late 70s and early 80s.  Don't know if they were ever released in the US.  Try Amazon UK, or, if no luck there, they're probably readily available in the children's section of second hand bookshops.  If you're very good I might even be commissioned to keep an eye out for you in book shops here, because I'm sure I've seen some...

Tabouli.


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