Saucy Senior Crouch, striking Frog Prince/Potterverse parallels...

[Tabouli]

No: HPFGUIDX 37498

Still not receiving HPFGU email... I think the time has come to start using my alternative account, taboulica at yahoo.com.au, which is a nuisance, as I pay by the minute.  If anyone has sent me any off-list messages in the last three or four days, I won't have got them... try sending them there!

Alas.  All I can do at this juncture is do a quick flick over webview.  Irksome, as there are lots of interesting threads going at the moment, which I can only skim lest I bankrupt myself with dial-in fees.  Nonetheless, TAGS (Tabouli's Acronym Generation Service) is still trying to stay afloat...

Eileen:
> I was very much surprised to discover that most of the code words for Crouch 
Sr. were rather attractive, contrast to Snape who gets the most 
hideous code words in the book. I wouldn't be surprised if this was a 
conscious contrast, indicating beauty is skin deep. Therefore, I 
demand that Tabouli write an acronym demonstrating that Crouch Sr. was 
indeed sexy.<

No doubt the wispy Mrs Crouch dearly loved her serve of C.R.A.B. C.U.S.T.A.R.D. (Classy, Rich, Ambitious, Bold: Crouch's Unsung Sexiness Tempts All Raunchy Damsels)


Jo Serenadust:
> I really must read Bettelheim; I had never heard of the toad 
symbolism before. I wonder if JKR really had that in mind when she 
wrote this (I also wonder if Tabouli's acronym generator would 
explode if it had to come up with one for this theory. TOADKEEPER, 
indeed!)<

Raising a lofty eyebrow, Tabouli confidently feeds Pippin's excellent post into her acronym generator.  Within seconds it is declaring Neville's sleazy amphibian pet a T.R.A.S.H.Y. S.L.I.M.E.B.A.L.L. (Trevor Represents A Sexuality Hidden, Yawning Seductively, Lost In Maternal Empathy But Always Lazily Lingering).

>From memory, the toad/frog as sexual symbol is an interpretation of the plot of the "Frog Prince", a fairytale that always worried me.  Sure, I can buy the ball business.  Innocent young princess drops golden ball into a well (oo er), and out comes the frog who says she now owes him and wants to sup at her table and sleep in her bed (in retrospect, the symbolism isn't exactly subtle, is it?).  Her parents, recognising that she needs to attain womanhood and produce an heir or something, agree (bit troubling, this), she's revolted, can't eat, can't cope with him entering her chambers under her parents' sanction and demanding a kiss.  So what happens then?  She hurls the poor toad against the wall!!  And is *rewarded* for this violence by him turning into a handsome prince!!

What are we teaching our children here?

Is this a promotion of sadism, or is hurling the frog against the wall symbolic of the er, banging she suddenly realises she enjoys?  None of this coy kissing stuff for our princess, O no, she gets right down to business and takes control.

Then let's shift our eye from Grimm to Rowling.  Instead of a princess, we have Neville, face round like a ball, accompanied by a crone, bereft of mother.  Lurid sexual imagery ensues!  Neville steps aboard the long, red train (which no doubt symbolically passes through tunnels and the like on the way to Hogwarts) and promptly loses his... toad.  As if by magic, who should turn up to help him find it but a maiden, namely Hermione!  She, of course, promptly adopts the role of the missing mother, and they set out together through the train in search of Trevor.  For several years the maiden assumes the role of mother, helping him with his schoolwork, protecting him from the cruel hard world.

Puts the whole scene with Snape threatening to poison Trevor in a new and lascivious light, doesn't it?  The ageing Snape looks on Neville, with an, er, active, flourishing young toad in his pocket, with a harsh and jealous eye.  He tries to assert his continued dominance, by using Neville's... potion to cut off the, er, toad's life.  Only with the help of a maiden does Neville produce his potion with sufficient skill to save his toad (shameless, that JKR, just shameless).

Of course, all good Oedipus complexes must come to an end, and we see Neville learn this hard lesson in GoF, when he asks the maiden-mother to... the Ball.  Alas, the maiden-mother of course refuses, because she is already bound to an older man (Neville's symbolic absent father?).  Sad and abandoned by his mother once more, Neville and his toad turn to Ginny, a true maiden, unsullied by maternal instincts, and together they attend the Ball, Neville crushing her toes to release her inner beautiful princess just as the princess cast the frog against the wall to release the inner handsome prince...

Tabouli.


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