[HPforGrownups] Re: Fred and George: should we worry? (Was: next prank)

[yr awen]

No: HPFGUIDX 43049

Debbie said:
But why should the Twins be going after Dudley? They claim it's because he's a "bullying git," which he is.  But the Twins have never met Dudley.  Besides, he's not chiefly responsible for Harry's miserable life at Privet Drive; Vernon and Petunia are the ones who have contrived to abuse Harry; Dudley only follows his parents' example.<<<<<<<<

I would have to respectfully disagree with you there. Vernon and Petunia contrive to abuse Harry mentally and emotionally (and neglect him physically), we have ample proof of that. Dudley, however, is a physical tormentor who ruthlessly uses his size and strength to beat Harry up and "kick him around like a football." Further, Dudley is a part of an entire social structure that keeps Harry ground down; it's not enough that Dudley tortures him at home, but he takes his machinations to school as well. In Harry's assessment of his unlikely status as a wizard in PS/SS, Dudley figures prominently in his reckoning:

"Hagrid looked at Harry with warmth and respect blazing in his eyes, but Harry, instead of feeling pleased and proud, felt quite sure there had been a horrible mistake. A wizard? Him? How could he possibly be? He'd spent his life being clouted by Dudley and bullied by Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon; if he was really a wizard, why hadn't they been turned into warty toads every time they'd tried to lock him in his cupboard? If he'd once defeated the greatest sorceror in the world, how come Dudley had always been able to kick him around like a football?"

And this is without the other references to Dudley using Harry as a punching bag, or Petunia/Vernon finding some way to marginalize him. If that's not a carefully-engineered system of physical and mental abuse finally paying off, and manifesting itself in such a way as to make a theoretically good moment one full of self-doubt and uncertainty, I don't know what is.

Debbie:
Dudley's an unfortunate scapegoat, IMO, because the Twins think it would be funny.  (BTW -- and I know this is a digression but since I-Just-Don't-Like-Hagrid Jenny started this thread, I'll plunge ahead -- Hagrid does the same thing at the hut on the rock.  After discovering how the Dursleys have kept Harry in ignorance of the WW, he first chastizes them and then gives Dudley a tail.  But Dudley was just standing there, a convenient target for a pig joke.  IMO, there was no justification for this.)<<<<<<<

He wasn't *just* standing there. At the beginning of the scene, when Hagrid begins making his tea and sausages, Dudley fidgets a bit, which prompts Vernon to admonish him not to take anything from Hagrid and Hagrid to reply that "Yer great puddin' of a son don' need fattenin' anymore, Dursley, don' worry." Dudley's fear of magic is conquered only by his appetite, which would bring me to a long digression on JKR's weird fairytale methodology, but I'll avoid that for the time being -- it applies more to another thread on Petunia and Vernon's abuse, as it is.

Debbie:
Exactly.  Yet it appears that I'm the only reader who thought it extremely odd that the Twins arrived to rescue Harry on CoS armed with lockpicking tools.  Why would wizards living exclusively in the wizarding world need to pick locks?  Why?  I solemnly swear they are up to no good.<<<<<<<<

There's one very good reason as to why the Twins would want to be armed with non-Magic lockpicking tools and why JKR needs them to be:

As of Harry's rescue in CoS, he's already had one citation from the Ministry for using magic outside Hogwarts. Another one, according to Mafalda Hopkirk, could lead to expulsion from school. JKR, for practical purposes, has to avoid "further spellwork" at Privet Drive and get Harry out sans incantation -- and giving the twins (and Ron) the ability to pick locks without resorting to the alohomora charm, which charm would *definitely* be on Ministry radar, allows her to have the twins rescue Harry without getting caught. Up to no good? No doubt of it, but very practical and in this case, it gets the plot advanced without MOMmy's interference.

Debbie (in reference to Jenny's question as to whether F&G are "nice"): 
Yes, they are funny and fun and talented.  They are, in a word, entertainers, and they derive their energy from performing.  But in their flair for the dramatic they hurt others, both in a physical sense (treading on Draco on the train) and a psychological sense (Percy's outsize pomposity).<<<<<<<<<<<

This would probably refer in a dark sort of way to Will Rogers, who once said, "Everything is funny as long as it is happening to somebody else." Humor, and those who engage in it, is rarely ever "nice," but people who read and write satiric and humorist columns like The Onion aren't in it for "nice." There are times when "nice" isn't even a prerequisite to liking someone, or appreciating their talent/funniness, as Debbie states above; some people (and by people I mean readers) like Snape because he's a snarky, sarcastic rat-youknowwhat, in addition to being the mysterious DE convert and all that.

<snipping Debbie's GoF citations -- I really have to read the book again...>:
I'm probably being a bit Snapelike about this, as in RL I have a tendency to wish for people who flaunt the rules for laughs, and gain enormous popularity for doing so, to be taken down a notch or two.  But the Twins *are* mean, and my gut feeling is that JKR has thrown in enough over-the-top incidents involving the Twins to have prepared us for them getting into very deep trouble, from which they will find it very difficult to escape. <<<<<<<<<<<

I personally find it strange that I'm going to bat for the twins, mostly because if I knew them in real life I probably wouldn't be able to stand them. I would wish long, agonizing deaths and unspeakable torments for them in their afterlives, and place curses on their firstborn children. Fortunately, as a schoolkid I was safe in my obscurity from most of the Fred-n-George types (except for a couple, but they'll pay for it sooner or later... um, I mean, they'll see the error of their wa -- argh! I'm sure they'll grow up someday and pull their heads out of their... I give up.) Needless to say, though, they irritated me greatly even in the comparative safety of my geekness. Now however, I find myself reacting... well, in a maliciously juvenile sort of way, much like Harry. Maybe it's because F&G are very safely on the printed page, whereas I am not, I don't know.

And finally, Elkins:
who really will feel very bad for the surviving twin if one of them is to die.  Honestly.  She will.  And that won't be a smirk you'll be seeing on her face either.  It will just *look* like a smirk, but it will actually be an...um, er, an attempt to, uh, to choke back her sobs.  Really.<<<<<<<<<

Careful there. Sounding terribly twin-like. I find it difficult to understand how you can so eloquently argue against F&G based on their mean-spirited thuggishness and then conclude a post that seems toned in such a way as to echo that mean-spiritedness condemned earlier.

Although I can understand sarcasm, but still, sarcasm dwells in the realm of humor being so rigorously examined here.

HF.
who will herself probably grow more vindictive and spiteful as she grows older. Oh, well.


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]