Acronyms, Christianty, Chang, Mundungus & Miscellaneous

[judyserenity]

No: HPFGUIDX 34245

Topic 1, Acronyms
Tabouli generated some great acronyms for my beloved Remus:

> B.L.A.M.E.L.E.S.S., perhaps?  (Bitten, Lonely And Maligned -  
> Exonerate Lupin's Exemplary, Sorrowing Soul!)
and/or
> B.L.A.M.E.S.I.R.I.U.S. (Badly Led Astray, Moonlit and 
> Excommunicated: Surely Implicating Remus Is Unjust Slander)

Much better than this one I came up with: Give Remus A Break And Some 
Slack.  (No, I didn't really want that as the acronym!!!)


Topic 2, Christianity
Tabouli also said:
> I have argued in other posts that HP is very "culturally Christian", 
> but in a deeper, less obvious sense than singing carols about the 
> birth of Christ and having a Nativity scene in the corner of the 
> Great Hall.  I'm thinking of the emphasis on individual choice, 
> effort and  responsibility, which is, according to many a  
> cross-cultural theorist, a fundamentally Protestant philosophy.

I don't know to what extent belief in personal choice, etc. is 
Protestant. (Didn't a lot of Protestants believe in predestination, as 
opposed to free will?  I drive by "Free Will Baptist" Churches 
sometimes, which implies that somewhere there are non-Free Will 
Baptists.) However, I agree that there are strong Christian elements 
in the "moral" of the JKR stories.  I have a post on that here 
somewhere. 

Still on the topic of religion, SpyGameFan said:
> I have a Jewish friend who has a Christmas tree and celebrates the  
> holiday.  The reason that she does it is because when her family
> first immigrated to the states they were very concerned with fitting 
> in and assimilating.... 

There's a lot of pressure to conform to the dominant culture, and 
obviously some people give in.  But, I stand by my statement that *my* 
religious beliefs prohibit celebrating Christmas. I also want to point 
out that Judaism is often defined by descent. In other words, there 
are plenty of people who are Jews in the sense that their parents were 
Jews, but who are not religious.  The term "assimilated Jew" is 
sometimes used to refer to someone of Jewish descent who doesn't 
practice the religion.  Maybe your friend is in that category? 


Topic 3, Chang and Chinese:
I said:
> > By the way, the spelling of Cho's name implies that her family 
> > left China before the Communists took over < <

And I was very pleased that Tabouli (who presumably knows way more 
Chinese than me) agreed, saying: 
> Yeah, "Cho Chang" looks more like a romanisation from Cantonese, to 
> me, though don't quote me on it! Her family might well be from one 
> of the former British colonies with a mostly ethnically Chinese 
> population, like Hong Kong or Singapore.... imagine the confusion if 
> [the Potterverse] had a recent mainland Chinese immigrant called Qiu 
> Zhang! [which is the modern mainland romanisation of Cho Chang]

I don't think the name "Cho Chang" tells us much about Northern 
Chinese (Mandarin) versus Southern Chinese (Cantonese) origin.  I 
think the name could be from either dilaect. I just figured Chang is 
in the old Wade-Giles spelling system, not the newer pinyin system.  I 
doubt Cho's family is Singaporean, however; I think the spelling there 
is Cheng or maybe Cheung. 

Tabouli, the link you posted works fine.  I heard a great quote about 
the popularity of the Harry Potter books in China.  I don't remember 
the exact words, but it was said by the boy who does Harry's voice in 
the Chinese version of the movie.  He said the series is popular 
in China because of Harry's obvious devotion to his parents.  I loved 
that! 

There's an extensive article on translations of Potterverse names into 
Chinese and other Eastern languages at 
http://www.cjvlang.com/Hpotter/names.html

I have no idea how the anagram for "I am Lord Voldemort" was handled 
in Chinese, however.  Maybe it was skipped entirely?  I can't 
think of a way to do an anagram in a non-alphabetic language. 


Topic 4, Mundungus Fletcher

Mundungus Fletcher is mentioned at the end of GoF as one of the "old 
crowd" that presumably will be helping Dumbledore fight Voldemort.  
Several people have pointed out hints that Mundungus is not to be 
trusted:  his name itself (Mundungus means trash or something), and 
the fact that Percy Weasley believes he put in a false claim for tent 
damage at the QWC. 

I found another strike against Mundungus. Towards the beginning of 
CoS, Arthur Weasley complains about a hard night at work: "Nine raids! 
Nine! And old Mundungus Fletcher tried to put a hex on me when I had 
my my back turned."  Hmmm, and Dumbledore considers this guy an ally?


Ok, now Topic 5, Miscellaneous

Zoe Hooch pointed out that many people here have criticized the 
characters in the Potterverse.  I want to say that I like almost all 
the characters she mentioned, including Hagrid, Snape, Lupin, and 
Dumbeldore.  In fact, I would like to have simultaneous crushes on 
both Snape and Lupin.  Is that allowed? 

Marianne asked:
> What do [Hermione's parents] say to their Muggle 
> friends about the school their daughter attends?

I'm kind of hoping the Grangers say that Hermione goes to St. Brutus' 
Secure Center for Incurably Criminal Girls.  Nah, I guess not. 

And two corrections:  

I said that according to my dictionary, "snip" could mean an 
unpleasant person.  Actually, I misread that.  But, my husband pointed 
out that "snippy" means short-tempered, curt, etc. So, connotations of 
snap, snipe, and snippy definitely fit Snape. 

I also said that the important holidays in Judaism fall on the 
equinoxes.  I should clarify that I meant the important *annual* 
holidays; the Sabbath is more important than any of the annual 
holidays. 

Wow!  This took forever to write!  There are tons of new posts since 
I started writing -- I'll never catch up.