[HPforGrownups] Half-blood Squibs? / Weasley cousin

[Jesta Hijinx]

No: HPFGUIDX 41106

>And another thing that has always bothered me.. forgive me, because I
>lent my books to a friend, but I believe Molly or perhaps Ron makes
>reference to a cousin who was a squib and ends up being an
>accountant? And that the family "doesn't speak of him". Why is this?
>The Weasleys strike me as incredibly tolerant and accepting people
>and Arthur obviously seems to have a fondness for muggles. So why
>would they shun a member of the family who happened to be a squib? Or
>is it that this cousin chose to exclude himself from the family?
>
>-Tracy
>
Hi Tracy:

This, to me, looks like a nice bit of the kind of irony JKR can pull off:  
it's not uncommon in more conservative families especially to hear this 
*kind* of reference to a relative who gets shot out of cannons in a circus 
for a living, or is a transgendered performing artist, or what have you.  
It's droll, it's meant to be ironic.

A lot of JKR where this sort of line gets hair-split on lists seems to me to 
require a kind of reading I call "forest for the trees" - it is not meant to 
be taken literally and analyzed word for word in dead earnest.  It's 
euphemistic and sort of needs to be seen with your literary peripheral 
vision - it's a light-hearted poke at the modern establishment, and I'm sure 
does not represent JKR's true negative feelings about accountants because 
one stiffed her with an inflated bill or something like that.  It's just 
that a modern Muggle accountant is likely to be *about* as 180 degrees 
opposite a wizard as anyone Rowling could think of.

Jesta/Felinia



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