Political Correctness/Race/Book differences - I did not write that - Fags - Brave!Riddle - Hermione's Parents - Words - Race again

[rosie]

No: HPFGUIDX 40338

Nik wrote:

"Meanwhile, some 
people have suggested that Parvati and Padma Patil might be Indian, based on 
the Hindu inspirations for their names."

Also, Patel/Patil is a really common surname for people of Indian background in Britain, and their appearance also *suggests* this - long dark plaits, and lots of jangly bracelets.
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LD wrote:
"I'm surprised they didn't add "Turpin, Lisa was next, a disabled
girl in a Wheelchair. She didn't need to sit on the stool, because she's
always sitting down. Because she's disabled. And having disabled people
is good, and means we can't be seen as evil. Yep."

My thoughts exactly. I hope no one who uses a wheelchair ever needs to go to Hogwarts.. all those staircases! :S
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Richard (GulPlum) wrote:

"rosie wrote:

> The character that really caught my attention, 
> though, was Angelina Johnson. In the US hardcover GoF, when she 
comes to 
> breakfast after putting her name in the goblet (Ch 16 pg 261), she 
is 
> described as a "tall Black girl." I don't have my other books with 
me to 
> double check, but I don't remember her being described this way in 
any of 
> the other books."

No I didn't write that !!
---------------------------
Debbie wrote:
"This is the one possible circumstance that IMO would justify changes in the 
text; fag is an offensive term here in the U.S. and though the context might 
make clear that something else was intended, Christi's example illustrates 
that it's not always clear."

But... "fag" is an offensive term in the UK too! 
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Judy Serenity said:
"And Eloise (who really didn't need to apologize for the Latin 
discusison) replied:
> ... I always read that the opposite way: that the 'bravery' in 
> question was just part of the act that Riddle was putting on....
> I interpret it as his mocking the gullibility of Dippet... 
> BTW, is it really capitalised? in my UK version, it's italicised...

Ah, that's a good interpretation; in fact, I think I like it better 
than my own.  (And you are right, it's italicized, not capitalized.)"

I read it that way too. However, my interpretation of the books is sometimes coloured by the way I usually *listen* to them first... on the tape... Tom's voice is very sneery and mocking. I also thought it was to do with the way, whenever people hear that, for example, a person is disabled or is an orphan or whatever, most often their response is something to do with how brave the person must be.

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Katze said:
"V is so bent on getting rid of mudbloods - I think it would be satisfying for him to learn that a direct decendent of his is muggle-born."

Does it count as muggle-born if you are of half-squib descendence? Because I think there's (probably) only one generation between Voldemort and Hermione, meaning one of her parents would have to be a squib. So far, the only squib we have seen (Filch) remains in the WW... and when Neville described how his family thought he might be a squib.. he never mentions them saying "Oh no, we will have to send you to live with Muggles you poor squib" or anything similar. I know some children are half witch/wizard, half muggle, so I suppose squib/muggle would be possible... but if squibs tend to stay in the WW and work there (ie Filch), I can't see Hermione's parent being a dentist. 

I agree though:) it would be nice.
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Trisana wrote:
"My 9-year-old brother 
has problems with the books as they are now.  He doesn't know the 
definitions of a lot of words in HP, and he isn't old enough to
figure out the meanings of words from the context of the book.  I think that leaving the British words in the American editions would be very 
confusing for the younger US HP readers."

Is it just me, or are some of the words JKR uses quite difficult anyway? Not for adults, but for 9 year olds... did he have trouble with any of the others? I still reckon that a glossary, or footnotes, would have been a nice solution. Oh well...

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Pam said:
"When I replied that I didn't think 
there were any Americans at Hogwarts, African or otherwise, but there 
may well be some black students as well as students of Asian or 
Oriental descent, the original poster had the temerity to suggest 
that the correct term for a black person - even in Britain - was 
African American!"

That is really stupid. A lot of people here refer to themselves as, for example, British Muslim. On forms and whatever, they sometimes have boxes like "British African" but most people I know would just describe themselves as being a black British person. I always find it quite interesting that they have loads of different boxes for where anyone with a skin that's not white might come from, and then just one for "White" (ok, sometimes they have White - Irish too). The implication being that it's not really your origin that matters, just your colour, or "ethnic group" as they like to say. Right - I'm wandering OT. Sorry.

Rosie

 




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