[HPforGrownups] Re: Hermione's Parents, Muggle skepticism

[porphyria at mindspring.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 35939

eledhwen asked:
 
>my question is: Why do Hermione's
>parents or any of the other muggle parents and children belive in the
>letter from Hogwarts? 

And Jake suggested:

> In the case of a totally Muggle-born witch or wizard, you would 
> think that 
> they would send, at the very least, much more detailed instructions > or even 
> a representative, either from the school or from the Ministry, to
> explain 
> the situation and make sure that there were no misunderstandings. 

You would think!

What I think is interesting is the implied value judgments against the various Muggle characters based on their attitude towards magic. Clearly the Dursley's loathe the concept of magic because it clashes with their idea of 'normalcy' and this is one of the many reasons the reader is expected to hate them. And they are an extreme case ("the biggest Muggles I ever laid eyes on" as Hagrid says). But even 'Muggle-loving' characters like Arthur Weasley can't help but condescend a bit to Muggle skepticism such as when he remarks "Bless them, they'll go to any lengths to ignore magic, even if it's staring them in the face" (on the subject of shrinking door keys in CoS). So there seems to be an underlying attitude that Muggles are a bit to be pitied because they fail to believe in a magic which the Wizarding world has made it a matter of law to keep secret from them. 

	"But what does a Ministry of Magic do?"

	"Well, their main job is to keep it from the Muggles that
there's still witches an' wizards up an' down the country."

So my take on the Grangers is that we the reader are supposed to be impressed with their cooperative spirit and acceptance of magic -- the Grangers acceptance of the existence of magic *literally goes without saying* because we are supposed to read them as 'good Muggles' and unusual ones at that. Still, they balk at the idea of Hermione getting her teeth fixed through magic (teeth being too important to them to mess around with), so I guess even they are shown to remain a little unenlightened. :-) But the fact that in every other respect they support their daughter seems to mark them as being the cream of the Muggle crop.

I guess this actually piques me a little bit because I wonder why there's so much hostility towards typical Muggle disbelief. Are there no nice, loving, helpful, well-meaning Muggles who happen to be skeptics?

Any thoughts? Am I reading this wrong?

~~Porphyria