SLashing the Fat Lady (was Re: Sirius and PTSD (A different view)

[Audra1976 at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 47412

dunphy_shane at hotmail.com writes:
<<> I don't see the paintings as simply objects.  They appear to be sentient, have personalities - the Fat Lady hiding in embarrassment and shame after Sirius's defacement of her is evidence that, to her, this was a psychologically damaging event.>>

Me:

The characters in the paintings do appear to carry out many complex behaviors, but we do not have proof that they experience emotions and thoughts in the same way we do.  I place them, maybe a magical step up from, but in the same category as moving photograhs, or the images of the Wizard Cards that come with Chocolate Frogs, or the little moving figurines of the Quidditch World Cup players.

Could the Dumbledore Wizard Card have an emotional reaction to being ripped in half?  

Would Ron be guilty of aggravated assault for ripping the arms off of his little Krum figurine?  

In our world, a computer-simulation that is made to look like a person could be programmed to reproduce actions that mimic embarrassment and shame, or even fear and pain, in response to certain input, but am I actually committing mass homicide when blow the arms, legs, and heads off fleeing computer-simulated people while playing Vice City on my PS2?

I do beleive Sirius lost control and had a violent reaction when he slashed the painting, but in my view this reaction was no less moral that (the first example that comes to my mind) when Samuel L. Jackson's character in "Changing Lanes" smashed a bank's computer monitor in frustration when the information on the screen resulted in his being denied a loan.

dunphy_shane at hotmail.com :
<<Sirius seems to move rapidly from one extreme emotional state to another.
<snip>
He shifts from being murderous to being paternal as easily as that.>>

Me:

Yes, and I also agree with your comparison of Sirius Black to Snape.  What makes each of these characters intriguing, and so popular, is that they are not "painted with a broad brush" (I don't remember whose quote that was) to the same degree as other characters.  We have more canon information about Snape so far, but the two do seem similar in that that are neither "sinners" nor "saints," as none of us are in the real world.

Audra